University of Arkansas
The Fine Arts Center was designed by Fayetteville native Edward Durell Stone, who also designed Radio City Music Hall and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The buildings are indicative of Stone's idiosyncratic modern style which included patterns of ornament. Stone also designed a fraternity house, now used for academic purposes, and an apartment complex named Carlson Terrace on campus, which has since been demolished.
Charles W. Eisemann Center for Performing Arts
The Eisemann Center is designed to meet the needs of both the performing arts and corporate worlds. The Center features the Margaret and Al Hill Performance Hall, the Bank of America Theatre and the Bank of America Hall. All venues are supported by a generous lobby on three levels. Designed by architect Eurico R. Francisco, AIA, the building was honored with design awards from the American Institute of Architects in 2001 ("Unbuilt Honor Award") and again in 2003 ("Built Honor Award"), in addition to receiving a "Best of Texas Award" for buildings over $50 million from McGraw Hill in 2002. David Dillon, the late architecture critic for the Dallas Morning News and Architecture Record, described the Eisemann Center as "...bold, contemporary and every bit the civic showpiece that city officials have been hoping for. (...) Architect Eurico Francisco has based his design on classic modernist principles: light, transparency, clean details and honest use of materials. Not a faux column or cornice anywhere. Although the Eisemann does not break new ground, it covers familiar territory with grace and assurance. (...) Collectively, (these details) make the difference between a static building and a dynamic one. They force us to look at things a second time, to question and to explore, which is what good architecture is supposed to do."