FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University of Arkansas Community Design Center, an outreach program of the School of Architecture, makes the case for light rail – primarily in pictures – in a book to be published this spring, Visioning Rail Transit in Northwest Arkansas: Lifestyles and Ecologies. Thanks in part to a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, 2,000 copies of the book will be distributed for free to stakeholders, which Stephen Luoni, director of the Community Design Center, defines as “everybody in northwest Arkansas – from commuters who travel back and forth between cities every day to urban planners, business leaders and government officials.”

The grant, which is administered under the NEA’s Access to Artistic Excellence program, marks the first time that the NEA has given a design award to a nonprofit organization in Arkansas since 1995, said Maurice Cox, director of design at the NEA.

“The graphics showing the step-by-step transformations of places over time that would be effected by light rail were particularly compelling,” Cox said. “We felt wide distribution of this book could rally public interest in the future of rail in Arkansas.” Cox also emphasized that the NEA considers national impact in selecting award winners.

“You guys have one of the best design centers in the country,” he said. “Clearly the design center at the U of A is a model to be emulated by others.”

 The 200-page, full-color book culminates a three-year research effort to study the feasibility of light rail in northwest Arkansas. The project launched in 2006 with three studios involving 40 School of Architecture students and four professors: Luoni, Aaron Gabriel, Gregory Herman and Tahar Messadi. Other partners in the effort were William Conway, a Minneapolis-based architect and planner; Eric Kahn, a principal with the Los Angeles firm Central Office of Architecture; and graduate students at the Washington University School of Architecture who participated in a design studioled by Luoni.

The project has won numerous awards, most recently a 2008 Honor Award for Regional and Urban Design by the American Institute of Architects, and has been exhibited in Boston, San Antonio, Cincinnati and Seattle. Luoni hopes to find an exhibition venue in northwest Arkansas, ideally to coincide with the release of the book next spring; a speaking tour is also planned.

Luoni credits NEAsupport for helping him hand deliver the book to key audiences throughout the region: “The NEA is not just focused onthe art exhibit in a gallery. They have broadenedthe meaning of artistic excellence to include the design and shaping of our communities,” he said.

Luoni’s recent appointment as a 2008 NEA design panelist offers further evidence for the organization’s interest in urban planning and its recognition of the work Luoni is accomplishing at the University of Arkansas. He visited Washington, D.C., last month to review and jury grants in the Access to Artistic Excellence category, which supports a wide range of artistic endeavors. For more information, visit the NEA’s Web site.

Organizations interested in having Stephen Luoni speak on the benefits of light rail and smart growth should contact Linda Komlos at 479-575-5772.