FAYETTEVILLE -- A sprawling maker space inside the under-construction Anthony Timberlands Center for Design and Materials Innovation will be named for Peter MacKeith -- dean of the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville's Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design -- courtesy of a $2.5-million donation from UA-Fayetteville alumnus John Ed Anthony and his wife, Isabel.
The 9,000-square-foot maker space, which will be the Center's largest interior space and occupy much of the ground floor while opening out to a fabrication yard, will be known as the Peter Brabson MacKeith II Fabrication Workshop and Laboratory, according to the university. The Center is expected to open in the fall of 2024.
The Anthonys also made the lead $7.5 million gift for the establishment of the Center, in 2018, according to the university. The Center will house the Fay Jones School's graduate program in timber and wood and be an epicenter for its multiple timber and wood initiatives, as well as being the home for the school's existing design-build program and an expanded digital fabrication laboratory.
"We are incredibly grateful for the generous commitment and vision of the Anthony family," Mark Power, vice chancellor for advancement, said in a statement from the university. "They have inspired collaboration and garnered the support of friends and benefactors to bolster the important initiatives in sustainable, Arkansas-sourced timber and wood design."
This fabrication shop will be the heart of the building -- its largest and most active space -- encompassing a central bay with a metal workshop, seminar room, small digital lab, and a dedicated space for a large CNC router (a Computer Numerical Controlled machine that uses computer programming to control a high-speed rotating cutter to perform cutting and shaping operations), according to the university. An overhead crane running on rails from inside to outside will move large equipment and products in and out of the Center.
The Center is not on the main UA-Fayetteville campus, but, rather, in the university's new Windgate Art and Design District, on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in the southern part of the city. The Anthony Timberlands Center is being designed by Grafton Architects, a Dublin-based firm whose co-founders won the 2020 Pritzker Prize, considered one of the top prizes -- if not the top -- in the field of architecture.
The latest cost estimate for the Center is $33.5 million, a majority of which is covered by private donations -- such as the Anthonys' contribution -- with the rest paid by university funds.
The four-story, 44,800-square-foot center also will include studios, seminar and conference rooms, faculty offices, a small auditorium and a public exhibition space, according to the university. The Fay Jones School is a leading advocate for innovation in timber and wood design, and the Center will have a similar focus.
MacKeith, who has been dean of the Fay Jones School since 2014, "introduced not only me, but also the entire Arkansas forest products community, to concepts that were occurring all across the world," Anthony said in a news release from the university. "He did this almost single handedly. He formed committees; he made speeches; he incorporated his zeal into putting together groups of people to hear about these innovations that had not been introduced in America."
Therefore, it's "fitting that the fabrication space at the heart of the research center be named in honor of Dean Peter MacKeith and in recognition of his leadership on this transformational venture for the university and the state," Power said in a university statement.
MacKeith's efforts and guidance are one reason Anthony wanted to make a second gift for the Center that would specifically recognize MacKeith's contributions.
"There's just one person responsible for making this project happen -- and it's not me. It's Peter MacKeith, and I can't think of anything more appropriate than for the design and fabrication space of this building to be named in his honor," Anthony said in the news release from the university. "That's what Isabel and I wanted to do because of his influence, and the enthusiasm shown by other donors to jump on board has been very encouraging."
Anthony holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from the Sam M. Walton College of Business, previously served on the Board of Trustees of the University of Arkansas, and is a member of Walton College's Arkansas Business Hall of Fame. He and his wife are included in the university's Towers of Old Main, a giving society for the university's most generous benefactors, as well as the Chancellor's Society, the university's most prestigious annual giving group.