Forty Under 40: Christie King, 34

Christie King’s parents might’ve guessed she would become an architect. During services at her childhood church in Pine Bluff, she sketched and re-sketched the likeness of a perspective of the sanctuary that was printed on the weekly bulletin. Not satisfied, she eventually began adding details of her own.
King has put that fanciful preoccupation into practice, doing work on the Alamo and all four Catholic missions of the Archdiocese of San Antonio for the National Parks Service. King put her mark on a multi-volume document intended to guide the preservation of those sites in the future, so her contributions should be realized for years.
“I liked buildings,” she said. “Not just art, but buildings.”
Her master’s in architecture from the University of Texas at Austin had an emphasis in historic preservation, so it’s ironic King ended up in Northwest Arkansas, where most of the projects for the last several years have been new construction. But it comes in handy on remodels and rehabs, she said.
Still, she’s embraced modern projects and has worked on many valued from $250,000 to $30 million, including the Walker Family Training Center at the University of Arkansas, her alma mater.
King is excited about her role on a renovation project of Ozark Hall at the UA, set to begin soon.