by Caroline Hickman
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark-The 2018 World Architecture Festival Awards, the world’s largest architecture design awards program, chose an Arkansas Architect to participate in the ceremony.
Marlon Blackwell has been chosen for final consideration for his project “The Buildings in the Heart of the Park at Shelby Farms Park in Memphis, Tennessee”. The project is one of 16 in the Completed Buildings–Civic and Community category. Along with that distinct category, it is the only U.S. project entered in it.
This project created by Blackwell is part of a major redesign of Shelby Farms Park that was developed by James Corner Field Operations. Shelby Farms Park is a 4,500 square foot non-profit park that served as a prison farm in the past. Now the park is an attraction offers recreational areas and trails for everybody in the Memphis area.
Blackwell sits as the E. Fay Jones Chair in Architecture. and also serves as a Distinguished Professor in the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the University of Arkansas. His professional architectural firm is here in Fayetteville.