FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The UA Community Design Center has again won international recognition, this time for taking on a ubiquitous element of suburban sprawl — the arterial highway strip. Their project, "Developing a Highway Ecology," was the only United States entry selected in the prestigious "Celebration of Cities" competition cosponsored by the International Union of Architects (UIA) and the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

An international jury praised the UACDC team for developing "a Lego-kit for highway design that can be used anywhere." The project won honorable mention in a field of 193 projects from 29 countries, in part because it responded so adroitly to the contest’s call for new ways to "repair and heal the nerve points of the city" with projects that, like acupuncture needles, were "simple and have an immediate effect, while remaining economical."

"We are pleased to receive this recognition, which reinforces our mission to develop projects for Arkansas communities that serve as models for other cities across the nation and around the world," said UACDC Director Stephen Luoni.

The award adds luster to UACDC’s reputation for developing prize-winning ideas. Last fall, in the first few months after Luoni began his job as director of the center, UACDC staff members and students working under their direction won awards from the Boston Society of Architects and the Architecture League of New York. The honors take second place to innovation, however.

Under Luoni’s leadership, UACDC is crafting a new role as a design lab where staff and students develop and incubate daring ideas that might otherwise never leave the drawing board. The highway ecology project originated as a plan to assist the central Arkansas community of Morrilton, where growth on the arterial highway strip has drained energy from the downtown area.

Focusing on planned and existing roads between Morrilton’s highway strip and downtown, the UACDC team drafted a series of design proposals that can be applied to a variety of situations. Existing elements of the highway landscape were rethought and combined in new ways to achieve a series of design events at low cost, including

• a town gateway composed from familiar elements such as signs, lighting and wildflower meadows. Since many of these resources are standard budgeted allocations in highway development, a welcoming landscape may be achieved at low cost.
• a tree-shaded "parking garden" that links shopping centers with surrounding housing subdivisions. Shopping cart collectors, trashcans, newspaper stands and post office boxes are embedded in green hedges, while storm water retention gardens placed throughout parking areas treat parking lot run-off. Phones, ATMs and pedestrian promenades further enhance the functionality of the space.
• a "thickened highway" augmented by sidewalks, hike and bike trails, parks, and other civic amenities that signal that the road is a shared, transitional space, prompting cars to slow down. A central median planted with storm water grasses and plants provides refuge for pedestrians crossing the highway.

These proposals have the potential to create a radically different highway strip, akin to the traditional boulevard, that offers social and civic benefits, responds to the ecology of the area and encourages transportation choices beyond the automobile.

The "Celebration of Cities" honor follows an Unbuilt Design Award from the Boston Society of Architects, announced last September, for a project developed by architecture students under Luoni’s direction. The students explored the idea of stacking "big box" retail buildings such as Best Buy and Wal-Mart into a "vertical power center," and won praise from jurors for their "gutsy and imaginative study of a building typology that architects shy away from."

In November, UACDC project designer Aaron Gabriel and colleague Kathy Chang won first prize in the First Step Housing Design Competition for a design that creates a glowing, orderly space for those transitioning out of homelessness. This summer their design will be one of five built and tested as prototypes in a century-old lodging house in New York City's Bowery District.

UA School of Architecture Dean Jeff Shannon said, "I am pleased that our students and staff continue to generate ideas and projects that receive international recognition. Under Steve Luoni’s leadership, I’m confident that the UACDC will develop new models for innovative urban design, while continuing to aid Arkansas communities."

"Developing a Highway Ecology" will be exhibited July 4 — 8, 2005 at the UIA World Congress in Istanbul, Turkey.