Latest Blog Posts

              As the mass timber construction industry takes hold in Arkansas, Peter MacKeith looks on like a proud papa. MacKeith, the dean of the Fay Jones School of Architecture & Design at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville since 2014, was an early advocate for establishing and growing a mass timber industry in the state. In the early going, he may well have been the only advocate, but thanks to his relentlessness, mass timber looks like an industry with a future in Arkansas. The mass timber industry’s evolution from vague European concept to prominence […]

  FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Marlon Blackwell is the 2020 Southeastern Conference Professor of the Year. Blackwell is the first faculty member from the University of Arkansas to receive the SEC’s highest honor for faculty, announced by the conference Monday, April 20. The SEC Professor of the Year Award is given annually to one SEC faculty member whose record of teaching and research places him or her among the elite in higher education. Winners are selected by the SEC Provosts from among the 14 SEC Faculty Achievement Award recipients. The SEC is also providing Blackwell with a $20,000 honorarium. Blackwell is […]

            Robert Ivy, Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) has penned a letter to AIA members offering advice and resources for how firms and individuals can navigate the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Ivy’s message, which touches on what firms can do, plans for rescheduling the recently cancelled AIA Conference, and other topics, is published in full below. Dear AIA community, We are living in a challenging time. As we awaken each new day of this unfolding public health emergency, our perspective changes, sometimes radically. Despite all of our professional knowledge and […]

AIA Arkansas is excited to announce one of our members has received the 2020 AIA Gold Medal. Marlon Blackwell, FAIA, was selected for this honor due to his commitment to the profession of architecture through design and education. Marlon is the second AIA Arkansas member to receive the AIA Gold Medal after E. Fay Jones, who it was awarded to in 1990. Click Here to read more about Marlon Blackwell Architects and this prestigious award.

At the State Convention, AIA Arkansas presented its Fay Jones Gold Medal Award to John Allison, AIA Emeritus.  A native of Morrilton, John enrolled at the University of Arkansas in 1966 where he received Bachelor of Architecture and Bachelor of Arts degrees in 1971. He married Mary Wilson in 1969, and they have two children, Amy and Wilson, who both now reside in Arkansas. In the early 1980s, he cofounded Allison Moses Redden (now AMR), a multidiscipline firm that helped develop the River Market district. Early in his career he became involved in AIA, and in 1987 was awarded the […]