Crystal Bridges Campus Parking

Written By Serhii Chrucky
Crystal Bridges Parking angled teal fin facade over the ground-floor cafe, by Marlon Blackwell - architectural photographer Bentonville Arkansas

Architect: Marlon Blackwell Architects
Landscape Architect: Michael Boucher Landscape Architecture
Convergence Plaza Landscape: Studio Bryan Hanes
Civil Engineer: CESO
Structural Engineer & Facades: Studio NYL
MEP Engineer: HSA Engineering
Lighting Design: TM Light
Location: Bentonville, AR

The parking garage as front door to a major art museum. This six-story structure is a short walk from Crystal Bridges' main entrance, with a cafe, restrooms, and retail on the ground floor. One level up, the open-air terrace is both an event venue and sculpture platform overlooking the surrounding forest. Visitors enter underneath vertical metal-clad fins on the south and north sides, which at dusk carry color-changing LEDs that animate the building in patterns the architects likened to fireflies. The blue-green fin panels are color-matched to a 1965 Pontiac Tempest, a subtle ornamental use of midcentury Americana.

 
Crystal Bridges Parking exterior switchback stair on the white scrim facade, by Marlon Blackwell - architectural photographer Bentonville Arkansas
 
Crystal Bridges Parking cars in the open undercroft beneath the lifted fins, by Marlon Blackwell - architectural photographer Bentonville Arkansas
 
Crystal Bridges Parking sloped end wall meeting the spaced fin screen, by Marlon Blackwell - architectural photographer Bentonville Arkansas
 
Crystal Bridges Parking raking perspective of the deep teal fins on columns, by Marlon Blackwell - architectural photographer Bentonville Arkansas
 
Crystal Bridges Parking fins layered over the exposed concrete parking decks, by Marlon Blackwell - architectural photographer Bentonville Arkansas
 
Crystal Bridges Parking long oblique elevation of the full fin facade, by Marlon Blackwell - architectural photographer Bentonville Arkansas
 
Crystal Bridges Parking looking up the teal metal fins against blue sky, by Marlon Blackwell - architectural photographer Bentonville Arkansas
 
Crystal Bridges Parking diagonal roofline cutting across the teal fin wall, by Marlon Blackwell - architectural photographer Bentonville Arkansas
 
Crystal Bridges Parking the deep teal fin facade rising above native grasses, by Marlon Blackwell - architectural photographer Bentonville Arkansas
 
Crystal Bridges Parking wedge massing and white perforated screen wall, by Marlon Blackwell - architectural photographer Bentonville Arkansas
Serhii Chrucky https://serhiichrucky.com
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