MARLON BLACKWELL, FAIA
Principal, Marlon Blackwell Architects

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 + Design at the University of Arkansas. Marlon is integrally involved in every phase of the design process, from programming through construction administration, for every project Marlon Blackwell Architects pursues. He is involved on a daily basis, working to establish the design direction and works directly with client leadership on critical issues, ensuring a successful outcome and meaningful relationship. As our references will attest, Marlon is accessible and involved. His keen attention to detail and design rigor ensure the success of every project, evident in his acclaim as an architect and educator.

The office of Marlon Blackwell Architects received the 2016 Cooper Hewitt National Design Award in Architecture and ranked #1 in Design as part of the Architect 50, a national survey of architecture firms. In 2011, Marlon Blackwell Architects was recognized as the Firm of the Year by Residential Architect Magazine. The firm has earned an international design reputation through recognition of its work in many publications, including architectural design journals and books, and receiving more than 120 design awards including state, regional, national and international awards.

Marlon 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 was a 2019 Resident Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, inducted into the 2018 National Academy of Design and received the E. Fay Jones Gold Medal from the Arkansas AIA in 2017. A monograph of his early work entitled “An Architecture of the Ozarks: The Works of Marlon Blackwell” was published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2005. Marlon was selected by The International Design Magazine, in 2006, as one of the ID Forty: Undersung Heroes and as an “Emerging Voice” in 1998 by the Architectural League of New York.

Marlon was named the 2020 SEC Professor of The Year and as one of DesignIntelligence magazine’s “30 Most Admired Educators” for 2015. He has co-taught design studios with Peter Eisenman (1997 & 1998), Christopher Risher (2000), and Julie Snow (2003).  Other visiting academic appointments include the McDermott Visiting Professor at the University of Texas at Austin (Spring 2016), the George Baird Professor at Cornell University (Fall 2012), the Thomas Jefferson Professor at the University of Virginia (Spring 2011), the Elliel Saarinen Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan (Fall 2009), the Ivan Smith Distinguished Professor at the University of Florida (Spring 2009), the Paul Rudolph Visiting Professor at Auburn University (Spring 2008), the Cameron Visiting Professor at Middlebury College (Fall 2007), the Ruth and Norman Moore Visiting Professor at Washington University in St. Louis (Spring 2003) and visiting graduate professor at MIT in Spring 2001 and 2002.

ISABEL MARTINEZ ABASCAL
Founder, LANZA Atelier, Mexico City

Isabel Martínez Abascal graduated as an architect from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. She studied at the Technische Universität in Berlin and at the Vastu Shilpa Foundation in Ahmedabad (India). She collaborated with the studios SANAA (Tokyo), Aranguren and Gallegos (Madrid), Anupama Kundoo (Berlin) and Pedro Mendes da Rocha (Sao Paulo).

She has been design studio professor for six years in the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, Escola da Cidade, in Sao Paulo. She has participated as faculty at the 24th International Workshop of Cartagena, at the Ibero-American Biennial in Medellin 2010, at the International Seminar of Curitiba 2012 and at the Rio Olympics Workshop of the California College of the Arts 2012. She participated in the curating of the 10th Biennial Of Architecture of São Paulo, 2013 and curated the exhibition “13” for the inaugural cycle of the La Conservera Museum, Murcia 2014 and the exhibition “Visionary Instruments” by the artist Almudena Lobera for the ECCO Museum, Cadiz 2015.

Since July 2015 until August 2017, she was executive director of the LIGA, Space for Architecture platform in Mexico City, dedicated to the exhibition, dissemination and discussion of Latin American architecture.

CARLOS MADRID III
Associate Director at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s Los Angeles office

With more than 20 years of experience in architecture and interior design, Madrid has collaborated on numerous award-winning projects, including the Loyola Marymount University School of Film and Television, G-Cubed, and 777 Aviation Renovation.

This year’s winning projects will be announced in AN’s December issue and featured on the publication’s website. Past SOM Best of Design winners include the New United States Courthouse in Los Angeles, Chicago Public Library, Chinatown Branch, and The Kathleen Grimm School for Leadership and Sustainability at Sandy Ground, which received an honorable mention.

Photo © Cody Pickens