iPhone images of Crystal Bridges Museum
Alice Walton’s Crystal Bridge Museum opened November 11, 2011, just down the road from the location of the original Walton five and dime that started the chain now known as Walmart. Walton’s five and dime, founded in 1962 by her father, Sam Walton, is now the 18th largest public corporation according to Forbes, with 8500 stores in fifteen countries -- and more than 4000 in the US alone.
Ms. Walton hired Moshe Safdie, who has designed buildings domestically and internationally from Canada to Jerusalem, Singapore and mainland China, hoping to house the pieces she collected in a museum that matches their beauty. The result? A stunning complex of buildings surrounding a spring fed water area surrounded by native trees and the Ozark Mountains. Perhaps not since Fallingwater in 1935 has an architect married nature to man that inhabits it and the art within so beautifully.
The glass/wood/concrete structures cover some 217,000 square feet and include galleries, meeting areas, library, restaurant and gift shop and outdoor areas for concerts plus almost 4 miles of hiking trails.
Visit Alice Walton’s Crystal Bridge Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas. Admission is free for the main galleries or a small fee for the traveling collection.
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