Adohi Hall, University of Arkansas
Leers Weinzapfel Associates
Copyright: Timothy Hursley
Adohi Hall, a 708-bed student housing complex at the University of Arkansas, demonstrates a pioneering use of cross-laminated timber and an innovative approach to live-learn communities, with embedded arts and academic spaces. Completed in August 2019, it is the largest mass timber building to date and the first large-scale mass timber university housing in the US, supporting the economic potential of Arkansas’ burgeoning timber industry. Conceived as a “cabin in the woods,” Adohi is a serpentine band of rooms framed in CLT clad in a light metal jacket of zinc-toned siding floating above landscaped courtyards evoking the ecology of Northwest Arkansas. A continuous path descends the length of the site, passing under the student rooms through a natural landscape of trees, lawns, terraces, and sitting steps. The landscape and buildings are woven together as an extension of the forested hillside to create unique outdoor spaces with strong relationships to the social, workshop, and performance spaces within. Above, wings of suites and pods provide a variety of living configurations. Double-height lounges at the juncture of wings include kitchen and social spaces, while quiet study rooms at the ends of the wings create a series of lanterns along Stadium Drive. The warmth of the project’s exposed structural wood ceilings and columns are apparent in each student room, study room, floor lounge, and ground floor common spaces. The name of the new complex – “Adohi,” Cherokee for “coming into the forest”– recognizes the enduring importance of wood and sustainable forestry to the region.