URBAN LAND INSTITUTE ON SMART GROWTH
JARED SORRELLS
BY WES CRAIGLOW
M
uch like the natural world and its climate and wildlife influenced the behaviors of our earliest ancestors, the built environment is a principal partner to our behaviors today. It isn’t just where we live, where we learn, where we work, where we play and where every good and service we consume is found, although all of those things are true. The real power of the built environment is that it influences how we do those things, too. It, and the myriad systems and processes that operate within it, command a central role in both our conscious and subconscious decision-making each day — decisions that impact our health, finances, connections, opportunities and general fulfillment. It is because of our belief in the power of the built environment that the Urban Land Institute exists. As the fastest-growing region in the state and among the fastest in the country, Northwest Arkansas’s built environment looks, functions and feels much different today than it did only one generation ago; and, assuredly, it will look, function and feel much
12 | BLOCK, STREET & BUILDING VOLUME 8 | 2022
ULI Kickoff meeting
