Arkansas Business

Conway has switched architects for designing the terminal building of the city’s new municipal airport.

The Conway City Council on Tuesday approved Rik Sowell Architects of Conway as the architect for the terminal. The city dropped Architectural Alliance of Minneapolis as project architect in favor of the local company to “expedite the design and conceptual construction plan,” Mayor Tab Townsell said.

The city has an $85,500 contract with Sowell to design the terminal. Sowell’s proposed terminal design is for a one-story building that is about 6,000 SF.

Sowell’s design should cost less than that of Architectural Alliance, which is currently doing design work for Clinton National Airport in Little Rock, the mayor said.

Sowell’s design will have a “timeless, classic look” to go well with the architecture of buildings on the campuses of Conway’s colleges, Townsell said.

At the meeting, the City Council also agreed to add work to a paving contract with Weaver-Bailey Contractors of El Paso (White County), the company that is currently preparing ground for the airport’s concrete runway. Some costs of the paving work were lower than anticipated, so the city applied $650,304 of a $5 million contract toward further soil stabilization.