Radical Practice

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.

PRAISE FOR RADICAL PRACTICE...

"This monumentally scaled presentation of power­ful but unpretentious design comes on the heels of the award of the AIA Gold Medal to Arkansas­-based architect and principal of his namesake firm Marlon Blackwell and his partner in life and MBA co-principal Meryati Johari Blackwell....[A] profoundly persuasive tribute."

– Interior Design

Peter MacKeith is the dean of the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the University of Arkansas. Based in Fayetteville, he is a senior fellow of the Design Futures Council and a Design Intelligence Design Educator of the Year.

Jonathan Boelkins, an architect and writer based in Fayetteville, Arkansas, teaches at the University of Arkansas Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design. He is a former studio director at Marlon Blackwell Architects.