Katie Hassell
The Downtown Little Rock Master Plan

A Roadmap for Creating a Complete Neighborhood.

Downtown Little Rock aims to redefine itself in a post-COVID world. Over the last decade, downtown has seen marginal job growth when compared to the rest of Central Arkansas and has seen employers leave for suburban locations.

The Downtown Little Rock Master Plan
Jordan Little
Developer’s Diary

Forming the Unconformable in the Pettaway Neighborhood.

We built homes with front porches on them and hid the parking. We dropped the fence height so people could see over them. Our Bill of Assurance was written in the late 1800s so we were not bound to building 1,800-square-foot ranch-style homes over and over again. We get to turn our imaginations loose, which results in some really interesting architecture. 

Developer’s Diary
Sarah Holderfield
Reimagine The Town you Love

How best can we transform our cities and towns with 21st century design ideals that put community and lifestyle first and cars second? Block, Street & Building put that question to city planners via the Arkansas Times Blog and the Arkansas Municipal League, initiating a competition of ideas to create walkable, livable spaces where commercial and residential needs co-exist, and dozens responded with their ideas.

Reimagine The Town you Love
Sarah Holderfield
Realizing a Vision for Argenta

In 2021, local developer Roger Coburn Jr. and co-developer Fletcher Hanson — real estate adviser and principal at Moses Tucker Partners — ushered in a new phase of development in North Little Rock. Their three high-end residential neighborhood projects set into motion a revitalization of a long dormant section northeast of Argenta.

Realizing a Vision for Argenta
Sarah Holderfield
The Bottled-Up Potential of Historic ...

Crow Group Inc. purchased the building long known as the Coca-Cola Building from the city of Morrilton in 2018. The building was originally constructed in 1929 as a Coca-Cola bottling plant and was also the site of the original Morrilton Walmart Number 8 Store in the 1960s. More recently, the building served as Morrilton City Hall and the Morrilton Police Department for 40 years. When the city purchased it in 1978, they installed acoustic tile drop ceilings, golden wood paneling for walls, and linoleum and carpet for the floors. Many areas were divided into smaller office spaces to suit the needs of the city at that time, which also included installing more than 20 jail cells made of concrete and steel.

The Bottled-Up Potential of Historic Preservation

The Latest Issue of Block, Street & Building Is Out Now!

We’re excited to announce that the newest issue of Block, Street & Building is officially live! This edition is packed with stories celebrating growth, new visions, and investments in cities across Arkansas.

You can read the full digital issue here:

And there’s more to come—over the next few weeks, we’ll be rolling out individual articles on our brand-new website. Stay tuned and bookmark the page: : arktimespubs.com/blockstreet.

Thanks for reading, and welcome to the next chapter of Arkansas storytelling.

Developer’s Diary

Developer’s Diary

Forming the Unconformable in the Pettaway Neighborhood.

We built homes with front porches on them and hid the parking. We dropped the fence height so people could see over them. Our Bill of Assurance was written in the late 1800s so we were not bound to building 1,800-square-foot ranch-style homes over and over again. We get to turn our imaginations loose, which results in some really interesting architecture. 

TASTE AND PLACE

TASTE AND PLACE

Destination Dining Successes in Clarksville, Hot Springs and Lonoke.

Culinary gems that offer an experience from plate to palette to atmosphere often are destinations in and of themselves. The capacity these restaurants have to attract locals and out-of-town visitors alike makes them an important part of the local culture.

DOWNTOWN, DOWNTOWN

DOWNTOWN, DOWNTOWN

Maxfield Park, Royal on Main marry history and vision in Batesville.

This community cares. Sidewalks are free of litter. Bright murals invite selfies. Tidy landscaping is in bloom. Lovingly restored storefronts tempt passersby to treat themselves, shop for gifts, dine, tune their bikes for the trails or pick a book to enjoy in the pocket park. Fresh paint and the percussion of construction hint at what’s to come. There’s momentum. 

