#JonesCenterCampusVision

We are very excited to announce The Walton Family Foundation has awarded The Jones Trust a Design Excellence Grant to re-imagine the 52-acre campus of The Jones Center in Springdale.

The Design Excellence Grant will help us create a regionally connected campus aligned with the Springdale Downtown Revitalization Plan. Ultimately, the redesign of the outdoor spaces will transform our grounds into a regional destination and create stronger physical connections to downtown Springdale and the Razorback Regional Greenway trail system.

Denver-based Civitas, Inc., a landscape architecture firm, has been hired to create initial plans to redesign the campus. Early ideas include park-like green spaces, inviting bike paths, creative play structures and enhanced recreational amenities to serve our diverse population in an accessible and welcoming environment.

As community members, we want your input for making this a campus that individuals, families and groups will enjoy. The Jones Center and the Civitas team will host several upcoming events to get your ideas, wishes, and hopes for the campus. In early 2021, events in January, February, and March will include collecting additional input and sharing preliminary plans as they are being developed.

Take the Survey

¡Realiza la encuesta!

Bõke survey in!

Project Overview

The Jones Center Campus Master Plan is a six-month community-driven effort that aims to define the future of the 52-acre campus. At its core, the project aims to bring The Jones Center’s spirit outdoors to create a vibrant space where the entire community can come together. To be completed through a series of unique and engaging community-based activities and events, the Master Plan will re-imagine the purpose and program of the campus so that it can remain relevant in the ever-changing Northwest Arkansas region. The project will create an attractive destination that ties into the spine of the Razorback Greenway trail system as well as planned trail connections to Fitzgerald Mountain and Lake Fayetteville; attract a new generation to the Jones Campus; continue to serve a diverse demographic of the Northwest Arkansas population; elevate The Jones Center’s core indoor recreation amenities with sustainability in mind; and complement and blend with the Springdale Downtown Revitalization Master Plan

Review Design Options

Team Profiles

Our team will rely on discovery and dialog to develop the purpose and design framework that will lead to stunning and successful vision for The Jones Center Campus. But stunning design is only successful if it arises from the intersection of different minds with different knowledge sets and points of view. We have brought together a team of national industry-leading experts and local partners who are well known and grounded in Northwest Arkansas. We are a diverse collection of individuals who will work collectively to create a collaborative and trusted relationship with both the community that The Jones Center serves, and the leadership, staff, affiliates and partners of The Jones Center who provide these services.

Civitas

Scott Jordan
Mark Johnson
Jessica Doig
Juliana De’Affonseca

CACHE

Allyson Esposito
Jesse Elliot
Simone Cottrell
Sam Lopez
Amber Perrodin

Velocity Group

Daniel Hintz
NaTosha Devon
Aron Shelton
Jacqueline Perez
Max Perez
Melisa Laelan
Jeannette Balleza Collins
Epiphany Morrow

ETM Associates

Tim Marshall

Dan Gottlieb

Aspirational Projects

Throughout The Jones Center Campus Master Plan process, the design team will work with the community to craft the future vision of the 52-acre campus. Recognizing that many community members may not have been involved in a visioning process of this nature, we have compiled a series of aspirational projects that while not the same as The Jones Center, are intended to depict what is possible and empower the community to dream big.

92Y

92nd Street Y, New York City

The 92nd Street Y is a cultural, and recreation focused community center. For over 140 years 92Y has harnessed the power of arts and ideas to enrich, enlighten and change lives, and the power of the community to repair the world. As a community center that embraces diversity 92Y’s facilities include a world class performing arts center, a dance/performance studio, safe classrooms and facilities for youth and family learning, and a recreation center. Over its 140-year evolution the 92nd Street Y has become a part of the everyday experience for many, a place to gather, recreate, educate, and build a stronger and healthier community.

Website

Ann and Jim Goodnight Park

North Carolina Museum of Art

Designed as an evolving work in progress, the Ann and Jim Goodnight Museum Park is an open invitation to community. The multi-layered design reinvents the traditional interior gallery experience outdoors, connecting new and more diverse audiences in a joyful free-ranging exploration of art and nature. The design of the park seeks to advance the Museum’s mission and reputation, serving as a unique community and cultural destination at both the regional and national levels. Since its completion in the fall of 2016 Museum Park has seen its attendance increase from 200,000 to over 1,000,000 users in 2020.

