Issuu

HOLISTIC DESIGN

radical architecture for education

MARLON BLACKWELL ARCHITECTS ⁄⁄ FAYETTEVILLE, AR

PROJECT BEFORE PRIDE

EXCELLENT BEFORE EASY

CURIOSITY BEFORE JUDGMENT

CLARITY BEFORE HASTE

PEOPLE BEFORE PRODUCT

These principles and processes describe our history and work—but also explain why we continue to explore and experiment. We are dedicated to being honest about what we do and why we do it. THIS IS WHY OUR ACADEMIC ARCHITECTURE IS HOLISTIC DESIGN.

MARLON BLACKWELL ARCHITECTS ⁄⁄ FAYETTEVILLE, AR

ABOUT MARLON BLACKWELL ARCHITECTS

Marlon Blackwell Architects (MBA) is full-service architecture firm based in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Our belief that design can happen anywhere, at any scale and at any budget—for anyone—drives us to challenge the customs and models that inhibit possibilities. We deliver a maximum of meaning in projects where design is often not expected to be found.

Led by Marlon Blackwell, recipient of the 2020 AIA Gold Medal, we have a successful history of designing and implementing multi-scale projects throughout the country. We achieve this by advocating a collaborative process between the client, community and ourselves—as well as the entire design team— where all voices are heard. We are sensitive to the needs and environmental aspirations of our clients and work diligently to provide elegant and sustainable designs.

We have earned an international design reputation through recognition of our work in many publications, including architectural design journals and books, and receiving more than 130 design awards including state, regional, national and international awards.

REGARDLESS OF SCALE OR SCOPE, WE SERVE EACH PROJECT WITH A HIGH LEVEL OF RIGOR AND CARE. While speaking to the universal language of design, we implement a situational approach to respond to specific conditions and circumstances. On every project, we strive to express the richness of the place and the ideals of the clients we serve.

DESIGN PHILOSOPHY & APPROACH

Throughout our work, we strive to elevate the built environment and the human experiences within, bringing pride and grace to communities and institutions. We balance the singular and the universal, the sensible and sensual, the elemental and the fundamental to create solutions that are not dependent on any style but highly responsive to culture, climate, and context. This is an act of resistance to the flattening of the world’s cultural and natural diversity in an age of globalization and is a refusal to accept less than what we believe possible. We see the world as we find it as a source of rich opportunity.

Ultimately, our work pursues an architecture of use and beauty, rooted in its place, resistant to commodification, constructed of local material—found or manufactured—with an evocative atmosphere, and poetic qualities that affect us deeply. In all projects, we seek to challenge and direct our circumstances rather than allowing circumstance to direct us. We strive to embrace the world without being consumed by it, to enrich the significance of the day-to-day experience of the world for those who engage our work.

Motivated by curiosity before judgment, MBA seeks resonance with place, finding value in the culture-made and nature-made conditions that constitute the built environment as an emergent expression worthy of consideration. Often dramatically distinct and contrasting from each other, these divergent but intersecting explorations challenge the assumptions of both the designers and Owners—seeking a point of convergence and clarity where the essential project values were discovered.

We are committed to these fundamental ethics:

» Extending architecture by working in overlooked places, for underserved communities

» Fostering development of diverse voices, bringing more varied experiences and voices to the profession

» Challenging our understanding of the client and project needs through research and asking questions

» Exceeding expectations for each project, for the owner and design team from concept through occupancy

» Responsible stewardship of the built environment, of our communities, of enhancing downtown fabrics

COMMITMENT TO LEARNING

Today's students are digital natives, never knowing life without iPhones or learning on laptops and tablets. This has made them need active engagement and a "meaning" in their education. This is a changing world that is obligated to prepare future generations to even more change.

That is why MBA is committed to our current and future generations of students. We ask inquisitive questions, engage critical thinkers, and encourage everyone to collaborate across disciplines. The culture and expectations in our schools must adapt to the needs of 21st century learners. We must anticipate the inflection point in the current trajectory of education.

As we begin the design process for creating a new school, or expanding an existing campus, we commit to fundamental ethics that are integral to our studio such as working in overlooked places for underserved communities.

MBA ENGAGES SCHOOL LEADERS AND PROGRESSIVE FACULTY TO LEARN HOW DESIGN IMPACTS ACADEMICS AND THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE.

In order for change to occur we must embrace the unknown, ask tough questions, and develop a toolset that will help guide our decisions along the way.

STEVEN L. ANDERSON DESIGN CENTER ⁄⁄ UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS

INTEGRATED & SUSTAINABLE DESIGN

Integrated and sustainable design is a key commitment of all MBA’s projects. As architects, we understand the reality of finite resources and take seriously our role as stewards of the built environment. On each project, regardless of scale or budget, we commit ourselves to work toward integrated solutions—both through process with our project team and in the architecture— so that we can craft lasting, timeless buildings.

Attentive to both durability and efficiency, we integrate passive and active elements into our work to create powerful architecture that is environmentally responsive. While we are committed to sustainable design, we are skeptical of the solutions that often “green-wash” a building to achieve a certification.

