Marlon Blackwell Project for Kresge Foundation Wins Special Prize in International Awards Program

One of three courtyards that bring abundant natural light inside the Marygrove Early Education Center.

A reading nook at the Marygrove Early Education Center.

South-facing rooms open directly onto a grove of trees that is now a large natural play space.

The campus offers generous of space for outdoor play and activities.

The new center is located near the flagship building on the former Marygrove College campus, the 1927 Tudor Gothic Liberal Arts building.

An aerial view of the Marygrove Early Education Center on the former Marygrove College campus.

A twilight view of the Marygrove Early Education Center.

All photos by Timothy Hursley

The Marygrove Early Education Center is a state-of-the-art early childhood education center located on the campus of the former Marygrove College in the Livernois-McNichols district of northwest Detroit.

An education center designed by the professional design practice of architecture professor Marlon Blackwell was recently recognized with a special prize in the 2022 Dedalo Minosse International Prize awards program. 

The Regione del Veneto Special Prize itself was awarded to the Kresge Foundation, Blackwell’s client that commissioned the Marygrove Early Education Center in Detroit.

Blackwell, FAIA, is a Distinguished Professor and the E. Fay Jones Chair in Architecture in the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the U of A, where he has taught since 1992. He is the recipient of the 2020 AIA Gold Medal. His professional practice, Marlon Blackwell Architects, is based in Fayetteville. 

Blackwell traveled to Vicenza, Italy, to attend the Sept. 16 awards ceremony, which was held at Teatro Olimpico, designed by the Renaissance architect Palladio and constructed in 1580–1585. 

“This is a great honor for the Kresge Foundation and MBA, and most importantly for the children and families and the wonderful teachers and staff at the Marygrove EEC,” Blackwell said. “Being celebrated at the international level out of hundreds of entrants is a testament to the vital mission-driven collaboration between our client, Kresge, and our design team.”

The Marygrove Early Education Center is a state-of-the-art early childhood education center located on the campus of the former Marygrove College in the Livernois-McNichols district of northwest Detroit. It is the first new building on the campus in decades, one specifically built to house early childhood programs to benefit the surrounding neighborhood, which has suffered from an array of economic and education problems related to the decline of Detroit.  

The center supports 150 students up to age 5 from local neighborhoods, which reflects the diversity of the community. The center extends the legacy of the now closed Marygrove College as a beacon of education and contributes to its ongoing efforts to revitalize the surrounding neighborhood.

“Marlon Blackwell has created a transformational space that demonstrates dignity for young children. It’s a magnificent and integral part of a neighborhood working to revive,” said Wendy Lewis Jackson, managing director of The Kresge Foundation’s Detroit Program, which, along with a range of educational partners, is creating a cradle-to-career educational continuum on the campus of the former Marygrove College. The Marygrove Early Education Center is a key part of that.

“To see this Detroit project honored by an international panel of judges is an incredible validation of what we’ve achieved with our Marygrove campus partners,” said Jackson, who also admits being brought to tears more than once by the beauty of the center and the way it honors early learners, their families and their community.

The center is located just east of the flagship building on the Marygrove College campus, the four-story Tudor Gothic Liberal Arts building from 1927. This new 28,871-square-foot center is both resonant and deferential, clad in terra-cotta within a low but distinct profile. Referring to the detail and heft of materials used in neighboring structures and the broader memory of historic masonry structures in Detroit, the center’s facade represents a progressive 21st-century application of a traditional building material. Colorful highlights are interspersed throughout the facade, providing a second layer of articulation that reflects the vibrancy of the children inside and the diversity of the surrounding community.

Three courtyards bring abundant natural light inside and highlight the journey from the entrance to the classrooms. Adjacent to the building entrance are resources for families and the community of caregivers within the neighborhood, such as a parent lounge, a community room and a flex space. At the heart of the building, beside the central courtyard, is an informal community gathering space for school performances, meetings and events. Each classroom has a view to the landscape, and south-facing rooms open directly onto a grove of trees that is now a large natural play space.

Through careful design and planning, the Marygrove center serves families and provides a safe, nurturing and inspiring environment for children to grow socially, physically and intellectually. It also offers a place for children to experience the rhythm of the days and seasons, inspiring their imaginations, empowering them to learn through play and creativity. It imparts dignity, grace and joy to the children, families and community members whom the center serves.

In 2008, the Kresge Foundation began to study children’s health in relation to the strength of their early education in Detroit. In response, the foundation partnered with numerous organizations to identify how Detroit could become an exemplar for serving young children and families through early childhood facilities, elevated and transformed through design.  

This initiative became part of the transformation of the former Marygrove College campus into a P-20 education model through a partnership between the Detroit Public Schools Community District, the Kresge Foundation and the University of Michigan School of Education. The P-20 model is an all-in-one campus offering a continuum of support for families starting with prenatal partnership and extending to K-12 and beyond. While many P-20 programs could be housed in existing campus buildings, the Kresge Foundation wanted to highlight the critical significance of early childhood education through a new building with the highest aspirations for design. 

The design for the center was informed by community neighbors, parents and children, along with best practices in behavioral health and early childhood education.

The Marygrove center is a critical part of the P-20 educational approach that is transforming the campus of the former Marygrove College and the educational landscape in Detroit. Grounded in social justice, equitable opportunity and commitment to community, the P-20 model provides access to high-quality education and holistic support services so students and families are empowered to define their own futures and that of their own neighborhood. 

The P-20 Cradle-to-Career Campus at Marygrove is composed of educational opportunities from prenatal to pre-K, K-12 to post-secondary graduate, as well as wrap-around services and community engagement programs. At full capacity, the P-20 program at Marygrove will serve roughly 1,000 Detroit children and their families, primarily living in the surrounding neighborhoods.

About the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design: The Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the University of Arkansas houses undergraduate professional design programs of architecture, landscape architecture, and interior architecture and design, together with a liberal studies program. The school also offers a Master of Design Studies, with concentrations in resiliency design, integrated wood design, and retail and hospitality design. The  DesignIntelligence 2019 School Rankings Survey listed the school among the most hired from architecture, landscape architecture and interior design schools, ranking 10th, 14th and eighth, respectively, as well as 28th among most admired architecture schools. 

About the University of Arkansas: As Arkansas' flagship institution, the U of A provides an internationally competitive education in more than 200 academic programs. Founded in 1871, the U of A contributes more than $2.2 billion to Arkansas’ economy through the teaching of new knowledge and skills, entrepreneurship and job development, discovery through research and creative activity while also providing training for professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the U of A among the few U.S. colleges and universities with the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the U of A among the top public universities in the nation. See how the U of A works to build a better world at Arkansas Research News.