On the eastern edge of the Thaden School campus in downtown Bentonville, Ark., the bright red recreational space known as The Barn commands attention. With its soaring and angular frame, it cuts a striking visual contrast with the lush green of the surrounding trees and grass. At night the building’s effect is just as dramatic: Golden light streams out through rooftop skylights, open roller doors and gaps in the barn’s cypress siding.

Inside, form follows function. Students gather for basketball or volleyball games played in natural light and ventilation, on a court designed for versatility.

The building is one of a half dozen on the 30-acre campus that epitomize how high-quality design can inspire and support academic performance and student well-being.

Since its opening in 2017, the independent school – which currently serves 325 students – has won numerous design and architecture awards. Thaden has been celebrated for creating a sense of place that connects its students and campus to the neighboring community and builds sustainability into the learning experience.

Its design draws inspiration from the culture and agricultural history of Northwest Arkansas, reinterpreting and incorporating Ozark forms in ways that advance Thaden’s signature Meals, Wheels and Reels programs.

The Walton Family Foundation supported the design of the Thaden School through our Northwest Arkansas Design Excellence program. Its campus master plan, school buildings and landscape are designed by award-winning architects Eskew+Dumez+Ripple of New Orleans and Marlon Blackwell Architects of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

A 2020 report by Gehl, an urban design firm, praised Thaden’s design for enabling an innovative curriculum that blends indoor and outdoor learning throughout its campus.

“With state-of-the-art classrooms and labs, outdoor learning spaces, indigenous landscaping, hands-on maker spaces, and preservation of the historic home of aviation pioneer Louise Thaden, Thaden School thoughtfully integrates cutting-edge design into a historic story, creating a landscape that promotes growth of the whole student,” the report said.

In addition to The Barn, Thaden’s campus is anchored by its Home Building that hosts the heart of all student activities, as well as the Performing Arts Center, the Reels Arts and Administration Building, and the Wheels Science and Fabrication Building, which includes a Bike Lab. Pioneering Northwest Arkansas aviator Louise Thaden’s childhood home, McPhetridge House, was also relocated to the campus.

“Thaden’s design enables and encourages new kinds of learning—with the campus acting as a third teacher and social facilitator,” the Gehl report said. “For example, the Greenhouse provides a space for hands-on ecology lessons, the Great Hall forges social bonds among students sharing meals together, and the hallways encourage chance encounters and social mixing among students and faculty. The campus design not only facilitates distinctive curriculum needs but elevates them.”

This invitation to think of the student environment as part of the curriculum has led students to engage in design thinking even off campus. This was evident in a recent Thaden School class project to improve an intersection near campus. Students met with city officials to present a plan to improve pedestrian safety at a dangerous traffic intersection northwest of the school and in 2023 received approval to install crosswalks, stop bars and pedestrian flags.

“Thaden School is challenging convention when it comes to school design,” the Gehl report said. “With a belief that the environment is a crucial part of the student learning experience, Thaden has broken away from typical classroom design to provide an elevated experience.”

Photo Credits: Dero Sanford