NORTHWEST ARKANSAS — A momentous decision concerning the future of Fayetteville and Northwest Arkansas is going to be made in the coming months: that is, the site for the 106,000-square-foot Walton Arts Center expansion. Fortunately, this choice is an open process and all the options are still in flux. In fact, the design is so open that the project does not yet have a name and goes by the prosaic title of “expansion site.” For purposes of this discussion, I will call it the Performing Arts Center and herewith offer some insights for consideration.
First, where should it be located?
The two potential host cities, as determined by a report from the Arts Consulting Group - outside consultants engaged by the Walton Arts Center in 2008 - are Fayetteville and Bentonville. This decision should not be a matter of extended debate because the logical choice is Fayetteville.
The Walton Family Foundation letter of June 22, when read carefully, does not deny support for a Fayetteville location. It simply states that the foundation would not be the “lead donor” unless the center is in Bentonville.
The “lead donor” in the consulting group’s report was supposed to contribute $100 million, but the Walton Foundation’s letter says the current project is “too large in terms of scope and cost,” so even if it went to Bentonville to meet Walton conditions, the Performing Arts Center would not be the right scale.
While the opening of Crystal Bridges art museum in Bentonville is going to broaden the cultural terrain of Northwest Arkansas significantly, it cannot displace Fayetteville as the arts and entertainment hub of the area.
The presence of the University of Arkansas imprints in everyone’s consciousness that Fayetteville is the cultural center of the area, reinforced by the presence of the Walton Arts Center and rising to a critical mass with the presence of the athletic venues provided by the university and the restaurant andentertainment spots centered in Fayetteville.
Now the debate gets more complicated, if we are to be guided by the recommendations of the consultants. They, who do not live here, propose locating the Performing Arts Center in the current parking area adjacent to the Walton Arts Center. It would require a minimum of three acres and ideally six to 10 acres and include a huge parking garage of 1,100 to 1,450 spaces that are not shown on the consulting group’s proposal. This three to 10 acres could not front on Dickson Street or the area to the north of it. To get the space needed would require incorporating at least part of the residential area to the south and probably stretch from Spring Street south to Center Street and from West Avenue east to Locust Avenue - a four-block area.
Recently restored houses would have to be acquired and torn down by the city of Fayetteville through eminent domain at considerable compensation for the owners. This instantly creates a constituency that will fight the new center every step of the way and, when the city seeks to fund its contribution to the center through a millage increase or a bond issue, it probably will fail at the ballot box because voters will find it unacceptable to pay premium prices for the right to take and destroy their fellow citizens’ irreplaceable homes.
Clearly, the consultant’s proposal for locating the Performing Arts Center adjacent to the Walton Arts Center is a formula for either smothering the project in the cradle or ensnaring it in costly lawsuits dragging over several years.
The way out of this dilemma that solves all of these problems and complements projects already on the horizon is to include the University of Arkansas in the Performing Arts Center project and to locate it on university property. The perfect, and alsotopographically natural, site for the center is the sloping land north of Maple Street, east of Razorback Road and west of the Tyson Poultry Science Building. The configuration of the land actually conforms with the auditorium seating slope and would be the site any ancient Greek or Roman theater builder would choose.
As for the 1,100 to 1,450 parking spaces, they can be provided on University property through a multi-use parking garage that can be situated on the west side of Razorback Road, south of the Alumni Association Center. A three- or four-level parking garage here, extending south to Markham Road, would answer many pressing needs. It would provide daytime pay parking for the university student body and weekend pay parking for Performing Arts Center events, and premium parking at premium prices for football games.
The proximity of cultural and athletic venues and sharing of parking facilities is a precedented and successful formula. Three I know of personally are Arkansas State University, the University of Texas and Iowa State University.
The stadium location for the Performing Arts Center fulfills all of the critical priorities stated in the site selection criteria of the Walton Arts Center. It reduces the cost of the project to the building alone by removing the cost of land acquisition and the construction of a parking garage that will do more than cover its costs. It truly offers easy access off of I-540 from three directions (Garland, Wedington and Razorback).
Moreover, the Fayetteville City Council may be so relieved to not be subjected to contentious planning, zoning, political and legal battles from expanding the Walton Arts Center and its parking that it might find the political will to increase its annual contribution to the Walton Arts Center to an appropriate level.
JULIAN ARCHER WAS A PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AT DRAKE UNIVERSITY WHO IS THE PROPRIETOR OF PRATT PLACE INN IN FAYETTEVILLE.
Opinion, Pages 5 on 07/26/2010