RETHINKING THE BIG BOX

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — University of Arkansas architecture students are exploring ways to bring the "big box" to the big city, and winning recognition for their efforts. Under the direction of Stephen Luoni, recently appointed the new director of the University of Arkansas Community Design Center, the students spent last spring studying the idea of stacking big box retail buildings such as Wal-Mart, Sports Authority, and Best Buy into a "vertical power center" with architectural presence and unexpected amenities. Their designs recently won a prestigious Unbuilt Design Award from the Boston Society of Architects.

"This is a gutsy and imaginative study of a building typology that architects shy away from and are certainly never encouraged to explore with this combination of focus and abandon," noted the jury.

The students' proposals were distilled into a single 30" x 30" poster that was one of six chosen out of a field of 131 international entries. Their project is one of very few submitted by a university studio that has been so recognized.

"With land costs rising in congested metropolitan areas, the idea of stacking large retailers has been around for a while," Luoni said, adding that the concept is complicated by the detailed store templates that individual retailers adopt to streamline their operations and introduce economies of scale. The conveyance systems, lift equipment, and shelves in a Home Depot store are precisely calibrated to work smoothly together, for example. Luoni worked with consultants to map the development protocols of major retailers, and then charged his students with developing a high rise building with five stores that conform to these varied, and often conflicting, design templates. Each store would be completely autonomous, with separate parking, entrances, heating and air conditioning systems, and loading and waste systems. Developing a new building type challenged the students.

"We struggled with it," said Trinity Simons. "There were so many issues to research, digest, and sort through. We had to figure out how you can support a Wal-Mart seven stories up, and how to move people and cars into and out of an enormous building." The project also opened up opportunities to take familiar elements from big box retail and make them more functional. Tran Le's design, for example, replaced the gutters and curbs that typically channel parking lot runoff with a storm water retention garden that uses cattails, loblolly bays, and bulrushes to break down hydrocarbon contaminants and render them inert. Shizu Takami also introduced green space in an unlikely place. Her "Sky Room" design called for a roof lawn punctuated by large openings that admit fresh air and light into the retail space and allow for mature trees to grow indoors. Trinity Simons' design quite literally capitalized on the large structure by cladding it with giant colored polycarbonate walls advertising the stores within. Möbius bands, bridge trusses, and woven baskets were among the design inspirations for projects that would become architectural landmarks if built.

"I was attracted to the sheer scale of the project, and the opportunity to work in the mainstream," said Sam McGuire. "I t was fulfilling to address a concrete, real-world problem and create good architecture that will be experienced by many people."

Luoni is proud of the students' response to a difficult and unprecedented project.

"The student projects in total were very impressive, with each one offering something very insightful in terms of organizational strategy," he said. "Their work shows that studios and universities can be influential in the profession." The design poster outlining the students' proposals for a vertical power center is on display on the first floor of Vol Walker Hall. Current architecture students who participated in the project include Candi Lynn Adams, Ryan Biles, Carrie Blevins, Dusty Graham, Sam McGuire, Trinity Simons, Christopher Sullivan, and Shizu Takami. Jennifer Caperton, Tran Le, Maury Mitchell, and Justin Staley graduated from the School of Architecture last spring.