Marlon Blackwell retires from 33-year teaching career at UA

Award-winning Fayetteville architect Marlon Blackwell said Monday (March 16) that he’s retiring from teaching at the University of Arkansas. His retirement was effective June 30, 2025.

Blackwell was Distinguished Professor of Architecture and the E. Fay Jones Chair in Architecture in the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design. He is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and the 2020 recipient of the AIA Gold Medal.

He plans to continue to expand his Fayetteville practice, Marlon Blackwell Architects, and to remain connected to students and colleagues through periodic teaching, lectures and mentorship.

Blackwell joined the UA faculty in 1992, taught hundreds of students, and served in leadership roles in the Fay Jones School while developing and expanding his Fayetteville-based professional practice.

“As Marlon departs from the school to devote himself more fully to the continued success of his professional practice, we have occasion to mark and admire his equally accomplished 33-year tenure as a faculty member and school administrator,” said Peter MacKeith, dean of the school. “As an architectural educator alone, Marlon has been deeply influential for a generation of Fay Jones School architecture students, and just as transformative for the school’s advancement into the ranks of nationally recognized programs in architecture and design. He has been a worthy holder of the E. Fay Jones Chair in Architecture, amplifying the legacy of the school’s namesake through his own example of the consummate educator-practitioner.”

In December, MacKeith said he will step down as dean of the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, effective June 30, 2026. He will return to the faculty and become more involved in the school’s expanding initiatives in timber wood design innovation.

The Fay Jones School will present an exhibition of Blackwell’s design work this semester with “Marlon Blackwell Architects: The Unknown, The Unbuilt, and The Possible,” on display March 30 through May 15 in Vol Walker Hall.

Dan Bennett was dean of the Fay Jones School when he hired Blackwell after Blackwell spent four years practicing in Louisiana, five years practicing in Boston, and a year in graduate school with Syracuse University in Florence, Italy, before teaching a year at Syracuse University in Syracuse, N.Y.

“The characteristic that sets Marlon Blackwell apart from his peers, both as a teacher and as an architect, is his dogged determination,” Bennett said. “A student will not leave his studio or a project completed in his office without both being the best that they can possibly become. He ensures that accomplishment by his work ethic, skill and unwillingness to accept anything less than perfection. While it is true that I told Marlon when I brought him to the U of A that I would help him establish an active practice, it was Marlon’s design talent and determination that has led to his success. His work spoke for itself, and that has resulted in the extraordinary reputation that he now enjoys.”

Blackwell served as the E. Fay Jones Chair in Architecture from 2016-2025. He was honored as the 2020 Southeastern Conference (SEC) Professor of the Year for his outstanding teaching and leadership.

“One of the best decisions I made in my life was to come here,” Blackwell said, “and to be able to teach, be able to have a career with practice, be able to raise a family, be able to do all the things you’d hoped and dream to do, and then have an institution that fundamentally supported that.”

Blackwell co-founded the UA’s Mexico Summer Urban Studio in 1994 and taught in the program for years. From 2009 to 2015, he was head of the Department of Architecture. He also coordinated the Fay Jones School’s lecture series for years and taught alongside theorist and architect Peter Eisenman when he was a visiting professor. In his teaching, Blackwell specialized in architectural design, design detailing, building technology and the American private house.

In 2019, Andrew Freear introduced Blackwell to the AIA Gold Medal committee.

“I see his impact firsthand because he regularly comes to support the mission of Rural Studio as a guest critic, a lecturer, an inspiration and, of course, comic relief,” Freear said. “He takes architecture seriously but doesn’t take himself too seriously. And the work is very serious. This is what great architects do: They inspire us; they motivate us; they elevate us; they educate us. They show us what is possible and represent our values, our ideals.

“If he does have a specialty, it would be in harnessing the power of design to transform the truly ordinary into the extraordinary. Simply put, the work of Marlon Blackwell is an inspiration to all of us who believe in the power of architecture. This is Marlon’s gift to our profession and to our discipline, and his impact reminds us that architecture is a cultural endeavor — not reserved for the elite but, rather, deserved by all.”

Blackwell was selected as the William A. Bernoudy Architect in Residence at the American Academy in Rome in 2018 and was named by “DesignIntelligence” as one of the 30 Most Admired Educators for 2015. He was inducted into the National Academy of Design in 2018 and received the E. Fay Jones Gold Medal from AIA Arkansas in 2017. In 2021, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 2023, he was elected as a member to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Blackwell’s firm worked with Arkansas-based Polk Stanley Wilcox to design the renovation of Vol Walker Hall and the Steven L. Anderson Design Center addition, which was dedicated in September 2013. The project, home of the Fay Jones School, received a 2018 AIA Honor Award, 2016 American Architecture Prize [Educational Buildings, Platinum], a 2016 AIA/CAE Educational Facility Design Award of Excellence, a 2014 Chicago Athenaeum American Architecture Award and was a 2014 World Architecture Festival Awards Finalist (Higher Education and Research).

Blackwell leads his professional practice with his partner and wife, Meryati “Ati” Blackwell, also FAIA. He’s received numerous accolades, including 23 national American Institute of Architects awards and hundreds of other honors and recognitions for the firm’s design work. Blackwell was named a recipient of an Arts & Letters Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts & Letters in 2012 – the first Arkansan so honored – and a Ford Fellow by United States Artists in 2014.

Some of his firm’s AIA award-winning projects include Gentry Public Library (2009), Crystal Bridges Museum Store (2015),  COOP Ramen (2021) and Thaden School (four awards from 2022 to 2024). Thaden School, which was planned and designed with EskewDumezRipple and Andropogon Associates, also received the 2022 James D. MacConnell Award, the 2025 Dedalo Minosse Premio Andrea Palladio Prize and the 2024-25 Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize.

The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art Campus Parking ‘Art Park’ was named a 2025 World Architecture Festival Finalist in three categories: Completed Building: Transportation, Best Use of Color and American Beauty Prize. The firm’s Heartland Whole Health Institute in Bentonville received the 2025 “Architectural Record” Healthcare Award, a 2025 “Architect’s Newspaper” Best of Design Award in Healthcare and Architectural Lighting, and was a 2025 World Architecture Festival Finalist in Completed Building: Office and Best Use of Stone.