Hendrix College to build Miller Creative Quad in 2018

Hendrix College will begin construction on the Miller Creative Quad in 2018.

The $24 million ($16 million construction, $8 million endowment) mixed-use project is part of the school’s $110 million “Be Hendrix” campaign and is named for Hendrix alumnus and Board of Trustees Carolyn L. Miller, a 1974 graduate, and her husband David B. Miller of Dallas. They provided the initial funding for the project through the David B. Miller Family Foundation.

The project will include two buildings that will combine facilities for the creative arts with new student living space on the existing site of Hulen Hall.

“Thanks to the generosity of the Miller family, along with many Hendrix alumni, corporations, foundations, and friends, we are thrilled to begin construction on the Miller Creative Quad,” Hendrix President Bill Tsutsui said in a news release. “Not only will this exciting project provide new facilities for our students and faculty, it will bring new energy to the heart of campus for the entire community to enjoy and experience.”

The Creative Quad will include two new residence halls on the second and third floors of the two buildings, with single and double rooms and study space for 100 students.

The south building of the Creative Quad will feature music practice rooms, music faculty offices and a digital music lab.

There will also be a 990-square-foot auditorium with an industry-standard film screening room. The auditorium will serve the school’s growing film studies program, as well as movie events organized by student clubs and organizations, and will accommodate guest speakers for special events.

A focal point of the Miller Creative Quad will be the new Windgate Museum of Art in the north building. In 2016, Hendrix received a $10 million grant from the Windgate Charitable Foundation of Siloam Springs to support the museum’s construction and endowment. The Windgate Foundation has previously supported arts and religious life programming, as well as scholarship opportunities, at Hendrix.

The Miller Creative Quad was designed by Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects of Little Rock. Nabholz Corp. of Conway will be the general contractor. Construction of the Miller Creative Quad will begin after Commencement 2018 in May. The Creative Quad’s new residence halls are scheduled to open in fall 2019.

Hulen Hall will be removed during the school’s winter break, and site preparation will continue through the spring. Hulen Hall, which opened in 1950, was named for campus dietician Georgia Mitchell Hulen. It included the Hendrix bookstore, cafeteria, post office, student center, and student organization offices, serving the Hendrix community until the 2010 opening of the Student Life and Technology Center (SLTC).

Earlier this fall, Hendrix celebrated the opening of the Mary Ann and David Dawkins Welcome Center, the new home of the Offices of Admission and Financial Aid.