Project Overview

Julian B Lane Park

Tampa Bay, Florida

The story of this park is one of social equity and justice. The park was programmed and designed with heavy reliance on the aspirations and opinions of the local community, which had long-standing, lingering issues since the era of urban renewal. Re-opened in 2018, Julian B Lane Park is the centerpiece of the new West Tampa Plan, with park usage soaring since re-opening. Now local families and students have a place of their own, a celebration of their history, and the ability to participate equally with every other neighborhood of the city in Tampa’s rich resources.

Project Overview

Twin Silo Park

Fort Collins, Colorado

Twin Silo Park is a 50-acre site that centers on McClelland Creek adjacent to Fossil Ridge High School. Although the area was historically agriculture, orchards and sheep grazing, the creek corridor with its mature cottonwoods and willows defines the park. Through an engaging series of work sessions with the community, Civitas developed a widely supported program that provides a diversity of active and passive activities for people of all ages. The park integrates multi-purpose fields, diamond sports fields, a BMX course, and dog park with diverse playgrounds for children, community gardens, harvest tables and quiet wildlife habitat along the creek, wetlands, and prairie savanna uplands.

Project Overview

Boston Artists for Humanity Epicenter

Boston, Massachusetts

The Boston Artists for Humanity Epicenter combines a highly desirable event space with impacting the lives of teens, through mentorship, training and employment opportunities. The Epicenter provides a highly sustainable event center, while utilizing rental fees to empower teens to work collaboratively with professionals and the arts community to provide fine art and design services to the community at large. It has created a new-model of community building and tangible training for Boston’s next generation of artists.

Website

Comer Education Center

Chicago, Illinois

Located in Chicago’s southside, the Comer Education Campus and the 80,000 square foot Gary Comer Youth Center mission is to help young people expand their horizons, and discover their passions while fostering growth and achievement. By mixing recreation, education, and real-world opportunities including an operating and producing community farm, the Comer Center disrupts the traditional models of recreation and education to create lasting and impactful opportunities for the youth of the southside of Chicago.

Website

92Y

92nd Street Y, New York City

Ann and Jim Goodnight Park

North Carolina Museum of Art

Julian B Lane Park

Tampa Bay, Florida

Twin Silo Park

Fort Collins, Colorado

Boston Artists for Humanity Epicenter

Boston, Massachusetts

Comer Education Center

Chicago, Illinois

Community Engagement

Community Voices

Community members share their experiences with The Jones Center!

Take the Survey | ¡Realiza la encuesta! | Bõke survey in!

Mayor Sprouse

Raine Perrodin

Jacqueline Perez

Melisa Laelan

Coach Shannon Lang

Ed Clifford

Max Perez

Robin Aprea

Scott Jordan

Sam Lopez

Hunter Rogers

Judd Semingson

Emerging Themes

Through one-on-one meetings, surveys, and social media engagement, the team is beginning to identify emerging themes provided by the community. Click the slides to view some of the early findings. Review the design options and then lend your voice and take the survey.

Review Design Options

Take the Survey | ¡Realiza la encuesta! | Bõke survey in!

Emerging Themes

Review Design Options

Take the Survey | ¡Realiza la encuesta! | Bõke survey in!

Dinner Drive Through: Breaking Bread/Sharing Ideas

Sharing a well-cooked meal by local chefs, our Dinner Drive Through events have provided a safe and healthy way to celebrate our community while inviting people to share their ideas for the future of The Jones Center.

Dinner Drive Through: Breaking Bread/Sharing Ideas

Dinner Drive Through Pt.II: Marshallese x High South Cuisine

A combination of cultures, chefs, and community members came together to enjoy 300 delicious Marshallese/High South meals and participate in sharing their voices for The Jones Center Campus Vision. Join them in taking the survey to give your perspective on what the Jones Campus can become.

Thank You For Sharing Your Vision for the Future!

We appreciate the growing list of individuals, Jones Center affiliates, businesses, local leaders and partnering agencies that have met with the CIVITAS team to share their ideas. If you want to talk with Scott Jordan, project lead from CIVITAS, please feel free to contact us to set an appointment.

About Civitas

Civitas is a creative collaborative of 20 professionals led by landscape architects, architects and urban designers. Civitas is a recognized leader in landscape architecture and urban design, with master planning and built works in public spaces from coast to coast. Over the past 36 years, we have been committed to improving the quality of the environment, the quality of life, and the health and equity of the communities where we work. Civitas connects with communities, elected officials and civic leaders in ways that are unique and effective. We engage to seek out the fundamental issues and barriers to change, and develop visions and design that spring directly from the nature of the place and the character of the people. Our design of beautiful plazas, parks, waterfronts, campuses and neighborhoods become memorable and lasting by adding to the quality of life, health and values that truly make a city and community sustainable.