Radical Practice | the work of marlon blackwell architects
Radical Practice celebrates the extraordinary, award-winning designs of Marlon Blackwell Architects, an Arkansas-based firm with a focus on public and civic projects that are located outside of the established centers of architectural culture.
The distinct and original work of Marlon Blackwell Architects has produced iconic and award-winning designs across building types, scales, and budgets. Located in Arkansas, the firm merges the universal language of architecture and the particulars of place, a process that has resulted in a distinguished body of work, from schools to parks and beyond.
Celebrating thirty years of practice by the 2020 AIA Gold Medal-winning architect Marlon Blackwell, this survey of more than a dozen buildings pairs detailed drawings and the vivid photographs of renowned photographer Timothy Hursley with essays by leading designers, planners, and artists. Contributors include Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, architects of the Obama Presidential Center; Maurice Cox, Chicago's city planning director; Pritzker Prize-winning architect Thom Mayne, James Corner, landscape architect of the High Line, and environmental artist Mary Miss among many others—all of whom attest to Blackwell's reputation as a leading voice of his generation.
Jonathan Boelkins was Co-Editor with Peter MacKeith and contributed an essay titled ‘Editor’s Notes: A Conditional Manifesto’ as well as ‘Foundations and Principles: Notes on an Expanded Practice, Marlon Blackwell in conversation with PeterMacKeith and Jonathan Boelkins’.
SMALL FIRM SUCCESS: how small firms can thrive in an age of acceleration
This book examines what it takes to be a successful small architecture firm. There are ten case studies sponsored by the American Institute of Architects and the Design Futures Council. Full color with business metrics and award-winning work, including a 3,000 word ‘manifesto’ for Marlon Blackwell Architects.
MARLON BLACKWELL 2020 AIA GOLD MEDAL
The Gold Medal is the AIA’s highest annual honor, recognizing individuals whose work has had a lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture. Jonathan Boelkins prepared the portfolio, jury presentation, and script on behalf of Marlon Blackwell.
M³: Morphosis Model Monograph
The work of Pritzker Prize–winning architect Thom Mayne and that of the firm Morphosis at its most pure is best seen in the models that preceded the buildings, masterworks made at scale, for the first time comprehensively gathered—and shown here. Jonathan Boelkins contributed to essays by Marlon Blackwell of Marlon Blackwell Architects and Steve Dumez of Eskew Dumez Ripple.
SHELBY FARMS PARK : ELEVATING A CITY
This is the unlikely and inspiring story of how a sprawling footprint of a former prison became a leading American park. At 4,500 acres, the Shelby Farms Park in Memphis, Tennessee, is the largest urban park in the United States--more than five times the size of New York's Central Park. This book about the vision, process, benchmarks and priorities that led to the building of this great park show how people with vision can change a community, and how support from the public can protect land for future generations. The book includes a 1,000 word essay written on behalf of Marlon Blackwell.
THE VIETNAM MEMORIAL : A POSTMODERN REFLECTION
