Marlon Blackwell Architects has completed a striking new headquarters building for the Heartland Whole Health Institute in Bentonville, Arkansas, featuring an innovative curved design and facades covered in distinctive stonework that resembles a giraffe's hide pattern. The three-story, 85,000-square-foot structure serves as the new home for the nonprofit organization founded in 2019 by philanthropist Alice Walton, daughter of Walmart's founder.
Located within the expansive 134-acre Crystal Bridges Campus, the building was designed to integrate seamlessly with the surrounding landscape while drawing inspiration from the region's natural context. The Arkansas-based architectural firm created an irregular, slender curvilinear form with branching elements, including a notable street-facing volume at ground level that incorporates traditional dogtrot passageways near the entrance.
The building's most distinctive feature is its dual facade treatment that reflects local architectural traditions. The lower portion is clad in "giraffe stone," a vernacular regional cladding style consisting of flat-faced field stones of varying sizes mortared together to create patterns resembling a giraffe's hide. For this project, the architects developed the traditional technique into a highly durable and insulated masonry cavity wall system using stones sourced from quarries in Arkansas and nearby Oklahoma.
The upper portion of the building features vertical fins made of pre-weathered brass, which provide essential shading while echoing the textures of the wooded site. This same brass material was also incorporated into wall panels, soffits, and trim throughout the structure, creating visual continuity between the building's interior and exterior elements.
Inside, the headquarters offers airy spaces filled with natural, earthy materials that support the organization's wellness mission. Travertine flooring, wool carpeting, and plywood with pecan and walnut veneers create warm, inviting environments. Wood ceilings throughout the building help tie the various spaces together and provide a cohesive aesthetic feel that connects occupants to the natural surroundings.
The Heartland Whole Health Institute, founded by Alice Walton, aims to transform the healthcare system by advocating for a "whole-health approach" that focuses on preventing disease, improving health outcomes, and sustaining wellness. The organization works directly with the healthcare industry to promote these comprehensive wellness principles, and the building's design reflects this mission through its connection to nature and emphasis on creating nurturing environments.
Beyond its distinctive materiality, the building maintains strong connections to the natural environment through extensive glazing and numerous terraces and outdoor spaces. Ground-level dogtrots, traditional open-ended passageways found in regional vernacular homes, act as thresholds between the interior spaces and the flexible west lawn and forest beyond. The architectural team emphasized that "the openness of the building and direct access to the natural surroundings provide a nurturing environment to actively explore whole health principles."
The building accommodates a diverse mix of work and social spaces across its three levels. The ground floor houses a cafe, event space, and areas specifically designed for exhibiting artwork, creating community gathering spaces that support the organization's broader mission. The upper levels contain offices for the Heartland Whole Health Institute, as well as the Alice L. Walton Foundation and the Art Bridges Foundation, an organization dedicated to improving access to art across the country.
Sustainability played a crucial role in the building's design, with architects incorporating numerous environmentally conscious elements including the use of local materials, sophisticated shading devices, and a high-performance building envelope. The curvilinear forms and use of native stone were specifically inspired by the Ozark forest and karst topography of the region, responding to what the architectural team described as "the sense of place of the Crystal Bridges Campus."
This headquarters building represents the third major addition to the growing Crystal Bridges Campus. The Alice L. Walton School of Medicine, designed by Arkansas firm Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects, opened on the campus in July. The campus is also home to the renowned Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, designed by Boston-based Safdie Architects, which is currently undergoing an expansion scheduled for completion in 2026. The project was photographed by Timothy Hursley, capturing the building's integration with its natural surroundings and the sophisticated interplay between traditional regional materials and contemporary architectural design.
