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Conway, Arkansas

Spring 2007

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Like many a mid-continental town, Conway, Arkansas, has two street grids set at odd angles to each other: the older one, alongside the railroad that runs diagonally through town and that created the town in the first place; and the north-south grid added later. Unlike many a mid-continental town, Conway has an indigenous style of commercial building that’s both handsome and energy-efficient. Solid awnings at about eight feet high extending across the sidewalk shelter customers and pedestrians from the region´s plentiful sun and rain. Above the awnings, clerestory windows illuminate the store and attic vents allow hot air to escape.

This architecture is worthy of preservation and emulation. But at times Conway has drifted into California-style planning, with surface parking lots and wide streets dominating the landscape of downtown. Many fine old structures and even whole neighborhoods were cast adrift in an asphalt sea. Downtown and Hendrix College, only blocks apart, were poorly connected. All 3 colleges are in town. Although within half an hour’s drive of Little Rock, Conway remains a place in itself, with some 70 percent of its working residents employed in town.

Conway´s wide streets offer opportunities to develop generous sidewalks and tree-lined boulevards with median and side planters (making it easier for pedestrians to cross) – even while upgrading them to serve as emergency relievers for the interstate. Treating surface parking as developable space -“black gold” – opens up many opportunities for living space, civic functions, a new high school, and business opportunities, making Conway´s traditional downtown a lively attraction. A traffic circle and bulb-outs at key intersections keep traffic within reason. Conway´s historic gas stations, with their vivid colors and striking signage, lend themselves to many kinds of adaptive reuse. Modular construction can facilitate the building of infill cottages, row houses, luxury courtyards, a multi-use cinema complex, and other business buildings.