Correction: The Main Library of the Central Arkansas Library System and Acxiom Corp.'s headquarters in downtown Little Rock were designed by Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects. Their designs were incorrectly attributed to another firm in this column.
“Meet me at that statue of the banjo player.”
That’s what the sponsors and creator of the bronze likeness of Rick Redden want people to say.
It will be a reminder and a public presence of the man who has done more than anyone to reshape the look of downtown Little Rock in recent years.
Architect Redden created a medley - the two condominium towers, the curvilinear Acxiom building, the River Market, Main Library and so on.
His unfinished piece, the Arcade building at the intersection of President Clinton and River Market avenues, is where the statue will be placed.
John Deering, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette chief editorial cartoonist, is nearing completion of his likeness of Redden, who died in 2012 at 63. The statue is being cast at a Santa Fe, N.M., foundry.
Commissioned by the Central Arkansas Library System and Moses Tucker Real Estate, the statue shows the ballcap wearing - and smiling - Redden plunking a banjo.
As that bluegrass musician and wild and crazy guy Steve Martin says: “You can’t play a sad song on the banjo.”
Frank Barksdale, who succeeded Redden as president of AMR Architects Inc., said: “It is so fitting that his statue will sit on the last project that he designed, the Arcade Building, looking across the street at the project that was the catalyst for the entire district, the River Market itself.
“Rick lived in projects that he designed in this area, he worked in a building he designed and often ate lunch at restaurants that he designed.”
The library system and development company are sharing the cost of the Arcade, which is expected to be completed in the fall and will include public and private space, including the upscale Cache restaurant and the new offices of AMR Architects.
The library will own 52.5 percent of the building, which it will use to build a two-story theater that can seat upward of 350 for lectures, library presentations and movie series and for use by organizations.
The system has a fund, a“hodgepodge of nontax money,” from which it can spend up to 1 percent of the cost of one of its buildings for public art, if the money is matched.
“My aim in life is to get a piece of public art at every piece of property that we have,” Bobby Roberts, CALS director, said. There’s a bronze of former Gov. Sid McMath at his namesake library and one of Arkansas author Dee Brown, who wrote Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, at the Brown library. Redden designed the Fletcher and Thompson libraries, Roberts said.
Jimmy Moses, partner with Rett Tucker in Moses Tucker Real Estate, started out with Allison Moses Redden Architects, renamed AMR Architects. Moses is fond of saying that creating “a great urban core is still at the core of our mission, and will always be.”
Deering is no stranger to public art, being best known perhaps for his statues of the Little Rock Nine on the state Capitol grounds.
Have you noticed the scaffolding on the southwest corner of the Marriott hotel at 3 Statehouse Plaza in downtown? It’s there because the brick exterior needs “tightening,” said sales and marketing director Bruce Skidmore.
Some of the brickwork has gotten loose, he said. The highrise hotel was built in 1982 as the Excelsior, before becoming the Peabody in 2002.
The 418 rooms will be renovated starting in February,with completion expected in August, Skidmore said. Overall, the hotel will undergo a $16 million renovation.
The Peabody was bought by Memphis-based Fairwood Capital LLC, a private equity firm, last year and is operating under the Marriott brand.
Belz Enterprises last week sold another Peabody hotel, this one in Orlando, Fla., to Hyatt Hotels Corp. for $717 million.
Skidmore said possible sale of that property had been a topic of interest and talk in the industry a year, he said.
The Orlando hotel was operating under a $400 million debt burden, Skidmore said, putting it under a lot of pressure.
But the original Peabody in Memphis is “wholly owned and debt-free,” he said. “It’s their cash cow.”
Another small development in downtown that doesn’t have the symbolism of the Redden statue but has grabbed more than its share of attention is coming to a close.
The state Alcoholic Beverage Control agency issued a conditional permit last week allowing Don Dugan to operate a liquor store out of his Stratton’s Market, a grocery and deli at 405 E. Third St. that adjoins Dugan’s Pub. To remove the conditionality, all Dugan has to do is put up a locked door between the two businesses, according to ABC director Michael Langley.
Dugan considers the liquor store to be a piece of the puzzle in the rejuvenation of downtown, where residential numbers are growing and people want more things within walking distance.
If you have a tip, call Jack Weatherly at (501) 378-3518 or e-mail him at
Business, Pages 69 on 09/01/2013