Architect Of Thorncrown Chapel Dies

Renowned architect E Fay Jones has died. Best known for Thorncrown Chapel, a towering glass sanctuary he built in the woods in northwest Arkansas, Jones received numerous awards over his long career. He died yesterday at his home in Fayetteville. He was 83. A student of Frank Lloyd Wright, Jones built a career on the subtle intricacies between his buildings and nature. He said in a recent Associated Press interview that he designs homes so that it makes living there feel special. Former President George Bush presented Jones with the prestigious AIA gold medal in 1990 at a White House gala dinner attended by Prince Charles. Contemporaries rank Jones` work among that of Michael Graves and IM Pei. He received the American Academy`s Rome Prize for artists that allowed him to study in Europe. Jones` Thorncrown Chapel in Eureka Springs was honored as the American Institute of Architecture`s Design of the Decade for the 1980s, surpassing the Vietnam Veteran`s Memorial and the World Financial Center. A native Arkansan, Jones studied engineering before he flew planes for the Navy in the Pacific during World War Two. He came home in 1945 and was the first student to sign up for architecture at the University of Arkansas, graduating in the department`s first class in 1950. He went on to teach and study at the University of Oklahoma and Rice University and study with Wright at his Taliesin compound in Wisconsin.