Walmart Home Office

Walter P Moore was tasked with ensuring the campus seamlessly connected to the City of Bentonville without any set boundaries. The open Home Office design was integrated into the fabric of the community to reimagine the corporate campus concept from the ground up.

Big Nature—the idea that every landscape we inhabit, whether we develop large or small, is part of a larger ecological system—played a major role in the campus design. Several sustainable and resilient solutions were required to meet the architectural vision and infrastructure design.

Due to the demanding topography of the campus, it was necessary to embrace the surrounding environment and utilize the topography as a feature of the design. Subsurface utility design and installation packages were precisely placed throughout the campus despite conflicts with rock layers and other utilities.

Effective water use and management was critical to the relationship between Walmart and the City of Bentonville. Water is managed by incorporating sustainable designs to treat and reuse stormwater to lower the amount of municipal water used by the campus while improving the quality of water released back into nearby streams.

The infrastructure design required upgrades to the existing roads in and around the campus. Vehicular traffic required designs that minimize impact within the community to create a safer, efficient driving experience.

The Razorback Greenway prioritizes safe access to the campus for cyclists and pedestrians with strategically placed tunnels. The trail design is also the backbone of the campus stormwater conveyance and water treatment system that runs parallel.

Low impact development (LID) concepts incorporate sustainable and resilient solutions to minimize the environmental impact of stormwater runoff. Used with Big Nature, LID solutions include the integration of bioswales along major roadways and the Razorback Greenway to mitigate stormwater runoff and reduce infrastructure costs.

By embracing the natural slope of the campus, unique features including a natural amphitheater as well as undulations near structures and on the trails are included. Precise grading was accomplished by using a detailed software system to avoid underground utility conflicts.

To protect and preserve water, a portion of the water that lands on the campus is harvested, treated, and sent to one of two lakes for storage. The captured water is then reused on campus for irrigation, maintenance, and water features such as fountains.

The multiple access points and tunnels allow Walmart associates and Bentonville residents to safely enter the campus. Traffic designs were tied into existing infrastructure, intersections redesigned, and innovative technology introduced to help traffic flow more smoothly. 

The Walmart Home Office incorporates the surrounding region’s characteristics and environment, resulting in a seamless, comfortable, and safe relationship between Walmart and the Bentonville community. 

The connection between sustainable design solutions and the concepts of LID meet the environmental challenges of the campus concurrent with the community’s needs. LID concepts as well as the bioswales and treatment system clean any water captured before it is reused on campus or emptied into the regional water system.

The campus landscape has more than 30 structures and includes more than 750,000 native plants and 5,000 planted trees. The underground utility infrastructure supports over 2.6 million square feet of office space, 1.6 million square feet of amenity spaces, and 10 parking decks. 

The sustainable water management practices ensure a continual collaboration between Walmart and the City of Bentonville. Because Walmart is expected to reuse over 52 million gallons of water annually its water dependency from the city is minimized, which provides a significant relief to the community’s water supply.

Walmart is nearing its goal of having at least 10% of its workforce safely commute to work by bicycle daily to reduce carbon emissions. Traffic-related technology, new roads, and intersections reduce traffic by 25% during the morning peak and by over 50% during the evening peak dramatically improving mobility for Walmart associates and the community.