It’s not every day that a design team gets a crack at conceiving an academic campus from the ground up. With their commission for the private Thaden School—eventually serving about 500 students in grades 6-12, on a 32-acre campus in Bentonville, Arkansas—EskewDumezRipple (EDR) and Marlon Blackwell Architects (MBA) seized this rare opportunity with an adventurous spirit befitting the pioneering approach to education that informed the master plan and architecture.

Thaden School, Bentonville, Arkansas. Photo © Tim Hursley, click to enlarge