Architect Marlon Blackwell to Give Public Presentation at Crystal Bridges

Photo Submitted

The Museum Store at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville. (Photograph by Timothy Hursley)

The Museum Store at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville features a beautiful and unusual design, evoking the museum’s natural setting. The store is the creation of Marlon Blackwell, an award-winning, Arkansas-based architect. It complements the overall design of the museum, created by architect Moshe Safdie.

Blackwell will discuss his artistic process in designing the Crystal Bridges Museum Store in a free lecture from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 16, in the museum’s Great Hall.

Blackwell is also Distinguished Professor and head of the architecture department in the Fay Jones School of Architecture at the University of Arkansas. His architecture practice is also located in Fayetteville.

Blackwell’s design for the Crystal Bridges Museum Store features curved cherry plywood ribs that create undulating surfaces along the walls and ceiling resembling the fluted ribbing on the underside of a mushroom. They are part of Blackwell’s overall intention of using organic lines and shapes to relate the store’s interior both to the surrounding natural environment and to the organic curves of the building’s architecture. The design has garnered Blackwell a place on the short list for the 2012 World Architecture Festival awards in the “shopping” category.

Work produced in his professional office, Marlon Blackwell Architect, has received national and international recognition, numerous American Institute of Architects design awards, and significant publication in books, architectural journals, and magazines.

In his presentation, Blackwell will also show a portfolio of his other works in the region, including the Fayetteville Montessori School, Fayetteville High School (in association with Hight-Jackson Associates and DLR Group), University ofArkansas’ Vol Walker Hall/Steven L. Anderson Design Center (in association with Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects), Bella Vista Library, Gentry Public Library, and St. Nicholas Eastern Orthodox Church, many of which have been photographed by Timothy Hursley, a world-renowned architecture photographer. Following the presentation, Blackwell will be available to meet participants and sign copies of his book, An Architecture of the Ozarks: The Works of Marlon Blackwell, which is available for purchase in the Museum Store.

The lecture is free, but seating is limited. Online reservations can be made at http://crystalbridges.org/Education/public-programs/Adults/Lectures.

For more information, contact Diane Carroll, Media Relations Manager at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, at 479-418-5751 or diane.carroll@crystalbridges.org.