The Mulberry Community Center

Anchoring the east side of the historic square in Hamburg, Arkansas, the Mulberry is designed to be a flexible civic asset that will add life, activity, and opportunity to downtown. The facility is a combination of two buildings combined many years ago, serving as a grocery store, retail space, and Masonic Lodge. Because historic fabric has been lost to time, the Mulberry storefront concept was developed to incorporate specific salvaged elements, including iron columns, doors, and storefront windows from the historic Carpenter Hotel, which was tragically demolished in spite of a valiant local effort to save it from destruction.

For the Mulberry, Kudzu Collective developed an adaptive-reuse design that creates event spaces for weddings, meetings, receptions, exhibits, and community gatherings, along with a commercial kitchen conceived as a job incubator for residents, entrepreneurs, food classes, and prospective restaurant owners.

The Mulberry pairs adaptive reuse with practical economic development: a durable, income-producing gathering place that can support local enterprise while drawing residents and visitors back to Hamburg’s Square.

Project team

• ClientHamburg Economic Development Corporation, Hamburg, Ark.