David Mullins Library

This four-story Postmodern library replaces the 1935 library (WA26.2) standing to its east. Oriented west toward the Student Union (WA26.5), the library defines an appropriate architectural eastern boundary for the university’s only example of an academic quadrangle, defined on the west by the Union, on the south by the Fine Arts Center (WA26.4), and on the north by the Robert Leflar Law Center. While all four buildings respect the 1925 campus plan, and its strong central east–west axis, their design is a sharp departure from the Collegiate Gothic style of the buildings constructed from 1923 to 1951. The structure clearly states its modernity in a cubic form, a steel and concrete structure sheathed with precast concrete panels: rough textured of an exposed quartz aggregate and smooth mix of white, smoky, and clear quartz. The basement houses the archives of notable and historic Arkansans, as well as the Arkansas Architectural Archives, a major repository for architectural works relating to the state, housing the complete works of E. Fay Jones, Edward Durell Stone, and a number of other important Arkansas architects. The 1993 addition to the east facade made a gesture to tradition and postmodernism with a massive two-story colonnade of concrete piers to provide a sheltered second entrance. New interior features included a rotunda and a spiral staircase.