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Architectural Design | Marlon Blackwell Architect
Photographer| © Tim Hursley

If you are an architect who really don’t know much about golf but client said “it’s not just about golf, it’s about people and space!” . This is what John, the owner, told the architect “Marlon Blackwell Architect”. Awesome!

The hills and valleys, and the moments where the two merge, define the Ozarks for us. This juncture is where we chose to build the simple, bar-shape clubhouse—from a north-facing slope over an Osage Indian archaeological zone to an artificial hill. This bridging of two land-forms created an entry portal, a breezeway to the main entry of the clubhouse, that frames the eighteenth green, acts as a threshold to the golf course beyond, and is an event space for golf tournaments. Aligned with its counterpoint, the Razorback Golf Center to the north, the clubhouse has evolved from its initial strategy to become more of a stand-alone structure set at the base of the hill—with its footprint minimally contacting the land, it is, in effect, a covered bridge.

Local dry-stacked stone was used to form a strong mass at the base of the clubhouse and at the edge of the cart storage building wall along the swimming pool. The copper-clad second-story volume sets up views primarily to the golf course through large glass-window walls and porches. Its relationship to its stone base is one of detachment. This structure is an animate form that receives the visitor beneath its cool and shaded underbelly, not unlike the clefts and caves found nearby.

The guardhouse was conceived as a copper-clad beacon to light the vehicle entry and be an iconic figure for the golf community. Its form is a disembodied fragment of a local gambrel-roofed barn. The guardhouse was relocated to the clubhouse entry – redesigned – and scaled to the size of an automobile.

When John, owner and originator of the golf facilities, first asked us to take part in the design competition for the club, I was hesitant, not being a golfer or knowing much about golf. His response was simply “its not just about golf, its about people and space!” As the construction of the clubhouse progresses, I am reminded that no matter the building type, scope, or size, in the words of Rudolf Schindler, “the perception of architecture is not in the eyes, but in the living.”

[View with PicLens]

Blessings Golf Clubhouse and Guardhouse
Johnson, Arkansas

Duration: Nov2002 – Sept2005
Building Area:
Clubhouse: 21,700 SF
Cartbarn: 6500 SF
Guardhouse: 192 SF
Client: John Tyson
Project Team: Marlon Blackwell, Principal in charge
Gail Shepherd, Project Architect
Meryati Johari-Blackwell, Chris M. Baribeau, Scott A. Scales, Tony Patterson, Matthew Griffith, Chuck Rotolo, Herb Crumpton, Jose Ribera, Julie Chambers
Landscape Architect: Ed Blake, The Landscape Studio
Interiors: Meredith Boswell
Engineers structural:Tatum-Smith Engineers,
mep: HSA Engineering Consulting Services, Inc.
lighting design: John Rogers
civil: CEI
General Contractor: May Construction (D

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