Steel prescribed to create striking cantilevered holistic setting for the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine

 

Alice L. Walton School of Medicine from rendering to reality

Scheduled to open for students in autumn 2025, Alice L. Walton School of Medicine will integrate conventional medicine with proven holistic practices and its building is designed to reflect this ethos with a hidden steel backbone.

The Alice L. Walton School of Medicine is currently under construction in Bentonville, Arkansas, USA. To seamlessly integrate the 154,000 square foot campus into its natural surroundings and to echo its holistic-based scientific principles, local architecture practice, Polk Stanley Wilcox has designed the structure to mimic the dramatic limestone bluffs that the region is famous for.

“The design integrates the building into both the site and the community, engaging the land as an abstraction of Ozark geology that embraces the principles of integrated medicine and the holistic link between mental, physical and spiritual well-being,” said Wesley Walls, AIA, Principal at Polk Stanley Wilcox.

The campus, which is now quickly taking shape, includes healing gardens and outdoor classrooms, with the literal icing on the cake being a two-acre green landscaped roof, the largest in the region. This ‘rooftop park’ will flow naturally from the neighbouring Crystal Bridges Forest and its trails will extend onto the roof.

Supporting this phenomenal new slice of nature is an 82-foot cantilevered steel structure produced from a series of two-storey-high steel trusses. As well as the green roof, this 2,950-ton steel frame also contains two floors of lecture halls, offices, study space and wellness studios. Designed by Martin/Martin structural engineers, steel was reportedly chosen as the best material to support heavy gravity loads, while simultaneously containing the design’s large open spaces and substantial cantilevers.

The final steel beam was signed by the school’s leadership, staff and faculty and placed on the structure at the school’s topping out ceremony, marking 60% of the build, on May 23, 2024.  Just over a year later, the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine is now preparing to welcome its first students.

“The School of Medicine is poised to be an inspiring learning environment that supports well-being, emphasises innovation and equips future physicians to be agents of change,” said the School of Medicine Founder, Alice Walton. “We are excited to help pave the way for the next generation of holistic physicians and health professionals. This unique, site-responsive building will welcome students, staff and visitors alike to explore this beautiful campus, serving a broader vision of enhancing quality of life in our region and beyond.”