Projects Chosen for Foundations Bid to Elevate Design Standard

Three architectural projects have been selected for the Walton Family Foundation’s new Northwest Arkansas Design Excellence Program.

In its first year, the program has announced intentions to fund the design of new facilities for TheatreSquared in Fayetteville, the Rogers Historical Museum and the Helen R. Walton Children’s Enrichment Center in Bentonville.

The initiative is based on a similar one in Columbus, Indiana, by the Cummins Foundation. It aims to elevate the quality of architectural and landscape design for public-use properties within the region, according to a press release from the Walton Foundation.

The TheatreSquared project is a proposed 51,500 SF performance art studio downtown, the new Rogers Historical Museum is planned for the 28,000-SF former Rogers Morning News building on South Second Street, and the enrichment center facility will be 35,000 SF of new construction near the Amazeum.

Although Hight Jackson Associates was announced as the local architect for the HWEC project, the design program will recruit an architect of record, said Sunny Lane, development manager of HWCEC.

The center’s half-acre playground is also part of the design program, and will demonstrate the role of landscape architecture in comprehensive design, according to the press release.

More than 75 firms in 19 states, Washington, D.C., and Canada have applied for the program, according to the press release.

The selection committee includes Victor Dover, principal-in-charge at Miami-based Dover, Kohl & Partners; Peter MacKeith, professor and dean of the University of Arkansas Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design; Elizabeth Meyer, professor and dean of the University of Virginia School of Architecture; Karen Minkel, Home Region Program director for the Walton Foundation; and Cynthia Weese, founding principal of Chicago-based Weese Langley Weese Architects Ltd.

The program is expected to support up to three projects each year.