Reimagine The Town you Love

Reimagine The Town you Love

How best can we transform our cities and towns with 21st century design ideals that put community and lifestyle first and cars second? Block, Street & Building put that question to city planners via the Arkansas Times Blog and the Arkansas Municipal League, initiating a competition of ideas to create walkable, livable spaces where commercial and residential needs co-exist, and dozens responded with their ideas.

The Bottled-Up Potential of Historic Preservation

The Bottled-Up Potential of Historic Preservation

Crow Group Inc. purchased the building long known as the Coca-Cola Building from the city of Morrilton in 2018. The building was originally constructed in 1929 as a Coca-Cola bottling plant and was also the site of the original Morrilton Walmart Number 8 Store in the 1960s. More recently, the building served as Morrilton City Hall and the Morrilton Police Department for 40 years. When the city purchased it in 1978, they installed acoustic tile drop ceilings, golden wood paneling for walls, and linoleum and carpet for the floors. Many areas were divided into smaller office spaces to suit the needs of the city at that time, which also included installing more than 20 jail cells made of concrete and steel.

Built to Suit

Built to Suit

How do you design an office building that incorporates the biking infrastructure of a community? How do you build a structure that honors the art culture of the city? How do you create a diverse office space that is also accessible to the public? What if you could ride your bike to the door of your fifth-story office? What would a bikeable building look like?

Thinking Outside the (Big) Box

Thinking Outside the (Big) Box

It is fair to say that big box buildings are the American architectural blight of the second half of the 20th century. While an increasingly automobile-centric society needed more expansive places to store goods for a growing population, the big box is less of a store in a traditional human scale and more of a warehouse for direct transactional purposes.

Bringing Big Flavor to Small Towns in the Delta

Bringing Big Flavor to Small Towns in the Delta

Living in the Delta, it’s not unusual to drive an hour or so for dinner on a Friday or Saturday evening. So many overlooked places and storied locales are known for the restaurants and legendary proprietors who keep them full of regular patrons during daily lunch hours and weekend suppers. Whether leaving city limits for a favorite spot frequented for generations, or driving into town to meet friends over a favorite burger or dessert at the place everyone is talking about, we have a way of planning our days, our weekends and our road trips around the places where we love to eat.

Arkansas River Connection Project

Arkansas River Connection Project

In 2004, I — along with a group of dedicated economic and tourism leaders from Northwest Arkansas, the Arkansas River Valley, Central Arkansas and Southeast Arkansas launched an effort to look at how the Arkansas River and trail systems, railways, scenic byways, airports and other transportation hubs adjacent to and/or intersecting with the Arkansas River could be integrated in such a way that an entire new tourism experience and economic development tool for the state could be utilized.

Art institutions Fuel the Creative Economy and Advance Equity 

Art institutions Fuel the Creative Economy and Advance Equity 

Arkansas’s art renaissance is unfolding across the state with some entities sprouting from new terrain and some refashioned from urban fabric. The building itself, the art within and the interaction between the institution and the community contribute to, and sometimes define, quality of place. The days of elitism are gone, with today’s art institutions functioning as catalysts across cultural, economic and social-equity sectors.

Weekend Warriors

Weekend Warriors

The world wrestles with the challenges of a global pandemic without the opportunity to travel. Within their own cities, people have had no choice but to pay more attention to their immediate surroundings. City governments are hearing less about potholes and more about parks; less about parking lots and more about places to walk. Quality of life has been a growing issue for cities over the past decade, but the pandemic has focused attention on the issue.

Helping Communities Thrive

Helping Communities Thrive

The longer I live in Helena-West Helena, the deeper and more meaningful my relationship to the city becomes. That’s to be expected, as with every relationship, but Helena is certainly not the same place I once knew as a naïve young professional looking for design work 12 years ago. On the surface, everything is the same, save a couple of Historic Cherry Street storefronts that were damaged during the Easter storm of 2020. Underneath the surface, however, you find a unique, colorful constellation of factors that inspires me, the Thrive team and other local placemakers to amplify the masterpiece that is Helena.