Bold roof design tops unique pet resource center in northwest Arkansas
In 2024, almost 5.8 million dogs and cats entered the care of U.S. shelter and rescue organizations. While this figure represents an 11% drop from 2019’s total, it’s still a lot of homeless family pets. In a continuing effort to ensure a greater number of these animals can stay in their original homes or find new families quickly, animal welfare groups are rethinking longstanding approaches to how animals are housed and adopted.
A new facility in Bentonville, Ark., is at the forefront of this approach, and its design supports this effort, with wide open interior spaces that are functionally defined by a soaring, standing seam roofline. The Best Friends Pet Resource Center was designed to support services far beyond those that municipal facilities have the funding to provide. It’s the latest center opened by the national Best Friends Animal Society, a group working for no-kill shelter policies across the country.
While the Bentonville operation has housing for cats onsite, dogs are either housed with local foster families or are brought in from partner organizations for adoption events. Separate quiet spaces give potential adopters room to get to know available pets without the clamor often present during adoption events elsewhere. Onsite, low-cost veterinary services personnel assist local shelters and qualifying families, and there’s also a pet food and supply pantry for lower-income pet owners.
Architects with West Hollywood-based RA-DA have stacked up multiple awards for their design of the Resource Center. The exterior of the 20,000-sq.-ft. plan is outlined by a modern take on a historic barn roof, with expansive glass curtainwall providing abundant natural light in the common areas.
The design team, along with installers from Farmington, Ark.-based Franklin & Son Roofing, specified a PAC-CLAD architectural standing-seam roofing panel system from Petersen for this project. The company offers architectural metal roof and wall panel systems in a variety of profiles and attachment options. Their cladding products are available in steel and aluminum and suit diverse framing, roof pitches and finish requirements.
