Framework Plan for a Riverine Commons and Institute

This project was named an Citation winner in the 70th Annual Progressive Architecture Awards, and was featured in the March 2023 issue of ARCHITECT.

“It has a strong environmental agenda, but it also includes a lot of public space. You rarely see [that combination] with these restorative projects.” —Juror Lawrence Scarpa, FAIA

Combining recreation, education, and conservation, the Framework Plan for a Riverine Commons and Institute is an ambitious proposal from the University of Arkansas Community Design Center aimed at transforming a long-neglected corner of its hometown of Fayetteville. Only minutes from the heart of the city, the site comprises nearly 100 acres of threatened natural wetland, a key ecological and cultural resource that harks back to the region’s premodern past. Under the UACDC scheme, extensive remediation would undo decades of damage from urban encroachment, while new facilities and installations would create a unique interpretive landscape and reveal hidden layers of heritage. For one, an elegant visitors center—including full-size reconstructions of settler and early African American housing types—would showcase the diverse social history of the Ozark waterways. Elsewhere, winding paths would cut through dense patches of indigenous plants and gardens featuring traditional agriculture, recalling the area as it was before European settlement. A remarkable Bird Blind Tower, meanwhile, would loom on the water’s edge, beckoning visitors onward to a firsthand encounter with Arkansas’ winged wildlife.

PROJECT CREDITS
Project: Framework Plan for a Riverine Commons and Institute, Fayetteville, Ark.
Client/Owner: Watershed Conservation Resource Center
Architects: University of Arkansas Community Design Center. Stephen Luoni, Assoc. AIA; Claude M. Terral III, AIA; Kacper Lastowiecki; Isabelle Troutman
Elizabeth Wehr, AIA; Kayla Ho; Lauren Lamker; Victor Hugo Cardozo Hernandez; Shail Patel; Linda Komlos
UACDC Students: William Bellamy, Courtney Ewin, Maya Fallows, Emily Fordyce, Margaret Imber, Carson Kennerly, Carson Schulke, Devin Tabor, Tyler Hash
Watershed Conservation Resource Center: Sandi Formica, MSCE, Executive Director
Arkansas Archeological Survey: Dr. Jami J. Lockhart
Sponsors: National Endowment for the Arts, The American Institute of Architects
Size: 26,000 square feet (total of all structures)
Cost: $12.5 million