• Fayetteville: The ‘regenerative fabric’

    The largest city in Northwest Arkansas, Fayetteville is managing growth by incremental development that is regenerating the city’s urban fabric.
    As Northwest Arkansas continues to absorb regional growth pressures, Fayetteville offers an example of how an established city can evolve by strengthening what already exists. Fayetteville feels different from Bentonville because it is different. For communities grappling with how to grow without...Read more

  • Bentonville: The ‘growing edge’

    A small city with major urban growth, Bentonville, Arkansas, offers a model for expansion that at the edges that preserves nature and historic small-town identity.
    Bentonville is best described as a town that has evolved into a city . Its challenge is not whether growth will occur, but how intentionally it can be structured as scale, complexity, and civic expectations increase. Its growth is driven by a major economic force: Walmart and the ecosystem...Read more

  • A pedestrian’s reckoning with a car-centric culture

    Seeing the world through the eyes of a pedestrian who has to walk everywhere reveals perspectives that drivers never notice.
    Ten years ago, I experienced what felt like the worst punishment imaginable: my car keys were taken away. Not because of a ticket or illegal activity, but due to a medical condition that made driving unsafe. In a culture built around the automobile, losing access to a car was more than just a...Read more

  • Urban Renewal, art that packs a punch

    I was in Virginia Beach, on vacation, visiting the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, when I came across the painting. It is called, simply, Urban Renewal, circa 1960. The New York City artist Lee Loeb was known for cityscape paintings. The museum has a wealth of great art, but the content of that...Read more