You might have to google Gentry, Arkansas to figure out where it is in the state.  Up in the far northwest corner, it’s close to the Oklahoma and Missouri borders and is the kind of sweet, sleepy little town you’ll find all across the region. But big architecture can happen even in small places.

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Fayetteville-based Marlon Blackwell Architects recently won a much-coveted award from the American Inst of Architects and the American Library Association for his renovation of this former hardware store in downtown Gentry into this 21st library. Marlon, who’s also an architecture prof at the Univ. of Arkansas, has won international accolades (he both lectures and publishes globally) but claims that his favorite place to work is here in Arkansas and the South in general. Some of that work was the subject of a book about him published a few years back, An Architecture of the Ozarks, the Works of Marlon Blackwell.

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http://www.marlonblackwell.com/site_media/uploads/publications/ArchitectureOfTheOzarks_NEW2.jpg

And because we know you design-savvy Arkansans don’t want European publications highlighting projects we haven’t seen here at home, we photographed Marlon’s house yesterday for our Architects Own Homes section in the October issue.  It’s an award winner too–the only house in our state to ever win the AIA award for residential design.  We’ll share some pictures when the issue hits newsstand.