Marlon Blackwell-Designed Marygrove Education Center Wins 2023 AIA Architecture Award

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. The project won a 2023 Honor Award for Architecture from the American Institute of Architects.

An education center designed by the professional design practice of architecture professor Marlon Blackwell has won a 2023 Architecture Award from the American Institute of Architects. Marygrove Early Education Center in Detroit, designed by Marlon Blackwell Architects, was one of 16 projects recognized with an Honor Award for Architecture this year.

The AIA Architecture awards program celebrates the best contemporary architecture regardless of budget, size, style or type. This year's winning projects demonstrate the range of work architects create and highlight the many ways buildings and spaces can improve people's lives.  

The AIA Honor Awards program is the top design awards program nationally for architecture, urban design and interior architecture. This year's award-winning projects and other honorees will be celebrated in June at the 2023 AIA Conference on Architecture and Expo in San Francisco.

Blackwell, FAIA, is Distinguished Professor of architecture 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 2020 AIA Gold Medalist. His professional practice, Marlon Blackwell Architects, is based in Fayetteville.

This is the second project by Blackwell to receive an AIA Honor Award this year. The master plan for Thaden School, an Arkansas project planned and designed by EskewDumezRipple, Marlon Blackwell Architects and Andropogon Associates, also won a 2023 AIA Honor Award for Regional and Urban Design.

"We are delighted that the Marygrove EEC has been recognized with this most significant design award," Blackwell said. "The design and the owners' aspirations are truly aligned for foundational early childhood learning as an exceptional facility and provider model for Detroit and the nation."

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.

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.

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.

Blackwell's firm has received a total of 17 national AIA awards. This latest award is the ninth AIA Honor Award for the firm — across the categories of Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Regional and Urban Design.

The jury for the 2023 Architecture Awards comprised chair Ashley Wilson, FAIA, of Ashley Wilson Architect, based in Alexandria, Virginia; Jose Leo Arango, Assoc. AIA, from EYP in Washington, D.C.; Randall Deutsch, FAIA, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign School of Architecture in Champaign; Gabriel Ignacio Dziekiewicz, AIA, from DesignBridge in Chicago; Teresa Jan, AIA, from Multistudio in San Francisco; Luis Nieves-Ruiz, from East Central Florida's Regional Planning Council in Orlando; and Zakiya Wiggins, AIA, from LS3P in Raleigh, North Carolina.