AIA Arkansas has awarded its highest professional honor—the E. Fay Jones Gold Medal—to Reese Rowland, FAIA, principal at Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects, recognizing a career defined by design excellence, environmental stewardship, and transformative community impact.
Rowland has devoted his career to creating meaningful, human-centered spaces through innovative and sustainable design. His work has earned more than 80 National, Regional, and State awards, including over 35 from the American Institute of Architects (AIA), and has been featured in 12 books and 25 national journals.
“Reese demonstrates how a single idea, passion, or creative gesture can shape cityscapes, foster human connection, and honor the natural environment. Few architects have influenced Arkansas as deeply as Reese,” said David Porter, CEO of Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects.
The E. Fay Jones Gold Medal, named after one of Arkansas’ most renowned architects, honors individuals who have demonstrated a lifetime of notable contributions to architecture. Rowland’s enduring influence—on Arkansas’ built environment, on the architectural profession, and on the communities his work serves—firmly embodies the spirit of the award.
Among Rowland’s most celebrated achievements is the Heifer International Headquarters, the South’s first LEED Platinum building. The project received a National AIA Honor Award, was named an AIA Top Ten Green Project, and is widely recognized as a global landmark in sustainable design.
His commitment to enriching public life can also be seen in the Central Arkansas Library System’s Arkansas Studies Institute and the Hillary Rodham Clinton Children’s Library, both recipients of the National AIA/ALA Library Award, the nation’s highest recognition for library design. Most recently, Rowland led the successful reinvention of the CALS Main Library in Little Rock, transforming it into a more open, dynamic, and community-focused hub for patrons.
Rowland’s body of work includes many of Arkansas’ most defining architectural landmarks—among them the U.S. Marshals Museum, Bank OZK Headquarters, Pine Bluff Main Library, Acxiom River Market Tower Headquarters (and its conversion for Simmons Bank), Murphy Oil Headquarters, Arkansas State Parks Visitor Centers at Pinnacle Mountain and Jacksonport—as well as significant projects nationwide, including Rayonier’s Headquarters in Florida and guest-services buildings at Orlando’s Evermore Resort.
In addition to his project accomplishments, Rowland is widely respected for his collaborative mindset and humble leadership. Elevated to the AIA College of Fellows in 2014, he later became only the second architect to receive the Arkansas Arts Council Governor’s Arts Award, and in the same year was inducted into the AGC Arkansas Construction Hall of Fame. In 2020, he was honored with the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Fay Jones School of Architecture + Design, further underscoring his influence as both a practitioner and leader in the field.
Rooted deeply in the Arkansas landscape, Rowland’s design sensibility was shaped by his upbringing in Paris, Arkansas, at the foot of Mount Magazine. Today, he and his family reside in Conway, where nature, community, and storytelling continue to inform his work.