Tree movers work to relocate a River Birch tree Wednesday afternoon at the 555 Maple construction site in downtown Fayetteville.
Photo: Todd Gill, Flyer staff
A crew with Environmental Design, Inc. was in town this week to move three trees at the site of the upcoming 555 Maple complex in downtown Fayetteville.
The worldwide tree transplanting company has 35 years of experience in large-scale tree relocation and has successfully moved thousands of trees including a 200-year-old Monterey Cypress in Pebble Beach, Calif., a 230,000-pound Live Oak in Austin, Texas and more than 300 large specimen oak trees at a golf course in Charleston, S.C.
Photo: Todd Gill
The 555 Maple work included moving a River Birch, a Sawtooth Oak and a Sugar Maple from the south side of the construction area to the north end of the site near Maple Street and Frisco Trail. Each tree is estimated to be 10-15 years old.
Leslie Tabor, a landscape architect at Fayetteville-based McClelland Consulting Engineers Inc. said other tree-saving measures incorporated into the complex’s design include preservation of several Water Oak, Red Oak and Silver Maple trees near the center of the site and a notch in the building to preserve a 100-year-old Post Oak near West Avenue.
Once complete, the five-story student housing complex will take up the entire city block between Lafayette and Maple streets, just east of Frisco Trail and the Arkansas & Missouri Railroad tracks.
Developers Seth Mims and Jeremy Hudson are working with Fayetteville architecture firm Modus Studio on the project. This is the same team behind Eco Modern Flats, the first LEED-certified, multi-family development in the state. That complex, located just south of the UA campus, was awarded a LEED Platinum certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.
The team is also seeking LEED certification for 555 Maple.
A street-view rendering of 555 Maple from the southeast corner of the complex site. (Courtesy image, Modus Studio)
