Bigelow Residence

Bentonville, Arkansas

Architect: Marlon Blackwell Architects

This residential landscape is inspired by close proximity to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, where architecture and landscape are deeply connected. Located on an urban lot in downtown Bentonville, the residence is less than half a mile from the museum, with pedestrian access via the museum’s art trail. 

The minimal design of the landscape employs strategies of layering to negotiate complex architectural geometries and sectional conditions, mediating between the city street along the front of the residence and a lush woodland at the back edge of the property. The landscape responds to the expansion and contraction of the building architecture to create gathering spaces at the street, within a small courtyard, and between the house and the existing woodland. 

A garden of sedges, Arkansas bluestar, and local sandstone paving at the house entry is designed as an extension of the front porch. Native grasses selected from the natural plant communities of Northwest Arkansas provide a sustainable alternative to lawn along the south side of the house. Seasonal change is marked in the spring by the appearance of daffodils, grape hyacinth, and wild hyacinth interplanted with the low grasses. A stone path leads to the back yard and through the woodland to the art trail. 

The courtyard includes small water feature for the client’s beloved fish and a terraced garden for the client’s rambunctious plant collection. A stone slab stair leads down to the back yard. Here, an area of lawn is bounded on the north by a vegetable garden and on the east by plantings of little bluestem and inland sea oats, grasses that add bold juxtapositions of color and texture. At the edge of the woodland, a small seating area includes a built-in stone bench that doubles as storage of cut wood for the fire pit.