As Walmart evolves in response to a changing workforce and focus on sustainability, the company’s new Home Office campus in Bentonville captures these values over 350 acres—both a blueprint for ecologically sensitive campus design and a renewed anchor at its origin in the Ozarks. More than a headquarters, the campus is a major regional investment for Northwest Arkansas at large and a hub for thousands of associates living within biking distance of work, providing climate-friendly commuting options and setting an ambitious target of 10% of staff biking to work.
Central to the design is a forested greenway that runs through the heart of campus, paying homage to the limestone-banked seasonal creeks that once wove across the site and seamlessly connecting to the 40-mile Razorback Regional Greenway. Over 13 acres of constructed lakes and bioswales at the North and South ends of campus collect, filter, and redistribute stormwater across a vast irrigation system, providing over 52 million gallons of water annually and minimizing impacts to the city’s potable water supply. The plan also carefully preserves mature canopy in place and relocates trees across campus, integrating native Arkansan ecologies like highlands forest, bluestem prairies, seasonal wetlands, and pollinator habitats throughout.
Guided by the idea of “Big Nature” (a nod to the state’s nickname), the Home Office carries this environmental ethic from the campus’ sprawling forests and meadows to the facilities themselves, which include 12 office buildings, a fitness center, childcare center, food hall, hotel, central conference and training hall, and more—largely built with mass timber. A cohesive network of complete streets, shaded walkways, and bike paths knit the facilities together and connect it to Bentonville with a range of micro-mobility options. Elevating Walmart’s culture, heritage, and core values, the Home Office aims to model the next generation of sustainability-driven corporate campus design, cementing the company’s legacy in the Natural State.
Construction on the Walmart Home Office campus began in 2019 with anticipated completion of most features in 2025.
_____
In the media:
Fort Wayne Riverfront
As a city that was built and thrived because of its location as a crossroads between wilderness and city, farm and market, the realities of infrastructure both natural and man-made are at the heart of Fort Wayne’s history. We consider waterways as an integral part of open spaces of the City, forming a series of infrastructural systems that affect the dynamics ...
Symantec Chengdu
SWA provided landscape design for Symantec’s research and development complex. The site was previously inactive and banal until SWA’s design reinvigorated the area, linking the building program and connecting the site to the larger city. The landscape design produces a “brocade,” weaving together the building and site program, and offering an oasis amid the de...
North Texas Corporate Campus
Facing arduous competition in the effort to attract and retain top employee talent, companies are seeking ways to distinguish themselves through the design of their workplaces. Reimaging and reinvigorating an outdated campus into a stimulating and rewarding work environment with quality amenities was the goal. To undertake the challenge of this campus transfo...
NOAH Ethnographic Village
Armenia has set an initiative to increase global tourism and develop a site within its capital city with majestic views of Mount Ararat, where Noah’s Ark is purported to have landed. SWA developed a strategic plan based on several principles derived from the existing context of the site: first, to capitalize its proximity to important landmarks that allow for ...