Situated adjacent to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (CBMAA), the Heartland Whole Health Institute is a museum-quality office building complemented by Art Park, an 800-space parking structure serving the museum. The missions of these organizations include transforming traditional healthcare through an integrated model of physical, mental, and spiritual wellness, and partnering with art museums to uncrate and exhibit archived works of art.

Challenged by the owner to design a high-performance building that is both site-responsive and visionary, the architectural team proposed a composition of curvilinear weathered brass forms resting on a native stone base, inspired by the Ozark forest and karst landscape.

Lighting strategies are integral to expressing these material and formal gestures. The giraffe stone base is gently uplighted, accentuating its rich texture and grounding the building in its natural context. In deliberate contrast, lighting is omitted from the brass canopy, allowing its materiality to remain visually uninterrupted.