Fay Jones was an American architect/designer and began as a student of Frank Lloyd Wright. In the latter part of his life and career, he was architecture instructor at the University of Arkansas (Fayetteville). In the early 90s, I was fortunate to work with Lars on a Fay Jones house a mile or two from the University. Louis DeMarco, the original owner of the house (maybe in her 80s at the time) was friends with Fay - she and her husband had approached him early in his career to have him design their house. When she showed us the original blueprints from the 60s I asked if she’d mind if I made copies (she said yes). I studied the dwgs and compared them to the final built structure and was blown away by the mastery of the design/hand-drawn documents + the high craft of the construction. Those copies live in a box in our basement - I will revisit them for a later post.

in 2015, when up in Crested Butte with Dave, Brynn, Seth, Cindy and all of our kids, Seth would take me on a bike ride around the idyllic mt. town and swing me by a Fay Jones house he had discovered years earlier. We both walked around it for some time and marveled at the boldness and elegance of the design. On that same weekend, I would sneak away for a few hrs. and help Lars finish a small deck project (which was my favorite way of hanging out with him, making stuff) and he would share tidbits that he had learn about the Jones house over his years from doing carpentry in CB. Read more.

Shaheen-Goodfellow Cottage, known as Stoneflower is nestled in the gently rolling foothills of the Arkansas Ozarks and surrounded by pristine Greer's Ferry Lake