Housing Northwest Arkansas Regional Symposium Planned for Feb. 3-4

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Housing Northwest Arkansas Regional Symposium, planned for Feb. 3-4 in Bentonville and Fayetteville, will address issues of attainable housing at the regional level through an exploration of national housing issues and solutions.

This symposium is organized and hosted by the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the University of Arkansas. It is funded by a grant from the Walton Family Foundation. The symposium is free and open to the public, however seating is limited. For more information and advance registration, email info@housingnwa.org or visit the Housing Northwest Arkansas website. Symposium proceedings will be published both online and in print.

The regional symposium is part of a larger Housing Northwest Arkansas initiative, which was launched by the Fay Jones School this semester. It is a program focused on the lack of attainable and affordable housing in the region for residents and newcomers at all levels of income. The initiative also includes an advanced design studio and a design competition, all in the spring 2018 semester and also supported by the Walton Family Foundation grant.

All three elements will explore the synergy of inclusive and attainable housing with sustainable urban development. The project will examine housing as a community-informed design that provides the best scenario for individual residents and the broader community.

The two-day symposium will feature presentations by national experts and a series of public presentations and moderated discussions by regional and national experts on housing policy, finances, design, development and construction. The symposium will provide participants with a wide overview of issues, challenges and design exemplars in attainable, affordable and mixed-use housing.

Northwest Arkansas is one of the most rapidly developing regions in the nation, with growing housing demands. The overview presented by this symposium will introduce innovative strategies for including attainable and affordable housing projects in local city planning goals.

Shaun Donovan, former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, will present the keynote lecture at 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 3, at Record, an event space in downtown Bentonville. Donovan, also the former director of the Office of Management and Budget, served under the administration of President Barack Obama. Donovan currently is a Harvard University senior strategist. A reception will follow his talk.

On Sunday, Feb. 4, case study presentations and panel discussions will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Vol Walker Hall on the U of A campus in Fayetteville.

Presenters will include:

• R. John Anderson, with Anderson|Kim Architecture and Design and the Incremental Development Alliance
• Kurt Creager, with Urbanist Solutions
• Ali Solis, with Make Room
• Lisa Sturtevant, with Lisa Sturtevant & Associates and The Urban Land Institute
• Esther Yang, with the Detroit Planning and Development Department
• and Garner Stoll, development services director for the city of Fayetteville.

Stephen Luoni, director of the University of Arkansas Community Design Center, and Matthew Petty, a Fayetteville alderman who leads workshops for the Incremental Development Alliance, will provide an overview of regional conditions.

About the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design: The Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the University of Arkansas houses professional design programs of architecture, landscape architecture and interior design together with liberal studies programs. All of these programs combine studio design education with innovative teaching in history, theory, technology and urban design. A broad range of course offerings equips graduates with the knowledge and critical agility required to meet the challenges of designing for a changing world. Their training prepares students with critical frameworks for design thinking that also equip them to assume leadership roles in the profession and in their communities. The school’s architecture program was ranked 26th in the nation, and the 12th best program among public, land-grant universities, in the 16th Annual Survey of America’s Best Architecture and Design Schools, a study conducted in 2015 by the Design Futures Council and published in DesignIntelligence. For more information, visit fayjones.uark.edu.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs.