Forty Under 40: Timothy W. Maddox, 37

Growing up in Jonesboro, Timothy Maddox enjoyed a specific perk as the son of an architect.

“If Dad had designed the building, we could go behind any door we wanted,” Maddox said.

By age 14, Maddox was working for his father as a draftsman, and after dabbling in civil engineering at Arkansas State, he earned a degree in architecture from the University of Arkansas in 2002. He also logged countless hours working for his father, Tim de Noble and Don Mobley.

“I think I got the best of all three worlds,” he said.

Maddox and de Noble started deMx in 2004 and were awash in residential work. But when the economy tanks, Maddox said, architects are “the first to get put on hold and last to get re-started.”

Add de Noble’s hiring as dean of Kansas State’s architecture school in 2009, and Maddox has had to adjust.

“I wouldn’t say I’ve had to reinvent myself, but I’ve had to learn the business side of it,” he said.

Maddox now maintains a balance of residential, commercial, institutional and industrial projects ranging from a fire station to a 9,000-SF retail building and a church.

The result has been a bevy of honors, including being part of Garden & Gun’s “New Faces of Southern Style” in 2010.

Maddox, an avid outdoorsman, also has leadership roles for United Cerebral Palsy of Arkansas.