UA Community Design Center Selected as HIVE 100 Innovator

UA Community Design Center

This aerial view toward the south shows the "slow street" for the town of Mayflower, an area that includes the public library's rooftop theater and city park. The University of Arkansas Community Design Center designed a recovery plan for the city after it was devastated by a tornado in April 2014.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University of Arkansas Community Design Center was selected as a HIVE 100 Innovator for 2016 by Hanley Wood editors. Specifically, Steve Luoni, director of the center, was named an innovator in the design category.

He was noted for this innovation: designing within the parameters of human influence. This recognition was celebrated during an awards ceremony at the first-ever HIVE conference in late September in Los Angeles.

HIVE stands for Housing, Innovation, Vision and Economics, and the conference brought together a community of innovators in the housing ecosystem. By bringing innovators together, the HIVE conference acted as a setting for inspiration, inventions and progressive plans that can change the future of the design industry and enhance the way builders, architects and land developers design and create.

Attendees of the HIVE 2016 conference ranged from architects to developers to policy makers. In discussing the current housing ecosystem, these innovators explored issues and solutions for improving the housing system in America. Innovators were recognized in five areas that impact housing: design, demographics, finance, products and business management.

"Housing and neighborhood development have been a staple area of design concentration in the center's teaching and research, and practice," said Steve Luoni, director of the Community Design Center. "Between now and 2040, America will need an additional 35 million housing units - one-third of the nation's current inventory.

"Most of this housing will have to solve for changing trends in household structure, urban patterns, aging, and other public health and well-being dynamics. Since we see housing as a cross-section of pressing social issues, it is an ideal venue to study community development."

Luoni is a Distinguished Professor and Steven L. Anderson Chair in Architecture and Urbanism in the Fay Jones School of Architecture at the University of Arkansas. He has served as director of the center since 2003.

The Community Design Center's work in housing has had many key partners, including the UA Office for Sustainability and the Ecological Engineering Group, National Endowment for the Arts, Environmental Protection Agency, Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Commission, Central Arkansas Development Council, Habitat for Humanity chapters of Benton and Washington counties, Little Rock Community Development Corporation and Good Shepherd Ecumenical Retirement Community. Other partners have included the Arkansas cities of Fayetteville, Mayflower, Monticello, Conway, and Vilonia, as well as Freeman, South Dakota, and Kigali, Rwanda.

In addition to a presentation at the HIVE conference, the Community Design Center's work has been featured in the September issue of Builder magazine, on the HIVE website and through HIVE branded social media platforms.

Hanley Wood is publisher of industry magazines in design and construction, including Architect and Builder.

About the University of Arkansas Community Design Center: The University of Arkansas Community Design Center was founded in 1995 as part of the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design. The center advances creative development in Arkansas through education, research, and design solutions that enhance the physical environment. It has provided design and planning services to more than 50 communities and organizations across Arkansas, helping them to secure nearly $65 million in grant funding to enact suggested improvements. In addition to revitalizing historic downtowns, the center addresses new challenges in affordable housing, urban sprawl, environmental planning, and management of regional growth or decline. The center's professional staff members are nationally recognized for their expertise in urban and public-interest design, and their work has received more than 110 design and planning awards. For more information visit uacdc.uark.edu.