UA Design Center Reimagines Walton Arts Center Parking Lot

University of Arkansas Community Design Center An artist’s rendering shows one of four scenarios the University of Arkansas Community Design Center created for the main parking lot west of the Walton Arts Center features 68 units in village-like housing clusters. Recreational facilities, such as a basketball court, could be built on the roof of a 171-space parking garage.
University of Arkansas Community Design Center An artist’s rendering shows one of four scenarios the University of Arkansas Community Design Center created for the main parking lot west of the Walton Arts Center features 68 units in village-like housing clusters. Recreational facilities, such as a basketball court, could be built on the roof of a 171-space parking garage.

FAYETTEVILLE -- The University of Arkansas Community Design Center has some big ideas for the big parking lot west of the Walton Arts Center.

Fifth-year architecture students and professional staff members at the center spent the past seven months envisioning what the 285-space parking lot might look like if it featured a mix of downtown residences and commercial space.

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Go to the online version of this story at nwaonline.com to view a full copy of the University of Arkansas Community Design Center’s “Anchoring an Arts District” report.

Source: Staff Report

"This is Northwest Arkansas' premier site," said Jeff Huber, assistant director for the center, an outreach of the university's Fay Jones School of Architecture. "If you think of any one place in Northwest Arkansas that's prime for development, this is it."

The center's work was paid for using a $30,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. A subsequent grant will pay for reimagining a four-block stretch of School Avenue between the Walton Arts Center and the Fayetteville Public Library.

With millions of dollars pouring into arts center renovations, a new parking deck and possible expansion of the Fayetteville Public Library, Huber said the time was right to show city officials what the 2.8-acre parking lot could look like if it, too, became a cultural hub.

"The main idea is to showcase what is feasible on this site," Huber said.

The design center presented the council with four scenarios for the parking lot earlier this month, ranging from the least disruptive "laminated" approach to the most radical "mountain" approach that would stack 84 housing units on top of 291 parking spaces and ground floor retail.

A "pixelated" approach would turn West Avenue into a tree-lined boulevard. Sixty-eight housing units would be built in village-like clusters. Recreational facilities, such as a basketball court, could be built on the roof of a 171-space parking garage.

An "anchor" approach is the only scheme that would retain space for festivals like Bikes, Blues & BBQ, Springfest and Artosphere in a courtyard across from the arts center. It would require rerouting the pedestrian trail that runs through the south end of the parking lot. And vehicular traffic would be blocked on West Avenue during festivals in favor of food vendors and artist exhibition space.

Alderman Matthew Petty said a to-scale model of all four scenarios will be on display sometime this spring -- likely in the East Square Plaza building on the east side of the downtown square.

Petty, who works part time at the design center, wrote the grant application for the city. Co-applicants were the Walton Arts Center and the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce.

Petty and Huber did not say how much it would cost to develop the arts center parking lot or how development would be paid for.

"This is the very, very, very first stage of the conversation," Petty said. "We know this will be a multi-year process with the Walton Arts Center, the city and others."

He said, aside from creating a more vibrant entertainment district, new housing and retail at West Avenue and Dickson Street would yield more property tax per acre than a single-use development.

"We don't want to see it just turned into some maximum-profit student warehouse, because it's worth more to the city than that," Petty said.

Steve Clark, president and CEO of the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce, encouraged city leaders to embrace the vision the Community Design Center put forth.

"We know this is not going to happen in the next 12 months or the next 60 months," Clark said. "But we need to have vision beyond the next 60 months. And we can only do this if we get started."

Huber said the design center's work is more than an academic exercise.

"These were meant to be plausible, workable solutions," he said. "All of our projects are real projects. They have potential to be built. Our clients are all real clients."

Several redevelopment projects designed by the center have started along Main Street in Little Rock in a four-block area dubbed the Creative Corridor. Designs, which were also paid for with a National Endowment for the Arts grant, include a pedestrian promenade, rain gardens, street furniture and energy efficient lighting.

NW News on 04/19/2014

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