BENTONVILLE, Ark., June 27, 2019 – Eighteen new design firms have been selected to join the Northwest Arkansas Design Excellence Program.
Earlier this spring, the Walton Family Foundation held an open application cycle for design professionals, with a focus on landscape architecture and urban design in small communities.
The Northwest Arkansas Design Excellence Program was created in 2015 to promote the highest level of design in the development of future public buildings and spaces in Benton and Washington counties. It selects design professionals and projects based on four key principles: a commitment to strengthening public life; elevating standards of sustainability and resilience; celebrating local cultures and place; and building regional capacity.
Today, the program welcomed the following firms:
- CIVITAS: Denver, Colorado
- Coen+Partners: Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Dig Studio: Denver, Colorado
- Ecological Design Group: Little Rock, Arkansas
- Ground Control: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Halff Associates: Dallas, Texas
- Hoerr Schaudt Landscapes: Chicago, Illinois
- James Corner Field Operations: New York City, New York
- Janet Rosenberg and Studio: Ontario, Canada
- La Quatra Bonci: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Port: Chicago, Illinois
- Rundell Ernstberger Associates: Indianapolis, Indiana
- Studio One Eleven: Long Beach, California
- Studio Outside: Dallas, Texas
- Studio Bryan Hanes: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- SWA Architects: Pasadena, California
- Travis Van Liere: Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Unknown Studio: Baltimore, Maryland
With these additions, nearly 70 architecture and landscape architecture firms representing 15 states, the District of Columbia, Canada and Denmark have been admitted to the program.
Since its launch, the Design Excellence Program has supported 11 projects across the region’s five largest downtowns. To date, its design professionals have completed Memorial Park in Siloam Springs, the Rogers Historical Museum and the Helen Walton Children’s Enrichment Center in Bentonville, with TheatreSquared in Fayetteville and a portion of Thaden School’s campus in Bentonville set to open this summer. For a full review of current projects, visit waltonfamilyfoundation.org/design.
About the Walton Family Foundation
The Walton Family Foundation is, at its core, a family-led foundation. The children and grandchildren of our founders, Sam and Helen Walton, lead the foundation and create access to opportunity for people and communities. We work in three areas: improving K-12 education, protecting rivers and oceans and the communities they support, and investing in our home region of Northwest Arkansas and the Arkansas-Mississippi Delta. In 2018, the foundation awarded more than $595 million in grants in support of these initiatives. To learn more, visit waltonfamilyfoundation.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.