Arkansas architect and educator Marlon Blackwell has been named the winner of the highest accolade awarded by the American Institute of Architects in recognition of his work in the country's South.
Projects by Blackwell's eponymous Arkansas firm in the southern state include a pediatric clinic with a vivid red facade, the addition of a design centre to the University of Arkansas and an orthodox church.
"The Gold Medal honours an individual whose significant body of work has had a lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture," said the AIA.
"Blackwell is being recognised for his important body of transcendent work in the hills of Northwest Arkansas."
Marlon Blackwell Architects has completed a number of other cultural and public projects like a Montessori Elementary school and a high school ? both of which are also in Arkansas ? as well as a  visitor's pavilion at the Indianapolis Museum of Art in Indiana, and the renovation of a vast park in Tennessee. The firm also developed a series of affordable prototype houses for families that lost homes in Hurricane Katrina.
The accolade recognises Blackwell's extensive work in the South ? including this red pediatric clinic
Blackwell's work was praised by Canadian architect Brian MacKay-Lyons, who supported the decision to bestow him with the 2020 AIA Gold Medal.
"Marlon Blackwell is a student of his 'place' in the world," said MacKay-Lyons in his letter supporting Blackwell's nominatio...