FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — University of Arkansas researchers have helped create a multinational, interdisciplinary study center that will breathe life into Cervara di Roma, a tiny Italian hill town facing major problems.

UA landscape architecture faculty flew to Cervara to brainstorm on economic development of Cervara’s scenic and cultural riches (left to right: professors John Crone, Laurie Fields, Mark Boyer, Fran Beatty and Judy Brittenum).

UA landscape architecture professors and urban planners have presented proposals for ecotourism, heritage trails and sustainable development for Cervara at a series of conferences and workshops. Their ideas are included in a new three-volume publication, Verso Un Centro Studi/Toward a Study Center. The study center is slated to open next summer.

“If the goal of the University of Arkansas is to be a research institution serving Arkansas and the world, then I think we are really doing that here,” said Davide Vitali, director of the UA’s Rome Center for Architecture and the Humanities and leader of the Cervara project. “We are addressing real problems, and the School of Architecture has offered models and solutions that will work here.”

Founded by Benedictine monks more than 1,200 years ago and long a mecca for poets and artists, Cervara offers a rich stock of sun-washed architecture and stunning views of the Simbruini Mountains. However, economic changes and some formidable logistical challenges undermine the town’s potential for survival. Cervara has suffered a long decline since World War II as its young people have left farming for jobs in nearby Rome. The city’s population has dipped below 500 in recent years. The aging populace (about 75 percent are over age 60, Vitali speculates) confronts thorny barriers to economic development, including a 115-foot climb from automobile parking to the historic medieval village.

Vitali credits the School of Architecture’s landscape architecture faculty for bringing a fresh perspective to Cervara’s problems, especially regarding management of the nearby Monti Simbruini Regional Park.

Cervara sketch by UA student Remick Moore.

“Of course, they are conscious of preservation, but these professors also think of the town, the park and the landscape as an economic resource,” Vitali said. This is not the local way of thinking, according to Vitali, who says that preservation is typically the sole emphasis for Italian parks and natural preserves. When it comes to the bottom line, park administrators “don’t think in black, they think in red,” he said. “So the young people get a long list of what not to do in the park, and they leave because there are no jobs.”

Among the models offered by UA faculty was Garvan Woodland Gardens, the School’s botanical garden in Hot Springs. Under the direction of Dean Jeff Shannon, landscape architecture faculty and Gardens staff, Garvan Gardens has evolved into a tourist and educational resource that has already doubled its attendance figures since opening in 2002.

“Now the Gardens is one of the players in the tourism industry in Hot Springs ­— and that translates into tourist dollars that support the city’s hotels and restaurants,” said Fran Beatty, head of the UA landscape architecture department. The high quality of the Gardens’ design and programming has garnered substantial support: “We’ve added more than $10 million in capital improvement projects in the past five years, with almost two-thirds of this figure funded by private individuals,” Beatty added.

Vitali and Italian officials, including Cervara’s mayor, are confident that the university’s stewardship of Garvan Woodland Gardens provides a model that could work in Italy. With Cervara located just 40 miles east of Rome, continued faculty input on sustainable, historically sensitive development is also critical.

Architecture student Tyler Pyle sketches in Cervara.

Vitali also was impressed with the University of Arkansas’ tradition of service learning. Beatty and Aaron Gabriel, assistant director of the UA Community Design Center, recently traveled to Rome and Cervara to participate in a conference marking publication of Verso Un Centro Studi/Toward a Study Center. While Beatty discussed the Garvan Gardens success story and other U.S. precedents, Gabriel presented the design center’s award-winning planning work for the Benton County chapter of Habitat for Humanity.

“Gabriel brought in models of student work on public housing — he showed that the university can bring physical help to the community,” Vitali said. “In Europe this model is not well known; universities primarily work on abstract problems.”

Cervara’s dream of a study center will become a reality next summer. Renovations are currently under way in the town’s historic school, which will house the center, and Vitali is working with local authorities to secure funds and staff. Already students and professors from the University of Arkansas and other universities journey to Cervara to study the region’s rich history, culture, architecture and urban form. Eventually, Vitali hopes that the study center will promote academic research and provide real solutions for the people of Cervara.

Located in a palazzo near the Piazza Navona in the heart of Rome, the University of Arkansas Rome Study Center for Architecture and the Humanities immerses architecture and liberal arts students in an urban environment that records more than 2,500 years of history in its strata. The university’s program is enhanced by an exchange relationship with the Universita Degli Studi Roma Tre that is considered a milestone effort in collaboration between American and Italian universities. To learn more about the UA Rome Study Center and the Cervara project, visit http://www.arkrome.it/pagine_web/cervara_main.htm.