Callaghan Horiuchi Shares Interior Renderings Of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art Redesign In Bentonville, Arkansas

Callaghan Horiuchi is redesigning key interior spaces at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. The New York–based firm led by Christian Callaghan and Haruka Horiuchi will reimagine the guest experience inside both the original museum building from 2011 and its expansion, expected to open this year. The goal is to create a more cohesive journey between the old and new.

Callaghan Horiuchi is designing a new cafe at Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, and other features. (Courtesy Callaghan Horiuchi)

The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art’s expansion was unanimously approved by the Bentonville Planning Commission in 2021, and construction started shortly after. The same team behind the original building, Safdie Architects and Buro Happold, designed the expansion, which increases the museum’s size by 50 percent. The interior redesign at Crystal Bridges by Callaghan Horiuchi entails the creation of new galleries, lobbies, gathering spaces, and learning environments within the museum and its expansion.

Renderings show an upgraded courtyard with verdant plantings and trees and a redesigned and expanded main lobby crowned with Safdie’s glass dome. A whimsical, floral art piece by the Haas Brothers will bloom in the room’s center, underneath the circular skylight.

A new cafe will be located within a main circulation path amid the building’s signature ceilings lined with curved slabs of wood and large spans of angled glazing.

The revamped lower lobby will feature new immersive book stacks and furniture for leisure. Here, the rounded book shelves double as seating to form a “campfire,” Callaghan Horiuchi said. Wood from the site was repurposed into furnishings throughout the interiors.

An art piece from the Haas Brothers will be inserted in the revamped and expanded main lobby. (Courtesy Callaghan Horiuchi)

“A central challenge of the project was accommodating a diverse variety of spaces, our interior design strategy seeks to unify the lobbies, circulation areas, and ancillary spaces with the galleries, creating a seamless visitor journey,” said Christian Callaghan in a statement.

Architects note the museum will be reconfigured into seven “signature moments,” designed to leave a lasting impression on visitors; and ten “key areas,” interstitial zones that create a cohesive guest journey.

“Our goal was to design interiors that feel both inspiring and deeply connected to place,” Haruka Horiuchi added. “Throughout the museum, new furniture enhances comfort and accessibility, including repurposed original benches with new cushions and armrests alongside custom pieces crafted from on-site wood slabs, celebrating creativity and craftsmanship.”

Construction has already begun on the interior redesign and will complete alongside the museum expansion in June 2026. It’s happening parallel to other transformative projects underway at Crystal Bridges, including a new nature trail by Studio Bryan Hanes.

Polk Stanley Wilcox and OSD completed the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine at Crystal Bridges last summer, as reported by AN. Marlon Blackwell Architects finished the new multifunctional Heartland Whole Health Institute and a creative parking complex in June.

https://www.archpaper.com/author/danroche/

California Bans State Travel To Florida, 4 Other States, Because Of Laws That Discriminate Against Members Of The LGBTQ Community

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California added five more states, including Florida, to the list of places where state-funded travel is banned because of laws that discriminate against members of the LGBTQ community, the state attorney general announced Monday.

Democratic Attorney General Rob Bonta added Florida, Arkansas, Montana, North Dakota and West Virginia to the list that now has 17 states where state employee travel is forbidden except under limited circumstances.

“Make no mistake: We’re in the midst of an unprecedented wave of bigotry and discrimination in this country — and the State of California is not going to support it,” Bonta said.

Lawmakers in 2016 banned non-essential travel to states with laws that discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The 12 other states on the list are: Texas, Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas, Mississippi, Tennessee.

The five states newly added to the list have introduced bills in their legislatures this year that prevent transgender women and girls from participating in school sports consistent with their gender identity, block access to health care and allow the discrimination of the LGBTQ community, Bonta said.

Florida, Montana, Arkansas, and West Virginia passed laws that prevent transgender women and girls from participating in school sports consistent with their gender identity.

North Dakota signed into law a bill allowing certain publicly-funded student organizations to restrict LGBTQ students from joining without losing funding.

Arkansas passed the first law in the nation to prohibit physicians from providing gender-affirming healthcare to transgender minors — regardless of the wishes of parents or whether a physician deems such care to be medically necessary.

These lawmakers “would rather demonize trans youth than focus on solving real issues like tackling gun violence beating back this pandemic and rebuilding our economy,” Bonta said.

The state law has exemptions for some trips, such as travel needed to enforce California law and to honor contracts signed before the states were added to the list. Travel to conferences or out-of-state training are examples of trips that can be blocked.

It’s unclear what effect California’s travel ban will have. Bonta did not have information about how many state agencies have stopped sending state employees to the states on the list or the financial impact of California’s travel ban on those states.

Travelore Update: Indiana And Arkansas Alter Their "Religious Freedom" Laws To Protect The LGBT Community

After public pressure all the way up to the White House, the governors of Indiana and Arkansas realized the implications of a recent "religious freedom" law allowing discrimination against the LGBT community. This law triggered letters by hospitality leaders, including Starwood Hotels and Resorts CEO to take a stand urging both governors to veto the law.

Today changes were implemented. The changes would prohibit businesses from using the law as a defense in court for refusing "to offer or provide services, facilities, use of public accommodations, goods, employment, or housing" to any customers based on "race, color, religion, ancestry, age, national origin, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or United States military service."

It doesn't accomplish what the law's critics wanted most: Adding sexual orientation to the list of categories protected by Indiana's anti-discrimination law.

In the meantime junior Republican Senator from Arkansas Tom Cotton made headlines when he may have thought it could be a crime of being gay in the Unted States. In a CNN media interview he said: "In Iran they hang you for the crime of being gay."

Thomas Bryant "Tom" Cotton is the United States Senator from Arkansas. He was a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Arkansas's 4th congressional district from 2013 until 2015