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The Influencers: Architect Marlon BlackwellLock Icon

5 min read

The passage of years has not dampened Marlon Blackwell’s passion for architecture.

At an age when many men and women look forward to retirement, Blackwell, 60, is doing some of his best work. And he’s looking forward to doing more and better projects.

“It’s the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning, and it’s the last thing when I go to bed,” Blackwell said at his office in downtown Fayetteville.

“I’m always thinking about it, every aspect about it. It’s a long-distance race. It takes time. That’s the beauty of architecture. You don’t hit your peak until your 60s or 70s.

“I’ve read so much and done so much and experienced so much. I filled my imagination with travel and met all kinds of folks. I have really fought any notion of being complacent. Part of what drives me is I’m good, but I can be better. It’s one of those things of striving for excellence.”

Blackwell, who founded Marlon Blackwell Architects in 1990, has achieved plenty of excellence already. His office walls are lined with award certifications from the American Institute of Architects, and in 2016, the firm won the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Architecture Design.

“That’s saying you’re an artist,” Blackwell said. “We were the first to win that west of Atlanta and east of Phoenix, south of Chicago. That’s a big swath of the country. We feel like we broke a glass ceiling. It was very important that it could be done.”

One of Blackwell’s latest creations, the Harvey Pediatric Clinic in Rogers, is up for a major award at the 2017 World Architecture Festival in Berlin in November.

“I think sanctuary is important but not just on Sunday,” said Blackwell, referring to his clinic design. “What if it was everything but what you would expect to find in those crazy-ass pediatric clinics where you walk in and everybody looks sick.”

A Fresh Start
Blackwell came to Fayetteville in 1992 to teach at the University of Arkansas and flex his design muscle in a less-competitive setting. Blackwell had worked 10 years as an architect in Louisiana and Boston and found that it was hard to get ahead without more impressive academic credentials or helpful connections.

“I made the decision to come out here because I’m not stupid,” Blackwell said. “A friend of mine said I’d rather be a first-rate hick architect then a third-rate New York architect anytime. I feel the same way. I’d rather be a first-rate architect here than be in New York and be just another one. I moved out here to get things built. I could start fresh.”

The move has paid off for Blackwell, who has found the freedom to attack projects he believes in while also serving as distinguished professor and the E. Fay Jones Chair in Architecture at the university. Blackwell doesn’t separate the two jobs — except for this past semester when he took a sabbatical to travel to Europe and Australia on a lecture-learning tour.

This past year, Marlon Blackwell Architects had revenue of more than $1.4 million — Blackwell said anything over $1 million is a good year — and the firm is beginning to be invited to compete for national design jobs. Blackwell said most of the firm’s work is in Arkansas along with some regional work in Dallas or Memphis, and getting recognition for top designs helps boost the firm’s — and the state’s — architectural reputation.

“You have to get it out there,” Blackwell said. “I didn’t used to do awards, but I was informed by the dean that if I wanted to be tenured, I’d better start getting projects published and start winning awards. Now we’re like an awards machine because that’s how I’m evaluated. It sets a benchmark for design in Arkansas. It gives us a lot of attention, ‘What the hell is going on in Arkansas?’”

Marlon Blackwell Architects has a staff of 11, including Blackwell and his wife, Ati, who is an architect and the company’s CFO. What the company doesn’t have is a marketing department because Blackwell said there is uncertainty that advertising would justify the expense.

Teaching Tomorrow’s Architects
Blackwell joked that he was not a good student at Auburn, where it took him six years to complete a five-year undergraduate architecture program. He was an undisciplined idealist — and don’t teachers love that combination? — but it has helped him as a professor at Arkansas.

When he taught at Syracuse briefly before coming to Arkansas, Blackwell said he was a Darth Vader professor, relying on fear to motivate students. At Arkansas, he has mellowed his techniques but not his standards.

Blackwell said he isn’t interested in being any student’s pal; he’s there to teach them to become quality architects. He said when students graduate they probably dislike him, but he receives numerous letters of thanks from former students after they have been in the real world for a few years.

“I can always tell a student when they failed, I failed; failure is a part of life,” said Blackwell, referring to a design class he flunked at Auburn. “For a lot of them, it is total hell because my expectations are high. I try to be disciplined and rigorous. I’ve learned to become more of an educator, more affirming for the students. I work with each individually to reach high goals.”

Despite the recent sabbatical, Blackwell has no intention of quitting teaching to focus on his own design work. He believes each discipline feeds the other.

“For me, teaching and practicing go hand in hand,” Blackwell said. “I learn practicing through my teaching, and I learn teaching through my practicing. Each one informs. It’s hard to imagine a time where I would separate the two.

“I see all the new things coming up. I’m constantly challenged by all the new technologies, all the new forms of thinking. How can that work for me? Not everything works for me. Know enough to know you don’t know everything. Always ask, How might it be otherwise?”


See more:
The Influencers: 5 Leaders Behind the Framework of Arkansas
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