ONYX SPRINGDALE
Onyx Springdale is a tenant finish-out for a multi-use café, chocolate shop, and coworking space located in a mid-century modern bank building in downtown Springdale, Arkansas. The design embraces the building’s original character while introducing new material and spatial systems that are both respectful and transformative.
The granite cladding from the exterior is brought inward, the terrazzo floor restored, and the steel deck left exposed; gestures that establish continuity with the past and form the infrastructural bones of a new spatial syntax. Walnut is introduced as a warm counterpoint, tuning the atmosphere without overwhelming the existing tectonic narrative. Rather than contrast the original structure, the new work speaks in its language.
The defining intervention is a system of custom glass block massings that operate as both form and infrastructure. Their organization produces a layered field of occupation: a centrally placed “glass box” defines privatized dining zones, queuing corridors, and a merchandised procession toward the bar. Along the back wall the glass block fragments into a zone surrounding the walnut bar counter. The north wall becomes the primary backdrop upon entry anchoring the space and holding the fragments in compositional tension.
These glass block elements are at once mass, screen, and artifact. Through mitered joints and fused edges, the blocks create solid and void conditions that catch and diffuse light while remaining materially luminous. Their transparency allows for visual layering, revealing the building’s exposed steel deck and structure behind, offering views not just across the room but into the building’s past. Serving as multiplicitous actors, the glass block system also serves as a framework for housing HVAC systems and merchandise displays.
Each level of the building performs a distinct programmatic identity: the ground floor operates as a public-facing coffee shop, the upper story as a curated coworking studio wrapped in white oak study carols, and the basement reveals the back of house as an accessible chocolate factory, rendered in a deeper register of walnut, soft lighting, and exposed infrastructure. Across all floors, material consistency ties the spaces together.
ONYX SPRINGDALE
YEAR 2025
SPRINGDALE, ARKANSAS
Photos by King Lawrence
Structural Engineering by Continuum Structural Engineering
Civil Engineering by Omni Civil Engineering Solutions
Construction by Heart & Soule Builders
Lighting Consultation by TM light
Kitchen Consultation by DV8 Kitchen
Onyx Springdale creates atmosphere through form, material, and light, layering contemporary intervention over inherited structure to yield a space that feels at once curated, improvised, and quietly transformative. The result is a space that is richly layered but never overdetermined, allowing old and new to speak together fluently.