Walmart Family Plans Art Hotel To Complement New Museum
The owners of Louisville, Kentucky's popular 21c Museum Hotel are partnering with Walmart's Walton family on a new 21c Museum Hotel in downtown Bentonville, Arkansas. The project will be a $28 million, 130-room hotel near the downtown square in Bentonville. It will have a spa, fitness center and restaurant that uses local ingredients. Construction is expected to begin this year and the project should be completed in 2012.Business First of Louisville reports that the hotel will be owned by the Waltons, Steve Wilson and Laura Lee Brown--the owners of 21C, and and Bentonville Revitalization Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of the city's historic structures. Poe Cos will use sustainable building materials and incorporate "green" design practices to create the hotel. The building is being designed by Deborah Berke & Partners LLP, who designed the Louisville 21c hotel in conjunction with Polk Stanley Wilcox architecture firm.
The hotel will be about a quarter mile from the $150 million Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the massive 100-acre art park that will house one of the world's greatest collections of American art, that of Walmart heiress Alice Walton. The museum design by architect Moshe Safdie is rendered in glass and light wood and is arranged around two ponds at the center of the compound which are spanned by bridges. The building is set on around 100 acres of Ozarks forest, donated by the Walton family. Visitors will follow a lane through the woods to a knoll that overlooks the pavilions. From the knoll, glass elevators take visitors to a courtyard with a glass lobby that has a view of the water. The museum will offer 34,000 square feet of exhibition space as well as a cafe, performance hall, library and research center. Crystal Bridges is expected to bring in 250,000 visitors a year once it opens.
Other 21c hotels are currently planned for Cincinnati, Ohio and Austin, Texas.
That's An Interesting Look, Madge
The List #0147: Escape a Car Underwater
16 Pasta Dishes Worse Than Yours
Visit the Maldive Islands Before It's Too Late
Reptiles Make Home in UK Man's Cable Box
Charlie Sheen Gets Back To His Roots
Springtime Budget-Busters -- Savings Experiment
Distraught Mom Becomes Face of Oklahoma Storm
WHOOPS! Obama Makes Big Gaffe
Is This Woman Too Pretty To Work?
Mariah Carey Suffers Wardrobe Malfunction on Good Morning America
Candid Portraits Of Strippers After Hours
The Story Behind Hairspray
Carrie Underwood Donates $1 Million to Oklahoma Tornado Victims
Mariah Carey Curses And Busts Out Of Dress On Live TV
Amanda Bynes Arrested, Undergoes Psychiatric Evaluation--See the Shocking Mugshot!
Ryan Gosling Almost Didn't Star In His Signature Movie
Teens' Plot To Murder Classmate Shocks Town
AMAZING PHOTO: UFO Spotted Over San Diego
Abercrombie Announces Plummeting Sales Amid Controversy
Killed Soldier In London Attack Identified
What It's Like To Talk To A 2-Year-Old
Luke Wilson Caught Staring At Fan's Chest
Rapper Accused Of Faking His Own Death To Escape Payments
Danny Tanner Is Fighting With Topanga
New Trayvon Martin Evidence Features Incriminating Photos, Texts From Teen
Teenager's 'Awww'-Inspiring Drawing Wins Big At Google
Brave Woman Stood Down Armed London Attackers
Jury Foreman: '18 Days Of Testimony Hurt' Jodi Arias
Best Friends Reportedly Die Holding Each Other In Tornado
Jodi Arias Jury DEADLOCKED
Mum-Of-Two Faces Down Woolwich Attack Suspects
