Sue Hein, the daughter of John Williams, who founded the University of Arkansas’ architecture program in 1946, donated her family home to the university’s School of Architecture and Design.
The $750,000 home at 140 N. Sang Ave. is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is one of three Fayetteville homes on the list that were designed by Williams. The donation is part of the university’s Campaign Arkansas fundraising project that raised approximately $1.45 billion.
The School of Architecture and Design will celebrate its 75th anniversary this year. Williams, who died in 2008, was the sole professor of architecture classes from 1946 to 1950 and helped the architecture program become a department and later a school.
“John G. Williams was a gifted architect and educator, and the University of Arkansas and the state of Arkansas have been the beneficiaries of his talent, vision and ambition,” said Peter MacKeith, dean of the school. “As we enter the 75th year of architecture and design programs at the university, it is clear that the school’s history and legacy is rooted in professor Williams’ vision. Sue’s gift of her family home, of the Williams house, to the school is both symbolic and tangible, simultaneously emblematic of our founding and a material construction of continuing value to our future. Sue’s gift is, in a word, exceptional … as she is, as her father was. On behalf of the school, I am deeply grateful to Sue Hein.”
Hein earned two bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in music from the University of Arkansas. She now lives in New York City.
Hein was born in 1950, the same year the first students graduated from the department of architecture. Famed architect Fay Jones was a member of that first group of graduates.
“I want my father’s legacy to be recognized in this house that he designed, built and lived in,” Hein said. “It signifies a full circle — the way he built the architecture program at the University of Arkansas and this house and how this physical gift of a built house is being given to the school. It’s beautiful symmetry. Poetic is the best word to describe this donation, and it represents my recognition of my father’s legacy and my history with the university.”
Sign up for Daily E-news
