Fayetteville-Based Marlon Blackwell Architects Listed 35th on Architect 50 Survey

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This computer rendering shows the visitor center at Shelby Farms Park, a 4,500-acre urban park in Memphis. (Image courtesy Marlon Blackwell Architects)

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Architect magazine has listed Marlon Blackwell Architects among the top 50 all-around design practices in the nation for 2015 in its annual survey. The Fayetteville-based firm tied for the 35th spot in the overall ranking in the "Architect 50" and was listed seventh in the Design category.

Architect magazine is the official publication of The American Institute of Architects. This is the seventh year the magazine has published the survey of top firms, based on their success in the previous year.

Blackwell is the E. Fay Jones Chair in Architecture and a Distinguished Professor in the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design.

This is the first time that Blackwell's firm has appeared on the survey. His firm and Koning Eizenberg Architecture both scored 209.5, tying for 35th place.

Details of the methodology used for generating the rankings, along with some data submitted by firms, are available on the Architect website. The rankings were determined through a complex scoring system, with the firms first rated in three separate categories — business, sustainability and design. The scores for each firm in those three categories were added together and used to generate the overall rankings.

"We had a really good year," Blackwell said. "I think they were looking for a cross-section of model practices that are fairly well-rounded."

The list of firms on this year's survey range from corporate to boutique to regional, Blackwell said. He noted that his firm has recently focused on projects representing a range of scales and diverse project types, with a diversity of design solutions.

"I think they recognized the value of what we're doing — we're fresh, we're not somebody they're typically seeing in this mix of firms," Blackwell said.

Three current projects have been challenging but also interesting and exciting for the firm. One is a new innovation lab at The Lamplighter School, a pre-kindergarten though fourth grade private school in Dallas. The original design was done by O'Neil Ford and Frank Welch, noted regional Texas architects.

Another project is the design of seven new structures, including a visitor center and events facility, at Shelby Farms Park, a 4,500-acre urban park in Memphis, now under construction. The structures are sited around the expansion of the park's central lake. Some buildings will be heated and cooled using water-source geothermal energy provided by the lake — the first project of its kind in Shelby County.

The third is closer to home — an adaptive reuse project that provided a new space for Fayetteville Montessori School's primary students. Blackwell has already designed a new award-winning elementary school space for the school, which was featured in Architectural Record. This newest portion reworked a former shopping center in Colt Square to make it compatible with the building they completed in 2012. These two school buildings are connected by a new pedestrian bridge over the creek that flows between them. The project also required a quick turnaround with a modest budget.

Blackwell's firm has received numerous awards for its work, including four national AIA Honor Awards in a row — for a pavilion at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, a Springdale church, an urban design plan in downtown Little Rock and the museum store at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

"We're breaking out because the firm itself is beginning to develop a stronger regional presence, but also expanding to a more national level," he said.

Blackwell has been a practicing architect for about 30 years, but he started his firm in 2000. That's when he moved the work out of his house, hung a shingle on a downtown office and began to hire employees. Now with 14 designers and staff in the firm, six of those designers are Fay Jones School alumni. The focus of the firm is design, but sustainability, outreach and civic engagement are big components of the work.

"We're punching above our weight, most certainly," Blackwell said. "And we're staying true to the reason we are here — we're here to enrich the civic dignity of the communities we work in, and to demonstrate that architecture can happen anywhere and for anyone."

That sentiment is one that the architect Fay Jones espoused, and it speaks to the sensibilities and possibilities of this region and state.

"Our culture understands, more and more, the value of design — how it contributes to the quality of everyday life. I think that's something people are becoming more aware of," Blackwell said.

Another Arkansas firm also was among those recognized in the Architect survey. Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects, with offices in Little Rock and Fayetteville, ranked 31st among the top 50 firms in the Design category. This is the third year that the firm was recognized in the Design category. A majority of the designers at Polk Stanley Wilcox are Fay Jones School alumni.