Marlon Blackwell, FAIA, is a practicing architect in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and serves as the E. Fay Jones Distinguished Professor at the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the University of Arkansas. Work produced in his professional office, Marlon Blackwell Architects (MBA), has received national and international recognition with significant publication in books, architectural journals and magazines and more than 160 design awards. Marlon earned a Bachelor of Architecture and Science in Environmental Design from Auburn University as well as a Master of Architecture at Syracuse University. During his education he also studied abroad in Florence, Italy.
Blackwell is the recipient of the 2020 AIA Gold Medal, the Institute’s highest honor, which recognizes those whose work has had an enduring impact on the theory and practice of architecture. He is a lifetime member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Blackwell received the 2016 Cooper Hewitt National Design Award in Architecture and ranked #1 in Design as part of the 2016 Architect 50. Blackwell was a 2019 William A. Bernoudy Architect in Residence at the American Academy in Rome, inducted into the National Academy of Design in 2018, and selected as a United States Artists Ford Fellow in 2014. He received the E. Fay Jones Gold Medal from the Arkansas AIA in 2017 and the 2012 Architecture Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Marlon was named the 2020 SEC Professor of The Year and as one of DesignIntelligence magazine’s “30 Most Admired Educators” for 2015. Blackwell was elected as a member to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2023 — joining a list that includes such luminaries as Alexander Hamilton, Duke Ellington, Eudora Welty and Albert Einstein.
