Blackwell Chosen for 2011 Thomas Jefferson Chair at University of Virginia School of Architecture

Photo Submitted

Marlon Blackwell has been invited to hold the 2011 Thomas Jefferson Foundation Visiting Professorship at the University of Virginia School of Architecture.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – ­Marlon Blackwell, a Distinguished Professor of architecture at the University of Arkansas, has been invited to hold the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Visiting Professorship for 2011 at the University of Virginia School of Architecture.

As the Thomas Jefferson Chair, Blackwell will make four visits this semester to the campus in Charlottesville, Va., to work with Maurice Cox, an associate professor of architecture at the University of Virginia. This will be Blackwell’s first time to collaborate with Cox, who also serves on the city council in Charlottesville and is the former director of design for the National Endowment for the Arts.

Blackwell is head of the architecture department in the Fay Jones School of Architecture.

Craig Barton, associate professor of architecture and urban design and the chair of the department of architecture and landscape architecture at the University of Virginia, said the people chosen for this professorship over the last 40-plus years have distinguished themselves in various ways — some in traditional forms of practice, some in academia, and some with a mixture of both.

“Marlon is an internationally recognized designer, who has developed an important critical practice,” Barton said.

In addition to having a solid body of professional work, a viable candidate for the visiting professorship must also fit in well with the school, which is of a similar size to the Fay Jones School of Architecture.

“We are confident that Marlon is an accomplished academic and will bring his unique voice and interests to our culture, which values one-to-one interaction with students,” Barton said.

As department chair, Barton selects the Thomas Jefferson Chair each year. Cox recommended Blackwell because he thought he would be particularly interested in the project on which Cox’s students are focused ­— a former manufacturing facility in Richmond, Va., about 70 miles southeast of Charlottesville.

The students in Cox’s studio plan to consider the adaptive reuse of a campus of buildings that was the site of Fulton Gas Works, a facility that converted coal into gas that was then used for cooking fuel for the city of Richmond. The facility, which operated for about a century until closing in the 1950s, is located next to an African-American neighborhood and overlooks the James River.

As students look at the revitalization of the site and buildings, they will rethink the architecture of the structures and explore what kind of new programs, or functions, they could hold.

Blackwell’s proven skills, sensitive approach to materials and use of new materials make him well suited to this project, Barton said.

The first of Blackwell’s four visits comes Feb. 17 and 18, when he’ll review the students’ preliminary site research. In addition to the project in Richmond, Blackwell will also work with students in design studios, provide critiques during design reviews and present lectures in a variety of classes, including one focused on contemporary theory. He’ll also meet informally with students during social events. Blackwell will present a public lecture on April 18.

Past recipients of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Visiting Professorship include Kathryn Moore of Birmingham, United Kingdom; Elias Torres of Barcelona, Spain; Robert L. Pressey of Perth, Australia; Michael Graves of Princeton, N.J.; and Glenn Murcutt of Sydney, Australia.

Blackwell said he’s honored to hold the Thomas Jefferson Chair at the University of Virginia, which was founded and designed by Jefferson, who was also an architect. Blackwell revels in Jefferson’s legacy, and said the University of Virginia is the best-designed university campus in the country.

Blackwell also appreciates the academic approach taken by Virginia’s architecture school. “It’s a school where design and making are highly valued,” he said. Blackwell also simply enjoys “the ability to come in and talk about what I love doing.” He looks forward to the chance to create a dialogue between the University of Virginia and University of Arkansas schools of architecture.

In fall 2009, Blackwell was the Eliel Saarinen Visiting Professor in the A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the
University of Michigan.

In addition to this recent visiting professorship invitation, Blackwell has also received recognition for work done through his Fayetteville-based firm, Marlon Blackwell Architect. The firm was included in a “best of” list compiled by Residential Architect magazine. For each of the 50 firms chosen for “The Short List,” the feature includes a short profile in the magazine, with the addition of a handful of questions and answers on the website. In his online answers, Blackwell revealed his favorite building (La Tourette monastery, by Le Corbusier) and whom he’d hire to design his house if he didn’t do it himself (Chilean architect Smiljan Radic).

Also, three projects by his firm have been featured in recent weeks on ArchDaily, the “world’s most visited website for architects,” according to its home page. Blessings Golf Clubhouse and Guardhouse, a 2005 project with combined space of more than 27,000 square feet in Johnson, Ark., was featured Jan. 28. Arkansas House, a Northwest Arkansas home that was reimagined after fire damage, was featured Feb. 2. Porchdog House, an affordable prototype home in East Biloxi, Miss., designed for the Architecture for Humanity Model Home Program, was featured Feb. 6.