Marlon Blackwell Raises Bar on Framework of Arkansas Architecture

Marlon Blackwell 
Principal of Marlon Blackwell Architects of Fayetteville and Distinguished Professor and E. Fay Jones Chair in Architecture at the Fay Jones School of Architecture & Design

Marlon Blackwell, 62, came to Fayetteville in 1992 to teach at the University of Arkansas’ Jones School and try his design hand in a less constrictive environment. Blackwell said he would rather be a first-rate architect in Arkansas than a third-rate one in a bigger market, such as Boston, where he had previously worked.

Blackwell’s firm, Marlon Blackwell Architects, has won a collection of American Institute of Architects awards. Last year, he was elected to the National Academy of Design and selected as a Resident Fellow by the American Academy in Rome for spring 2019.

Now that you have become nationally renowned, what are the upsides and downsides to being a famous architect?
I can only see upsides. I’m always looking up no matter what. I’m naturally optimistic and mindful where I came from. I didn’t come from much. I feel very fortunate to have some success.

How much free rein do you have when you take a project or is it doing the client’s vision?
Constraints are actually good. It leads to a lot more creativity and innovation when you have constraints, everything from budget — always — to the site and the history and the aspirations clients have.

What we try to do is translate their aspirations into something quite tangible that connects all the dots for them with the social, environmental and economic constraints, make something that intensifies the quality of the places. Our goal is to make something very useful and, at the same time, very beautiful.

You’ve said architecture drives you. It drives you to be better every day?
Absolutely. Every project is unique. Every client is unique. It is never boring. I love people, I love buildings, I love places. You mix all that up, and it is always fun. What I learned from Fay [Jones] is you don’t take yourself too seriously but you take what you do very seriously. It’s a cliche, but it is a truism. You don’t get wrapped up in all that [fame] stuff.

Do you remember the first time you said, I’m good enough to do this for a living?
I’m always looking at the next project. I feel like I’m getting better and better. I feel more confident in what I’m doing. I guess I don’t think of it as “I’m pretty good.” Maybe that is what keeps me driven. You never want to just be good enough. That would be the worst. I am always working on getting better at what I’m doing. Don’t get complacent is the key.

You came to Arkansas to spread your wings, but how has your success helped Arkansas and architects here?
There is a lot of pride. I feel like we’ve raised the bar. There are quite a few firms in the state that are stepping up to the plate. There are also a lot of young firms coming up that are shooting high. In a way, what Fay Jones [and others] did is help create an atmosphere of hope that things can happen here. If they can happen here, then people in the design field stick around and that elevates the quality of design in the places you least expect to find it, like in Arkansas. There is a lot of great stuff going on in the middle [of America]. We are having influence there.

How does teaching help you as an architect and vice versa?
It’s the dialogue I get to have with some really smart people — the students, that sense of wonder and hunger for discovery. You get immersed in that with them. It helps us to keep asking questions about what we are doing ourselves. When I hand out a design problem, I get to see 15 different ways it can be solved because all the students are coming at it differently. Teaching is vitamins for the creative soul.