We seek common sense strategies that first consider daylight, shading, prevailing breezes, building orientation, and site organization and eschew the over-articulated or overproduced. The model can then be tested and analyzed to understand daylighting and energy use. By doing so, we can develop metrics that inform decision making early in the process related to energy, life cycle cost, and material systems. This allows our team to fully integrate our thinking with other members of our project team as

we build a comprehensive digital model of the proposal. With facilities that are intended to be multi-generational, lasting at least 50 years, operational sustainability is critical.

Perhaps the most critical act of sustainability is to repurpose or renew what is already there. Throughout our work, we have demonstrated a commitment to adaptive reuse. The Steven L. Anderson Design Center exemplifies our ability to carefully knit

a modern addition with an existing, historic building, Vol Walker Hall. Together, the project, home to the University of Arkansas’s Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, represents a successful renewal and extension of the historic Vol Walker Hall, creating a dynamic, 21st century building that achieved LEED Gold Certification and exemplifies the School’s spirit and ideals.

SECTION 2

PROJECT EXPERIENCE

THADEN IS A NEW INDEPENDENT

middle and high school that blends academic rigor with hands-on learning. “A private school with a public purpose,” the school’s unique curriculum combines academic excellence with learning by doing.

Located in Bentonville, its campus features six buildings, five by MBA, and one by EDR, and two parcels for future growth. Each building supports one of the key academic programs or elements on site, including the renovation of the childhood home of the school’s namesake, Louise Thaden. The campus was planned by Andropogon together with MBA and EDR as a sustainable and ecologically performative urban pastoral classroom that links the academic and athletic portions of the site.

Large central entry porches including at the Reels building extends spatial connections to the campus center, the Performance building and a courtyard shared with the Thaden House. The undulating roofs of both the Reels and Wheels buildings gesture up and reach out at the public entrances and porches to connect and activate various landscape spaces within the campus, while splitting at the center to illuminate the double loaded corridors and classrooms. The colors of the metal cladding that characterizes the academic buildings speaks to the specific colors of gold and green found in the regional native landscape ecosystems. The Bike Barn is sited carefully on the western parcel anchoring the recreational programs which abut the floodplain that cuts along the site. The dynamic profile of the barn conceals the recognizable form of the gambrel barn as a negative shape framed by wooden trusses.

THADEN SCHOOL CAMPUS

BENTONVILLE, ARKANSAS

IN COLLABORATION WITH Eskew Dumez Ripple

LOCAL VERNACULAR

In developing the Master Plan, MBA took precedents from the local vernacular, particularly the idea of the regional farmstead. In the same way buildings in agricultural landscapes might be loosely organized to create semi-enclosed spaces, the campus was defined around four main buildings that stretch across the landscape; bending and wrapping to define a new kind of campus.

BIKE BARN REELS PERFORMANCE WHEELS

SUNLIGHT + SCALE

Continuous daylight from transoms and built-in collaboration spaces transform typical school hallways into a light-filled hub of activity. Classrooms and labs all have subtle variations in scale and section but all enjoy abundant natural light and immediate connections to the surrounding landscape.

TRANSFORMING A GAMBREL BARN

The Bike Barn animates the form of a gambrel barn pushing and pulling the work points of the original truss to create porches, skylights, and a mezzanine above the main athletic court. Recalling its initial form, the space is carved into the interior, further accommodating the Thaden School team, the Barnstormers.

FAYETTEVILLE HIGH SCHOOL

FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH Hight Jackson Associates + DLR Group

THE NEW FAYETTEVILLE HIGH

School project is a major optimization of a centrally-located 33 acre site—one where the planning and architecture proactively supports and promotes it's students, teachers and administration.

Prior to renovation and expansion, the Fayetteville High School was a conglomeration of numerous buildings without an identity. The school district recognized the need to support a growing population and provide critical upgrades to the security and infrastructure of the school. MBA worked with the school to visualize the possibilities for an expanded campus and helped the project gain critical community support.

The completed project presents a unified campus, embracing its role in the community and the public at large, negotiating between downtown Fayetteville and the Ozarks beyond. It provides a modernized, cohesive facility, allowing for enhanced educational opportunities for its students. The renovation is wrapped in a stone and metal panel skin to provide a cohesive visual language with the addition. Together, the project augments the civic stature of the building while elevating the presence of the school in the community.

EXISTING SCHOOL CAMPUS

PHASE 1: GYMNASIUM AND PERFORMING ARTS

PHASE 2: CLASSROOM RENOVATIONS & ADDITIONS

DESIGN TO SUPPORT THE UNIQUENESS OF SITE

With the site dropping 89 feet from north to south, the division of the two buildings navigates the steep slope while not overwhelming the scale of the surrounding residential neighborhoods.

