E. Fay Jones - Design Career

Design Career

Jones was a quiet and unassuming architect who preferred the quiet isolation of the Arkansas mountains to the urban landscape. Jones ignored architectural trends and instead focused on his own organic aesthetic with materials found in The Ozarks and familiar traditional forms from his home region. Jones work focused primarily on the intimate rather than the grandiose. Jones most renowned works are chapels and private homes rather than skyscrapers.

Jones used Frank Lloyd Wright's principles and created buildings that had a distinct Wrightian feel to them. Jones' most famous buildings are the Thorncrown Chapel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, the Mildred B. Cooper Memorial Chapel in Bella Vista, Arkansas, and the Pinecote Pavilion at the Crosby Arboretum in Picayune, Mississippi. These buildings are simple and transcendental creations of wood. Thorncrown Chapel was selected as the fourth most favored building in a poll of the membership of the American Institute of Architects. Thorncrown was also selected as the best American building built since 1980.

In addition to his remarkable buildings, Jones is also known for creating unique designs for furniture and everyday objects such as the Fulbright Peace Fountain located at the University of Arkansas main campus.

Jones is recalled as a gentle and unassuming man for whom a harsh word was completely out of character. His partner, Maurice Jennings, stated that he had worked with Jones for 25 years without an instance of emotional conflict.

Jones was a recipient of the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal in 1990. He was accepted as a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1979 and as a Fellow of the American Academy of Rome in 1980.

In 1997 Jones' John B. Begley Chapel was dedicated on the campus of Lindsey Wilson College in Columbia, Ky. The Begley Chapel was Jones' first all-brick chapel.

In 1999 a retrospective of his work was produced for the Old State House Museum in Little Rock, Arkansas and is available as a traveling exhibition from the museum. The University of Arkansas also published a driving tour of many of his residences and buildings in Northwest Arkansas.

On August 31, 2004 Jones died at his home in Fayetteville at the age of 83, survived by his wife and two daughters.

As of April 3, 2009, the University of Arkansas' School of Architecture dedicated the school in Fay's honor. Due to a multi-million dollar contribution from Don and Ellen Edmondson, the school is now known as the Fay Jones School of Architecture.