ASI Wins International AIA/ALA Award

The Arkansas Studies Institute was one of five library buildings in the world to receive one of the coveted awards presented biannually by a joint committee of the American Institute of Architects and the American Library Association to honor excellence in architectural design and planning of libraries. The award citation praised the ASI architects (the Polk Stanley Wilcox firm) for a "complex program done well - knitting together existing spaces into beautiful, elegant interiors while presenting a strong connection between old and new."

A joint project of the Central Arkansas Library System and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, the Institute connects three buildings built in three different centuries and provides space for archives, research, collections storage, and exhibits, in addition to office space for the Clinton School of Public Service, the Arkansas Humanities Council, and the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies.

The other AIA/ALA awards were given to branch libraries of the Boston Public Library and the Phoenix Public Library, a major renovation of the main library at the Ohio State University, and the library at a newly built science and technology university in Saudi Arabia.