Marlon Blackwell's Venice PORCH Pavilion to Rise Again at Crystal Bridges in Late 2027

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art has set a construction timeline to rebuild Marlon Blackwell Architects's PORCH pavilion on its Bentonville, Arkansas, campus in late 2027.

The museum shared with AN that it has "established a construction timeline" and is "planning for the Porch to be reconstructed on the Crystal Bridges campus in late 2027."

Marlon Blackwell, who recently delivered the keynote at Facades+ Denver, told AN: "It's great to know the structure will rise again—this time in a forest." He said the new version will reveal and revel in the "generous spirit of the porch as a timeless space of welcome and human embrace."

The structure originally stood in front of the U.S. Pavilion in Venice's Giardini as part of PORCH: An Architecture of Generosity, designed by Marlon Blackwell Architects (MBA) for the 19th International Architecture Exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia in 2025. The biennale's architecture exhibition closed last November.

Workers then disassembled the wood-framed structure, built from European lumber, and transported it to Arkansas. It now sits in storage awaiting its second, more permanent installation.

At Crystal Bridges, the pavilion will stand as a freestanding structure on the museum's grounds, open for public use. Beyond its buildings, the museum occupies 134 acres of native Ozark forest threaded with more than 5 miles of trails. Crystal Bridges stated that it will share more information about the project closer to next year's installation.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art was one of PORCH's commissioning institutions, alongside the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the University of Arkansas and DesignConnects. AN served as PORCH's education/outreach partner, facilitating the pavilion's call for entries and hosting PORCH TV.

The project arrives at an expanded museum. Crystal Bridges celebrated a new wing earlier this year, designed by Safie Architects—the office that also designed the original 2011 building. Coen+Partners handled the landscape.

PORCH's co-commissioners—Peter MacKeith, Susan Chin, and Rod Bigelow—are now at work on a book about the project.

Attention is also turning to the next U.S. Pavilion. The U.S. State Department's call for curatorial entries closed on July 23, but no project has been announced. Other countries, including Canada, have already publicized shortlists and selected curatorial teams for the coming biennale.

The 20th International Architecture Exhibition, themed "Do Architecture—For the Possibility of Coexistence Facing a Real Reality," will be led by artistic directors Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu, cofounders of Hangzhou-based Amateur Architecture Studio. The Biennale Architettura opens in Venice on May 8, 2027—months before PORCH finds its permanent home in the Ozarks.