WALTON FAMILY MEMBERS PARTNER WITH BIG TO GIVE FORM TO THE FUTURE OF LEARNING WITH NEW UNIVERSITY IN BENTONVILLE

Commissioned by members of the Walton family, the STEM-focused university establishes an entirely new world-class learning institution in Northwest Arkansas. designed by BIG and Polk Stanley Wilcox to cultivate the next generation of innovators rooted in the region, the campus extends downtown Bentonville onto the site of the former Walmart Home Office. The university comprises three distinctive buildings connected by a spine of active public plazas and green spaces: a 130,614-sq-ft makerspace envisioned as a flexible innovation hub that anchors campus life; a 147,525-sq-ft academic building inspired by Ozark vernacular architecture, designed to create dialogue across disciplines; and a student residential building organized as a figure eight, carved around two generous outdoor courtyards. Drawing inspiration from Bentonville’s abundant urban parks, the design brings nature back to the site through outdoor gathering spaces that weave student and city life together within the surrounding Ozark region landscape. The university intends to welcome its first class of students in 2029 and to have tuition fully covered in its initial years of operation. “The new STEM university in downtown Bentonville seeks to bridge the disconnect that often exists between academia and the working world around it. For the new campus, we have sought to break down the boundaries between campus and community through a lively new integrated neighborhood for faculty and citizens alike. The makerspace is conceived as an inhabited showcase, displaying a culture of physical experimentation and rapid prototyping to the passing citizens. It is our hope that this integration of the campus into the community will make higher education as accessible as possible, academically as well as socially. We are honored to work with the Walton family on imagining the future academic environment for a new kind of urban university in the heart of Bentonville.” – Bjarke Ingels, Founder & Creative Director, BIG