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We work for developers, architects, municipalities, and non-profits to produce urban design concepts that unite diverse constituencies around compelling visions for future development. Our collaborative process threads conceptual plans through permitting and construction, maintaining the vision throughout. 

WALMART HEADQUARTERS

MBL was proud to be the only local design firm engaged in what is likely to be a major legacy project for Northwest Arkansas: the new Walmart corporate campus in Bentonville AR. In partnership with Sasaki and Gensler, MBL was instrumental in creating a 50-year vision for the home office. MBL developed key concepts such as incorporating the Razorback Greenway through the heart of campus, and locating the campus on both sides of an urbanized 8th street. Roger Boskus and Matt Hoffman were instrumental in seeing these critical concepts become a permanent part of the overall vision. MBL’s focus on high quality public spaces in and around 8th Street led in part to our selection as the architect for the campus’s amenity buildings – which are heavily focused on this public way. In the coming years MBL’s partnership with Walmart will add a central campus auditorium, food hall, welcome center, and other planned projects to the 8th Street corridor’s already significant investments. Collectively, MBL’s focus on community connected design will help make 8th Street a signature corridor for all of Northwest Arkansas. MBL’s expertise in zoning and development codes also led to a significant role in the development of a Planned Unit Development (PUD) submission for the entire campus. This critical document will provide entitlement for all current and future phases of the project, giving city leaders a sense of what to expect while providing Walmart with the flexibility it needs to adapt the campus to changing work climates. Construction is ongoing.

PATRIOT PARK

MBL used context-sensitive design to help navigate a complex web of City, County, and State agencies and bring affordable housing to veterans in the City of Fayetteville AR.
 
Patriot Park had been in concept for many months with different architects, struggling to gain support from key stakeholders among several overlapping layers of government. MBL was brought in to re-imagine the project and bring everyone together around a shared vision.
 
Beginning with urban site design, MBL moved the project away from previous plans that called for a large garden style apartment building on the heavily sloping site. MBL instead proposed a series of nine separate walkup buildings, each situated at a different elevation along the sloping terrain. The smaller buildings also allowed the project to fit in with the surrounding single-family neighborhood and architecturally respond to different frontage conditions that include both a significant commercial arterial as well as sleepy neighborhood streets.
 
Using the same prototypical approach MBL pioneered in it’s award-winning Pattern Zones projects, the firm designed a variegated series of high-efficiency walkup apartment buildings according to the Arkansas Usability Standards in Housing, which protect residents of affordable housing developments by going far beyond typical Fair Housing and building code standards.
 
The project is currently under construction and slated for completion in 2024.