Archinect - News

U.S. Pavilion co-commissioners make the American porch a focus at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale

2024-08-14T14:07:00-04:00

A delegation from Arkansas will be traveling to Italy to represent the United States in its official pavilion at next year’s Venice Architecture Biennale.

The announcement was made Wednesday by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The group includes presenters from The University of Arkansas's Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design in Fayetteville, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, and the independent consultancy DesignConnects, which is based in New York City.

Guided by co-commissioners Peter MacKeith, Susan Chin, and Rod Bigelow, the U.S. Pavilion will showcase their presentation, PORCH: An Architecture of Generosity, which focuses on porches' role as a social and environmental space in the American context.

A "dynamic showcase" of projects and practices from around the country, the exhibition proposes a "positive, productive" presentation of American architecture that emphasizes both empathy and education.

Rela...

Marlon Blackwell reveals design for new Columbus, Indiana, air traffic control tower

2024-06-27T15:34:00-04:00

Marlon Blackwell Architects has shared an update to their planned air traffic control tower project in Columbus, Indiana, following its initial announcement in December 2023. Renderings of the design revealed this week detail the firm’s pledge to create “more than a piece of infrastructure” but rather “a beacon of Columbus’s architectural and design heritage” standing as a “key gateway into the city."

Rendering by Conica/courtesy of Marlon Blackwell Architects

As such, the 129-foot stainless steel and aluminum creation is set to include a multi-purpose space for education and community events. Thornton Tomasetti is included as a partner for the tower’s facade design.

Rendering by Conica/courtesy of Marlon Blackwell Architects render courtesy of Conica

Construction will progress along a two-year timeline to the early spring of 2027 following the $11.5 million project’s groundbreaking in early 2025.

Rendering by Conica/courtesy of Marlon Blackwell Architects

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Marlon Blackwell to design new air traffic control tower for Columbus Municipal Airport in Indiana

2023-12-19T14:09:00-05:00

Marlon Blackwell Architects has announced it will be designing a new air traffic control tower at the Columbus Municipal Airport in Columbus, Indiana. The $11.5 million project helps the airport modernize its facilities in line with current Federal Aviation Administration Air Traffic Control Tower design and safety standards.

Plans call for a 100-foot design to replace an aged-out 80-foot tower with help from a team that includes Woolpert (aviation design), Guy Nordenson (structural design), Thornton Tomasetti (façade design), and Threshold Acoustics (acoustic consulting). The project is being supported, in part, by a grant from the Cummins Architecture Foundation.

Marlon Blackwell was selected over other shortlisted finalists from Snow Kreilich Architects, SO – IL, and Höweler + Yoon.

“We are so honored to have been selected to contribute to the architectural legacy of Columbus,” Blackwell sa...

Marlon Blackwell will deliver a new memorial to the Global War on Terror on the National Mall in Washington

2023-07-13T08:00:00-04:00

Marlon Blackwell Architects has been selected as the designer of an important new memorial to veterans and service members lost during America’s decades-long War on Terror on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

The Arkansas-based firm was announced as the project’s lead following a search process that began last summer with submissions from 177 different U.S. and international competitors. Its development will be guided by a newly-created Design Advisory Council (DAC) comprised of Gold Star family members, veterans, and "other stakeholders." The project was commissioned by the nonprofit Global War on Terrorism Memorial Foundation, which was first founded in 2015.

The foundation’s President and CEO Michael “Rod” Rodriguez complemented the designer’s “ability, credibility, and humility to lead the design of an inclusive and reverent Memorial,” adding “Marlon’s proven track record as a world-class designer, combined with his personal experiences in a family with a history of military...

Meejin Yoon, Walter Hood, and Kathryn Gustafson among newly elected members of the 2021 American Academy of Arts and Letters

2021-03-08T13:14:00-05:00

The American Academy of Arts and Letters awards three architects and three landscape architects as new Academy members. Founded in 1898, each selected cohort becomes a part of an honors society comprised of architects, artists, composers, and writers. Once elected, they become members for life

Twenty-nine new members have been inducted as honorary members for their work and contributions. The Academy's board shares they are "committed to creating a more inclusive membership that truly represents America, and believes that expanding the Academy's membership will allow the Academy to more readily achieve that goal. The increase also reflects the growth in population over the past century. The expansion will be realized incrementally over the next five years."

Meejin Yoon of Höweler + Yoon Architecture

Meejin Yoon. Photo by Andy Ryan.

Founder partner of Höweler + Yoon Architecture alongside Eric Höweler, Yoon is also the first female Dean at the College of Architecture, Art and Planning...

Marlon Blackwell Architects sues over poached casino design in Pine Bluff, Arkansas

2019-12-31T14:12:00-05:00

The Arkansas-based architect is undergoing a court case regarding his work and designs for the Saracen Resort Casino in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Blackwell filed a suit against HBG Design, Saracen Development and John Berrey, chairman of the Quapaw tribe’s business committee.

A distinguished architect who recently won the AIA's highest honor for his work earlier this month claims that his designs were "stolen." According to a recent report from the Arkansas Times the lawsuit explains, "the agreement wasn’t honored and Blackwell’s copyrighted designs were “stolen” for use on the project and Blackwell wasn’t paid. The suit says further that HBG had “poisoned” the Blackwell firm’s relationship with the Quapaw tribe and Blackwell had been removed from the project."

Max Brantley, of the Arkansas Times, was able to receive a prepared statement from John Berrey, chairman of the Quapaw tribe's business committee.

"We think that Mr. Blackwell is a very talented boutique architect. But function...

AIA Gold Medal goes to Marlon Blackwell, ARO receives 2020 AIA Firm Award

2019-12-11T16:43:00-05:00

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has announced its two top honors for 2020.

The AIA Board of Directors announced today that architect Marlon Blackwell will receive the 2020 Gold Medal citation, which honors "an individual whose significant body of work has had a lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture," according to an official statement. According to the AIA, Blackwell is being recognized specifically for a "body of transcendent work" in Northwest Arkansas. Blackwell is the founder of Marlon Blackwell Architects, the E. Fay Jones Chair in Architecture at the E. Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design in Arkansas, and was recently named as one of the "30 Most Admired Educators" by DesignIntelligence.

Shelby Farms Park, Memphis, Tennessee | Marlon Blackwell Architects + James Corner Field Operations. Photo: Timothy Hursley.

Thom Mayne, 2013 AIA Gold Medal recipient and founder of Morphosis, writing in support of Blackwell’s nomination says, "As a p...

Marlon Blackwell and Rick Joy in conversation

2015-03-26T12:00:00-04:00

Architects Marlon Blackwell and Rick Joy have built their practices marrying diligent attention to the existing community, ecology, and building culture of a place with the refined craft of contemporary architecture. [...] The two sat down with Anne Rieselbach, the League’s Program Director, in October 2014 to discuss their first meeting 15 years ago, teaching, drawing, distaste for e-mail, and “transgressing the vernacular.”