Completed in 2007, Willard J. Walker Hall provides for both current needs and future growth of the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas. The 78,000 square foot facility showcases state-of-the-art learning environments and provides student team rooms, project rooms for industry partnering, and a financial markets trading room. Architects and clients collaborated to respond to the increasingly important relationship between business research and graduate education. This was achieved by hosting the College’s Research Centers – the Center for Retailing Excellence and the Supply Chain Management Research Center. Additionally, Walker Hall houses the graduate school of business, the career development center, a multi-purpose forum, a 150-seat auditorium, Students In Free Enterprise, a cyber-café, and four undergraduate classrooms. The forum space and other community areas provide a supportive atmosphere that fosters the exchange of ideas and enhances networking and collaboration. Sited along New Harmon road across from the recently completed UA parking deck, the five-story building takes advantage of the hillside terrain with major entries from the road and the plaza. Allison Architects collaborated with Machado and Silvetti Associates of Boston for the project.
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