Occupying a linear, sloping, 4-acre site at the base of Fayetteville’s McIlroy Hill on the southern end of campus, the project provides a new university gateway that marks the start of a larger living learning district. Bound on the north by 1960s residence halls, on the east by Stadium Drive, and on the west and south by a large arena and related athletic facilities, the hall is nestled within a generous protective buffer of trees and plantings.

An emphasis on nature resonates throughout the project. Connected by a ground-level passage, a serpentine band of student rooms define three distinctive courtyard spaces that create a dynamic environment for student collaboration and interactive learning in architecture, design, and the arts. The “front porch” in the northernmost building is the key entry point for the complex; the “cabin” at the ground-level, central passage’s midpoint is the main gathering space, comprising a community kitchen, lounges, a quiet hearth, and a rooftop terrace; and the “workshops” of the lower courtyard house a dynamic live/learn program of performance spaces, music and recording studios, and maker spaces that enhance the campus-wide arts program.

Four-story residential floors are arranged above the communal spaces. The main stair and elevator for each open onto a series of double-height lounges and kitchen spaces, joining upper and lower floors and inviting community interaction. Each floor contains semi-suites for two students with private baths, and pods of six to eight double rooms with a shared bath and common room. Large study rooms with generous windows at the end of each wing create a series of “lanterns” along Stadium Drive.

The warmth of the project’s exposed structural wood ceilings is apparent in student rooms, study rooms, floor lounges, and ground floor common spaces, and wood columns bring the beauty of the material within reach for all. The “cabin” also includes a wood ceiling and trusses that span the full width of its lounge spaces. Exteriors feature a light metal jacket of zinc-toned panels with accents of textured copper-tone and white that creates a floating band of living space above the natural landscape below.

Integrated into the topography of its site, the new housing complex features a cascading series of outdoor spaces that provide students and visitors with a variety of opportunities to engage and gather. Sinuous pathways are intricately woven through existing stands of mature oak trees, providing much needed shade for the new residents to enjoy warmer months outdoors. Undulating landforms, local sandstone seating areas, and drifts of native planting recall the geological and ecological vernacular of the Ozark Plateau while simultaneously creating comfortable places for people. Stormwater infiltration is carefully integrated into the grading strategy, which captures runoff from both paved areas and buildings.

The name Adohi (“a-doe-hee”) is a Cherokee word meaning “woods.” It honors tribe members who passed near the hall’s site while following the Trail of Tears (1837-1839). It also recognizes the enduring importance of wood and sustainable forestry to the region.

Nabholz Construction Corporation of Rogers, Arkansas, served as Construction Manager for the project, providing installation of the mass timber package.

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The term refers to a category of framing styles often using large panelized solid wood construction. These include cross-laminated timber (CLT), nail-laminated timber, glue-laminated timber, dowel-laminated timber or glulam panels for floor and wall framing, according to the website reThink WOOD (produced by the The Softwood Lumber Board, a Washington-based industry funded group that promotes uses of softwood lumber products in outdoor, residential and non-residential construction).

CLT typically consists of three, five or seven layers of dimension lumber oriented at right angles to one another and glued to form structural panels with exceptional strength, dimensional stability and rigidity.

“The desire to use mass timber was fundamental from the inception of the project to demonstrate a commitment to sustainability, to create a warm and inviting living environment, and to support the statewide agenda for forestry development,” said Andrea P. Leers, FAIA, principal at Boston-based Leers Weinzapfel Associates, which led a national design collaborative that also included Modus Studio (Fayetteville, Ark.), Mackey Mitchell Architects (St. Louis) and OLIN (Philadelphia).

The University of Arkansas project used CLT for its wooden columns, beams and cross-bracing, which are all visible in the interior of the facility. Likewise, the structural columns and beams are made of glulam, where layers of wood all facing the same direction are laminated together under pressure. The results are handsome, warm and quite the endorsement for the mass timber industry, especially with all the sustainability benefits the wood has to offer.

