Adohi Hall, University of Arkansas, a pioneering use of CLT and an innovative approach to live-learn communities
Leers Weinzapfel Associates
Housing
/
Completed
Adohi Hall is a live-learn community for 700 students at the University of Arkansas, and the nation’s first large-scale mass timber building. Created by a design collective led by Leers Weinzapfel Associates (Boston, MA) in collaboration with Modus Studio (Fayetteville, AR), Mackey Mitchell Architects (St. Louis MO), and Olin Partnership (Philadelphia PA), this initiative is groundbreaking for the University and the State at large. A bold demonstration of sustainability, it also signifies potential economic development for Arkansas’ burgeoning timber industry. The complex demonstrates a pioneering use of cross-laminated timber (CLT) and an innovative approach to live-learn communities, with embedded arts and academic spaces fostering student collaboration and interactive learning.
While the historic core of the University of Arkansas campus is located atop Fayetteville’s McIlroy Hill, the site for the new residence hall is remote from the center at the foot of the hill in the Athletic Valley. Located at the southern end of campus, the four- acre site slopes from north to south and frames a new gateway to the campus. Adohi Hall meets the challenge of creating a destination for a large new student community removed from the center of the campus. Conceived as a “cabin in the woods,” it is a serpentine band of rooms framed in CLT clad in a light metal jacket of zinc-toned siding floating above landscaped courtyards evoking the ecology of Northwest Arkansas. A continuous path descends the length of the site, passing under the student rooms through a natural landscape of trees, lawns, terraces, and sitting steps.
Art- focused spaces on the ground level provide opportunities for student creativity. A stepped performance space, sound studios, practice rooms, and a dance studio flow into workshops for digital fabrication, and woodworking. Social life is concentrated in the Cabin with its large gathering space framed in timber trusses. Wood tables are made on campus from CLT packing crates
An emphasis on access to nature resonates throughout the project. The landscape and buildings are woven together as an extension of the forested hillside to create unique outdoor spaces with strong relationships to the spaces within. A stand of existing mature trees is the centerpiece of the northernmost courtyard; at mid-slope, a lively terrace marks the heart of the community; and in the lower courtyard, sitting steps follow the building down the hill to a sheltered lawn. Along the passage, common spaces are closely linked to the landscape. The “front porch” in the northernmost building functions is the key point of entry for the entire complex; the “cabin” at the midpoint of the passage 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 program for the arts.
The warmth of the project’s exposed structural wood ceilings is apparent in each student room, the 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 the lounge spaces. Native cypress forms exterior soffits, entryways, and interior walls. The name of the new complex – “Adohi,” Cherokee for “woods” – recognizes the enduring importance of wood and sustainable forestry to the region.
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Flowing down a sloped site, Adohi Hall rests upon a serpentine footprint amongst a series of interwoven landscape features.
Tim Hurley
Exterior from Pomfret
Tim Hurley
Guided by wood, a continuous pedestrian corridor weaves amongst interconnected courtyards.
Tim Hurley
Double height lounge spaces, each identifiable by their unique leaf icon murals, connect the residential floors of Adohi Hall and promote student engagement.
Tim Hurley
The central Cabin, features exposed CLT ceilings and glulam trusses above, illuminating student activity inside and out.
Tim Hurley
The Cabin hosts a comprehensive display of mass timber and a playful exchange between structural and finished wood – complete with native Arkansas cypress, exposed CLT ceilings, glulam columns, beams, and
Tim Hurley
Adohi Hall’s live-learn community features rehearsal hall sitting steps with repurposed CLT skid benches, organizing a dialog between interior and exterior.
Tim Hurley
Through the application of natural materials, native Arkansas cypress and beam rock creates outdoor seating, mirroring of the major interior performance space.
Tim Hurley
Adohi Hall
Tim Hurley
Adohi Hall’s ground floor hosts a sprawling live-learn community, complete with a diverse range of program, including maker spaces built with repurposed CLT skid workbenches and glass overhead doors to exh
Tim Hurley
Dorm Room
Leers Weinzapfel Associates
Adohi Hall’s study lounges are framed in glulam columns and beams, along with exposed CLT ceilings, that allow for panoramic views of the surrounding Ozark hills.
Tim Hurley
Concept
Leers Weinzapfel Associates
Site Context
Leers Weinzapfel Associates
Adohi Hall’s typical room modules were developed to allow for cost-effective layout of modular CLT panels and glulam framework, while ground floor public spaces are encouraged to open out into the surround
Leers Weinzapfel Associates
Section
Leers Weinzapfel Associates
Section Perspective
Leers Weinzapfel Associates
Adohi Hall’s ground floor is comprised of an expansive live-learn community of embedded arts and academic spaces fostering student collaboration and interactive learning. Its mass timber structure incorpor
Leers Weinzapfel Associates
Adohi Hall’s ground floor is comprised of an expansive live-learn community of embedded arts and academic spaces fostering student collaboration and interactive learning. Its mass timber structure incorpor
Leers Weinzapfel Associates
Adohi Hall’s ground floor is comprised of an expansive live-learn community of embedded arts and academic spaces fostering student collaboration and interactive learning. Its mass timber structure incorpor
Leers Weinzapfel Associates
Each residential floor is identified by a vibrant leaf icon wall mural, celebrating the native tree species of the region.
Leers Weinzapfel Associates
Adohi Hall’s mass timber bones consist of a glulam post-and-beam structural frame and CLT floor slabs. A total of 4,316 plumbing penetrations were coordinated, and factory fabricated to expedite on-site co
Fayetteville, Arkansas
USA
University of Arkansas
01/2019
18.766 m2
Leers Weinzapfel Associates
Leers Weinzapfel Associates with Mackey Mitchell Architects, Modus Studio, and OLIN Leers Weinzapfel Associates: Principal-In-Charge: Andrea Leers Design Principal & Mass Timber Design Lead: Tom Chung Project Manager: Ashley Rao Architects: Jeff Fishbein, Taehoon Lee, Del Hepler Designers: Josh Liebla, Langer Hsu, Laura Patrick
Nabholz
Civil: Development Consultants, Inc. Sustainability: Entegrity MEPFP Engineer: Bernhard TME Structural Engineer: Equilibrium Consulting, Inc. Structural Engineer of Record: Engineering Consulting, Inc.
Holzpak, Morin, Glen Gery, Roxul, Firestone, Kawneer, Traco, Omni Ecosystems, Bison Innovative Products, Hanover, Black Locust USA, EuroCobble, Quarra Stone, Ben moore Arborcoat, Sherman Williams, J & J Flooring, Arist Lizzy Lee, Type IIIB Mass Timber Construction
Tim Hursley
Curriculum
Leers Weinzapfel Associates is a practice recognized for its exceptional quality of design for the public realm in urban and campus contexts. The group’s special strength is a “mission impossible” ability to meet extraordinarily difficult building challenges with uncommon design clarity, elegance, and refinement. We are committed to providing meaningful spaces for human interaction and to promoting social well-being. Our work is diverse, including technically demanding infrastructure installations, advanced learning and living environments for educational institutions, to civic buildings and community recreation centers. In 2007, the American Institute of Architects honored us with the Firm Award, the highest distinction the AIA bestows on an architecture practice, the first and only woman-owned firm to be so honored. ARCHITECT Magazine has included the firm on its list of Top 50 architecture firms in the country, for the past five years in a row.