This Arkansas Institute Brings a Holistic Vision to Health-Care Design

On a wooded rise just southeast of the sinuous Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas, a new 85,000-square-foot building is set to open in May: the Heartland Whole Health Institute. The vision of philanthropist Alice Walton (Walmart heir and founder of both Heartland and the Alice L. Walton Foundation, which operates the 134-acre Crystal Bridges campus) the structure, designed by Fayetteville-based Marlon Blackwell Architects, is part office, part retreat, part conference center, information resource, and wellness center. All these pieces are dedicated to Heartland’s mission to challenge the conventions of a siloed, reactive healthcare system by encouraging a more proactive, holistic approach to health-care design. “Preventive health, not just sick care,” as Walton puts it.  
 
Blackwell, chosen via RFP, initially laid out a bold structure that incorporated stacked prisms and horizontal lanterns. But Walton, he recalls, told him, “I like your concept, but I don’t like boxes.” She wanted something that flowed like the nearby landscape; almost growing out of the earth.  

In response, the firm created a meandering building that responds intimately to its Northwest Arkansas setting of forests, bluffs, canyons, caves, and streams—not to mention the holistic vision of the Institute itself. Walking around and through the building feels like a walk in the woods: gentle curves winding through the softly layered site while weathered brass fins—like tall, narrow tree trunks—filter the sunlight in a dappled pattern, casting changing shadows and drawing the outside in. Thick, multicolored fieldstone cladding with wide rope joints reflects the Ozarks’ so-called “Giraffe Houses,” whose surfaces resembles, yes, the skin of a giraffe. A central “dogtrot”—another local reference—provides an open passage through the bridged building itself (the site was partially occupied by a ravine), encouraging curiosity while maintaining flow across the campus.  

Health-Care Design that Connects with the Community 

“We always begin with what’s local,” Blackwell says. “But we don’t stop there. We let those details inform a larger architectural ambition. It’s about listening deeply, and then imagining broadly.” That ambition takes shape in the building’s bold curves, a long, tall cantilever—a sweeping gesture that extends outward as a kind of community porch—and a trussed roof system that allows for wide-open spans with minimal columns and uninterrupted flow beneath. 

“Marlon allows his young staff to dream a bit,” says Scott Eccleston, president of campus planning and facility management for Walton’s Art and Wellness Enterprises.  

Inside, the building is tactile and immersive. Fluid spaces flow from one to the next, blurring divisions, and drawing visitors along intuitively. “I think people are going to be hypnotized, says Eccleston. “The space is a journey—it’s like a topography.”  Curved, CNC-milled pecan wood fins—made from local trees and featuring a marbled mix of light and dark tones—lines ceilings throughout. Walls upholstered in gradient green wool felt evoke the forest canopy while providing acoustic control. Carpeting mimics moss-covered stones—soft underfoot, with earthy greens and browns that emulate the forest floor. Mottled Venetian plaster changes hue with the daylight.  

A Program With a Purpose 

The facility’s program was designed, says Eccleston, to “tell the story of what the Institute was going to be.” Lofty lower floors welcome the public, housing a café, gallery spaces, and flexible rooms for education, events, and exhibitions. (Including what will be by far the Crystal Bridges campus’s largest event space.) Upper levels, with open work stations and cocoon-like, pill-shaped conference rooms, are reserved for Heartland’s offices, as well as those of other organizations founded by Walton, including the Art Bridges Foundation and the Alice L. Walton Foundation. A meditation space on the top floor rises like a conical chamber, its 30-foot-high Venetian-plastered walls glowing softly without revealing the sky directly. The office floors are just 50 feet wide, allowing daylight to penetrate from both sides. During the day, artificial lighting is rarely needed. 
 
“We were thinking about wellness at every scale,” says Blackwell. “You should be able to feel it in your skin,” adds Meryati Johari Blackwell, the firm’s founding partner and director of interiors.  Like the forest, there are places to gather, to explore, and to pause or retreat. There is shade to rest in, and light to follow.