BIG and Polk Stanley Wilcox have broken ground on the Bentonville Institute of Technology, a new STEM-focused university in Bentonville, Arkansas. The project’s first phase will include 444,000 square feet of academic, residential, and innovation space.
The first phase is planned as three buildings linked by public plazas and landscaped areas. A 133,000-square-foot makerspace will anchor the university square and is intended to support experimentation and project-based learning.
The scheme is described as part of a mixed-use development on the former Walmart Home Office site. Its massing uses stacked and offset volumes, with terraces stepping down toward the adjacent public plaza.
The makerspace is clad in weathering steel, according to the project description. The campus design also includes academic and residential components alongside innovation space.
Archinect reported the groundbreak and credited Bjarke Ingels Group in its coverage of the project.
Why it matters for AEC: The campus combines higher-education, residential, and innovation uses in a single phase, which can create coordination demands across building types and site elements. The makerspace and plaza sequence also point to a program that will rely on flexible interiors and carefully integrated public realm work.
