Architectural grafting, a concept recently popularized by Jeanne Gang inThe Art of Architectural Grafting, presents a transformative approach to urban regeneration and sustainability. Drawing inspiration from botanical and horticultural practices — where new growth is added to existing plants for enhanced resilience — this architectural method integrates new structures with existing ones, allowing them to coexist and adapt. Rather than pursuing demolition, grafting prioritizes adaptation, extending the life of buildings while safeguarding their cultural and historical significance.
While Studio Gang has played a pivotal role in advancing this method, architectural grafting embodies a broader principle that architects have long used to enhance sustainability, conserve resources, and honor heritage. Across scales — from individual buildings to urban landscapes —grafting reshapes the relationship between past and present, adapting existing structures for contemporary needs while addressing environmental demands. By reimagining historic buildings for modern use, this approach fosters a sustainable evolution of cityscapes.
The Clinton Foundation in Little Rock, Arkansas, has just announced a major expansion of the Clinton Presidential Center. The expansion will be designed by Studio Gang, with the aim to further the Center’s mission to engage and educate people about President Clinton’s values. Moreover, the project expansion will be further detailed in 2024, creating new essential programs in the development.
The newly transformed Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts in Little Rock, US, is ready to open to the public on April 22, 2023. Designed by architecture practice Studio Gang in collaboration with Polk Stanley Wilcox and landscape architecture and urban design practice SCAPE, The Museum’s new architectural identity aims to signify its role as a leading arts institution in the region. One of the Museum’s most recognizable features, the folded plate concrete roof, is now complete. The new roofline spans the length of the building, connecting the new construction and the renovated spaces to create a coherent architectural character for the cultural institution.
Designed by Studio Gang architects, together with landscape design firm SCAPE and Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects, ArkansasMuseum of Fine Arts (AMFA) reaches an important construction milestone with the recent completion of its signature new roof. Spanning the entire length of the project and connecting the various buildings, both renovated and new, the folded plate concrete roof establishes the museum’s new architectural identity as the leading cultural institution for the state of Arkansas.
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art has announced plans for a major expansion by Safdie Architects in Arkansas. The new addition will increase the size of the current facilities by 50 percent, adding nearly 100,000 square feet to the 200,000-square-foot facility. The expansion will showcase the museum's growing collection and provide space for educational and outreach initiatives, cultural programming, and community events.
A team of Drury University faculty have created a crystalline design for the Springdale Veteran Memorial Competition. Sited in Arkansas, the proposal was made by Sara Khorshidifard, Payman Sadeghi and Karen Spence. Using the crystal metaphor and drawing inspiration from its shape, formation, and built tactility, the concept is made to capitalize on the Diamond State’s history and topology.
Arkansas Art Center. Image Courtesy of Studio Gang and SCAPE
Studio Gang and SCAPE are working in collaboration with Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects on the Arkansas Arts Center currently under construction in MacArthur Park, Little Rock. The work is being realized through a public-private partnership, with a $31 million commitment from the City of Little Rock, funded through a hotel-tax revenue bond. The project will house the Arkansas Arts Center Foundation Collection, which includes 14,000 works of art from around the world.
Architecture is rooted in tectonics and craft. Few offices know this better than Hufft, an architecture, interior design and fabrication studio with offices in Kansas City and Bentonville. Founded on the belief that input from builders and fabricators adds value and creates better experiences, the studio's multi-disciplinary team now includes over 50 people. In an interview with ArchDaily, Principal Matthew Hufft discusses the firms values and what it means to build today.
Courtesy of Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, University of Arkansas / Grafton Architects
Grafton Architects was selected as the winning firm to design the Anthony Timberlands Center for Design and Materials Innovation at the University of Arkansas. In collaboration with Modus Studio for the planned campus design research center, the design on the project is scheduled to begin this summer.
Studio Gang and SCAPE have broken ground on the new Arkansas Arts Center (AAC) in Little Rock. The current facility will be transformed, and the project includes a landscape design that will connect the AAC with the surrounding MacArthur Park. The project was made to embrace the Arkansas Arts Center’s history and create a contemporary space for the future.
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New North Entry from Crescent Drive. Image Courtesy of Studio Gang
Studio Gang has revealed the design of their $70 Million expansion of the Arkansas Arts Center, located in historic MacArthur Park in the state capital of Little Rock. Working with associate architects Polk Stanley Wilcox and landscape architecture firm SCAPE, Studio Gang has envisioned a sweeping roof structure that will connect the existing architecturally disparate museum pavilions into a cohesive whole.
3D computer rendering of Buckminster’s Fly’s Eye Dome as it will appear on the North Lawn at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. (View from Early 20th Century Gallery Bridge.). Image Courtesy of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
One of Buckminster Fuller’s visionary housing structures is set to be erected at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. The 50-foot structure, known as the “Fly’s Eye Dome” is the largest of only three original prototypes hand-fabricated by Fuller during his lifetime.
Studio Gang has been announced as the design architect for the $55-65 million expansion of the Arkansas Arts Center (AAC), located in Little Rock, Arkansas, beating out finalists Allied Works, Shigeru Ban Architects, Thomas Phifer and Partners and Snøhetta. Consisting of a renovation to existing theater and studio spaces, new education facilities for families and gallery space to house the museum’s expanding art collection, the project will be Studio Gang’s first art museum commission.
On November 3, TheatreSquared Executive Director Martin Miller and Artistic Director Robert Ford unveiled the completed plans for the company’s new permanent home, a 50,000 square-foot building in Fayetteville, Arkansas designed by London-based theater planners Charcoalblue and New York–based Marvel Architects. The new building will include two theaters, a rehearsal space, staff offices, design workshops, a community space, a 24-hour cafe/bar, three levels of outdoor public space, and a separate building housing eight guest artist apartments.
The Arkansas Arts Center has selected five top architecture firms to compete for the design of a $55 million to $65 million museum expansion project in Little Rock, Arkansas. The project will include a renovation to existing theater and studio spaces, as well as new education facilities for families and gallery space to house the museum’s expanding art collection.
An advisory panel and selection committee named the finalists following a RFQ process featuring 23 local and international firms.
In this video entitled Building Between, Marlon Blackwell advocates for a kind of regionalism which isn’t as divisive as “regionalism.” As a 24-year resident of Arkansas, he recalls his work and process in a place which he states is both “an environment of natural beauty and a place of real constructed ugliness”—showing the nuanced and self-critical awareness of place beyond the utopian glorification of genius loci which earlier this year earned him the 2016 Cooper Hewitt National Design Award in Architecture.
In this video by the AIA, Marlon Blackwell, one of Arkansas’ foremost architects, speaks on the importance of small projects in an architect's career. “I only really worked on small projects at the beginning…that was doing everything…The scale of the site, the scale of the model, the scale of the hand…the beauty of the small project is that you can work at all of those many scales," says Blackwell. “The smaller projects are the beginning of the development of a language in architecture. I see it not as a benign or banal thing but as the beginning of taking yourself from where you are to where you want to be.”
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