This Animal Shelter Raises the Bar for Design

2023 Best of Year Winner for Social Impact

Most animal shelters are filled with cages and kennels. But cats and dogs can tend to decline when contained in such conditions. RA-DA decided there had to be a better way. The result, one of several projects in the firm’s animal care–facility portfolio and its second for the nonprofit Best Friends Animal Society, which is working toward no-kill by 2025, is what founder/principal Rania Alomar is calling the “shelter of the future.” Encompassing 20,000 square feet and evoking the old barns scattered on fields in this predominantly rural area, the Pet Resource Center in Bentonville, Arkansas is divided into a medical wing and a community-focused wing. The latter has creatively conceived areas for animals to roam and for fun pet-fostering events so that they are rehomed quickly. Doggie yoga classes or knitting with kittens, anyone?

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RA-DA: rania alomar.