Serving both an educational and a community role, the new school features simplified circulation and greatly improved security built around a public Entry Plaza and a pedestrian Green Street, which extends east-west across the full length of the site. Green Street helps negotiate the change in topography by providing a landing in the middle of the sloping site and establishing an outdoor space that connects the teaching spaces to the north with the more public spaces, administration, and Student Commons to the south. Built in two phases over four years, the design allowed the construction team to proceed with construction without displacing a single day of school.

EFFICIENCY & SECURITY

Serving both an educational and a civic role, FHS features simplified circulation and an improved, modern security focus built around a public entry plaza and pedestrian green street.

FIRM WIDE THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

At Marlon Blackwell Architects, our Partners, Marlon Blackwell and Meryati (Ati) Blackwell, are the lead designers on every project—and deeply engaged throughout the process providing continual attention of the highest quality. Our team of Senior Associates, manage and develop our studio to ensure project teams are supported with the processes, technology and tools needed to ensure excellent results. Individually and collectively, they have been instrumental in growing our firm’s capacity to deliver great complexity and nuance.

Our team’s extensive experience in Architecture and Interior Design provides a seamless approach to interior and exterior materials and to the unity of design, regardless of scale. EVERY MEMBER OF MARLON BLACKWELL ARCHITECTS HAS WORKED ON A WIDE ARRAY OF PROJECTS OF VARYING ASPIRATIONS, COMPLEXITY AND RESOURCES and is committed to solving problems with design, while developing work that is durable, secure and timeless.

The design process requires collaboration to develop compelling designs, rich with the influence of clients, stakeholders, engineers, fellow architects, landscape architects, and specialty designers. We assemble teams that share this dedication and WORK IN A TRUE SPIRIT OF COLLABORATION WITH TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY, knowing that the best work comes from working cooperatively and constructively on every project no matter how modest or honorific. More than thirty years of practice has reaffirmed that the cooperation Architecture demands is imperative and the pretext for forming and sustaining lifelong relationships.

FIRM LEADERSHIP

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

LICENSED ARCHITECTS

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN

INTERIOR DESIGN

FF&E MANAGEMENT

BIM MANAGEMENT

VISUALIZATION DESIGN

QA/QC MANAGEMENT

GC BIDDING ADVISEMENT

AOC MEETING COORDINATION

CONSTRUCTION OBSERVATION/ADMIN

As with all our projects, MBA's leadership and experienced staff are invested in developing the skills, capacities and tools needed to achieve the project's aspirations, as well as the physical needs of the contract from kick-off to completion.

MARLON BLACKWELL FAIA

marlon@marlonblackwell.com // 479.973.9121

BIOGRAPHY

Marlon has practiced in Fayetteville, Arkansas, for over thirty years and serves as the E. Fay Jones Distinguished Professor at the Fay Jones School of Architecture + Design at the University of Arkansas. His distinct and original voice has produced iconic and award-winning designs across typologies, scales and budgets. He has been selected as the recipient of the 2020 AIA Gold Medal, an honor which recognizes those whose work has had an enduring impact on the theory and practice of architecture.

Marlon was a 2019 Resident Fellow of the American Academy in Rome and was inducted into the National Academy of Design in 2018. Marlon’s significant contribution to design have also been recognized by being named a United States Artists Ford Fellow in 2014, receiving the Architecture Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2012, and the E. Fay Jones Gold Medal from the Arkansas AIA in 2017. Earlier in his career, Marlon was selected by The International Design Magazine in 2006, as one of the ID Forty: Undersung Heroes and as an “Emerging Voice” in 1998 by the Architectural League of New York.

EDUCATION

» Syracuse University: Master of Architecture [1991] (Studied in Italy)

» Auburn University: Bachelor of Architecture and Science in Environmental Design [1980]

REGISTRATIONS

» Registered Architect in Arkansas + 15 Other States

» NCARB Certified INVOLVEMENT

» Fellow, American Institute of Architects

» American Institute of Architects –Arkansas Chapter

» National Council of Architectural Registration Boards

MERYATI BLACKWELL AIA,

ati@marlonblackwell.com // 479.973.9121

NCIDQ, LEED AP

BIOGRAPHY

Meryati (Ati) brings over thirty years of experience to her role as Partner at Marlon Blackwell Architects (MBA), where she also serves as Director of Interiors. Her sensitivity as a designer and knowledge of materials and details enrich every project in the office. Ati has been a guiding force in the growth of MBA, helping to transform the firm from a sole proprietorship to a thriving international practice it is today. She works alongside Marlon to thoughtfully ground and guide the design ethos as the firm grows; always supporting the creation of award-winning architecture for any place, at any scale, at any price and for anyone. With a degree in Architecture and Planning, Meryati is both a Registered Architect and a Registered Interior Designer as well as a LEED Accredited Professional.

During her tenure at Marlon Blackwell Architects, Meryati has been integrally involved in the realization of numerous noteworthy and award winning projects including the Marygrove Early Education Center, Crystal Bridges Museum Store, Blessings Golf Clubhouse, Steven L Anderson Design Center and Vol Walker Hall, Montessori Schools, Northwest Arkansas Free Health and the L-Stack Residence.