In February 2025, the Alice L. Walton Foundation announced that the Bentonville Health Care Campus will be located on a 100-acre site approximately two miles east of downtown Bentonville. The creation of the campus follows an announcement of a 30-year, $700 million collaboration between the Foundation and Mercy to expand access to health care, working with Heartland Whole Health Institute to reduce costs and improve health outcomes in the Heartland. It also announced that Cleveland Clinic will collaborate, providing world-class cardiovascular expertise to the effort. Mercy’s experience and history in planning places of care and healing is shaping the building design on the Bentonville Health Care Campus, which will include a Center for Advanced Specialty Care, supporting the partnership and creating a transformative model of care.
The Alice L. Walton Foundation announced that CannonDesign and EDSA have been selected to design its future Bentonville Health Care Campus.
Design rooted in whole health care
The proposed design for the Bentonville Health Care Campus represents a departure from conventional health care offerings. Rather than a series of clinical buildings connected with parking lots, the campus is a fully integrated environment design focused on enhancing whole-person health – physical, mental, social and emotional well-being.
“We’re designing this campus through the lens of Living-Centered Design, which explores how places can help people live healthier lives and support stronger communities,” said PJ Glasco, Project Executive and Health Practice Leader at CannonDesign. “What the foundation is striving to achieve with this campus is extraordinary, as it addresses interconnected health needs at a scale few have ever attempted. Our team is thrilled to help bring this vision to life and demonstrate how design can directly shape healthier outcomes across the region.”
Nature, art, and architecture as active healers
An extensive landscape strategy choreographs movement through the site, turning every step into a restorative experience. At its edges, the campus opens to the community with welcoming green spaces that invite connection and comfort, while deeper within, a network of trails and pedestrian paths link contemplative areas designed for quiet retreat. Water serves as both a unifying feature of the landscape and a key part of the campus’s sustainability strategy. Stormwater is captured, cleansed, and reused—transformed into an amenity that expresses wellness through the natural rhythms of the Arkansas landscape.
“Every design decision is guided by ecological wellness and human experience,” says Gregg Sutton, EDSA Principal. “Through architecture, landscape, and art, we’re crafting spaces that feel alive, connect people to nature, and inspire healing. Materials like wood, stone, glass, and metal work in harmony with flowing water and curated art to create environments that support both physical and emotional well-being. The goal is for the campus to feel less like a place to ‘get treated’ and more like a place to live well.”
An ecosystem of health care transformation, based in Northwest Arkansas
The future Bentonville Health Care Campus is part of a larger ecosystem in Bentonville focused on tackling the health challenges faced by Northwest Arkansas and other communities across the country. Walton has also founded Heartland Whole Health Institute, which is focused on reforming care delivery and payment models that can be duplicated on this campus and across the country. Additionally, Alice L. Walton School of Medicine opened its doors to its first class of students in July 2025, educating the next generation of physicians with a curriculum that includes whole health principles, with Mercy serving as its primary teaching partner. Both organizations are located on the Crystal Bridges Campus, approximately two miles from the future Bentonville Health Care Campus.
The Foundation’s current work with CannonDesign and EDSA is focused on an initial phase to include the Center for Advanced Specialty Care, a parking garage, and a central utility building as well as extensive landscape, gardens, trails, and grounds. Arkansas-based Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects will work with CannonDesign as local architects of record; the firm’s recent work includes the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine building. Additional contractors include: Flintco Construction (Construction Manager); Nabholz (Large Scale Campus Development); and Walter P. Moore (Civil Engineering).
This initial phase is located in the north portion of the acreage, accessible through Central Avenue and McCollum Drive, and adjacent to Interstate 49. Initial plans propose opening this section in December 2028. More information will be shared as it becomes available.
