The Preservation Game: Preserve Arkansas Pushes to Protect the State’s Past

WER architect and associate Mason Ellis was featured in the January issue of Little Rock Soriee. Check out the article below:

Surrounded by crumbling plaster caused by a leaky roof, architect and preservationist Mason Ellis takes stock of his next demanding project.

“I never knew how much pressure there was on an architect until I had to build a treehouse,” he says.

Ellis is anticipating completion of the lofty project he’s undertaken for his children, Avery, 5, and John Cooley, 2. But as he speaks, his words echo from the top of the twin staircase that anchors the interior of the St. Joseph Center of Arkansas, an imposing, four-story former orphanage frowning from a North Little Rock hilltop.

As an associate with WER Architects/Planners and as board president-elect for the nonprofit Preserve Arkansas, Ellis lends his expertise to the salvation and preservation of historic locations around the state. That includes St. Joseph’s, built in 1910 and on Arkansas’ Most Endangered Places list since 2013.

To read the full article click here.