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But the campus, home of the Razorbacks, is precisely where the project is located and the cabin concept isn’t the location of a backwoods thriller but a national design collaborative led by Leers Weinzapfel Associates (Boston), Modus Studio (Fayetteville, AR), Mackey Mitchell Architects (St. Louis), and OLIN (Philadelphia), created the project, now under construction.

The 708-bed Stadium Drive Residence Halls feature exposed, locally harvested wood structural elements made from mass timber. And what is this “mass timber?” According to the website reThink WOOD (produced by the The Softwood Lumber Board, a Washington, D.C.-based industry funded group that promotes uses of softwood lumber products in outdoor, residential and non-residential construction), mass timber is a category of framing styles often using large panelized solid wood construction. These include cross-laminated timber (CLT), nail-laminated timber, glue-laminated timber, dowel-laminated timber or glulam panels for floor and wall framing.

The University of Arkansas project used CLT for its wooden columns, beams and cross-bracing, which are all visible in the interior. The structural columns and beams are made of glulam, where layers of wood all facing the same direction are laminated together under pressure. Part of the idea, according to a profile in The Architect’s Newspaper, was to “to present a sense of warmth, and to connect students with Arkansas’s local ecology” and is expected to be finished in 2019.

Clocking in at a staggering 202,027 square feet, the Stadium Drive Residence Halls are a pair of five-story buildings festooned with a zinc-hued paneling, whilst copper-colored panels are arranged such that they created the illusion of floating against their backdrop.

The three residence halls converge upon a plaza and also feature classrooms, dining facilities, performance spaces, administrative offices and faculty housing as well as the maker-spaces that have become de rigueur on contemporary campuses.The buildings themselves arc around three courtyard areas, and each hall has a double-height ground floor lobby outfitted with floor-to-ceiling windows with views of the local flora.

Att the end of each residence hall floor is a large study room, which will be lit at night and serve as luminous attractants for the entire campus. In keeping with the homespun vernacular, students access the northern building’s main entrance via a covered “front porch.” Likewise, the so-called “cabin” is the central room that conjoins the hall’s two wings. The cabin features a hearth, community kitchen and lounge spaces, topped by a green roof.

The project will cost between $75.5 million and $78.1 million, which will be funded through university housing cash reserves as well as university housing supported bonds and gifts from potential donors.

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The bi-coastal institute is shared by Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and Stanford University’s School of Engineering, combining the former’s content leadership with the latter’s “entrepreneurial spirit and proven experience with technology,” according to a statement by Stanford University. It was established through a $30 million gift from David Brown, a film producer and graduate of both universities, and longtime Cosmopolitan Editor Helen Gurley Brown. It is intended to “encourage and support new endeavors with the potential to inform and entertain in transformative ways” and to “recognize the increasingly important connection between journalism and technology, bringing the best from the East and West Coasts,” according to Stanford University. As the institute is physically based in New York, students will receive grants to travel from Stanford’s California campus to complete their work.

The two-story facility located in Columbia’s Pulitzer Hall was unveiled in the fall of 2013 and incorporates elements of both a tech incubator and a traditional newsroom with open, flexible workspaces referred to as “garages.” The design balances crisp, white walls with a warm wood millwork base. A suspended mezzanine of glazed offices accessed via a steel and concrete catwalk overlooks the main incubator space and shelters the collaborative garages below, while mobile work tables in the main space can be reconfigured or can dock into flat screen monitors along the perimeter. A translucent scrim was used to conceal technical systems and screen the room from exterior light, while the wooden base also provides built-in seating, storage and a large bleacher stair.

Shawmut Design and Construction of New York built the state-of-the-art facility, which spans more than 4,500 square feet. The project required a full interior fit-out of the space and supporting infrastructure, and exterior windows were replaced with new energy-efficient models.

“This project took place in an occupied building on an occupied campus, which made work particularly challenging,” said Tony Miliote, vice president of Shawmut’s tri-state academic division, in a statement. “Additionally, the mezzanine expansion required close coordination with the structural engineers due to added steel supports. The team’s hard work and flexibility allowed us to complete the project on time while delivering the level of service our clients have come to expect.”

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