O.
T. Marshall: Making Memphis Safe for the Avant-Garde
by Corky Neale
O. T. Marshall is reveling in his 50th year of producing architecture
of character and consequence. "O.T.," which is what everyone calls him,
has never quit enjoying the "art" in architecture and perhaps the conversion
of whimsy into the functional. O. T. grew up in Tipton County but has spent
his entire adult life in Memphis, for which he has great affection.
O.T. always was a 'drawer' and he recounts how, when you can draw, others
find countless uses for your talent: there is always something to be drawn.
As a young man he was flipping through a magazine in a Covington drug store
one day and happened on a story and pictures about Frank Lloyd Wright and
"Fallingwater." He was amazed at Wright's integration of nature and
natural materials into functional clean design. O. T. was captured forever
by the desire to turn art into buildings.
Dryve Cleaners
Driving Poplar Avenue is a hectic, confusing, 'on-guard' experience. The
commercial sprawl of Poplar is not architecturally inspirational, with the
sole exception of O. T. Marshall's Dryve Cleaners building at 5185 Poplar.
Regardless of the traffic, I always look at this white draped curved building
and wonder, Why can't other commercial emporia make an inspired statement
like this one? Why this shape and what does it represent?
As it turns out, the project resulted from the convergence of two winds
of fortune, one bad and one good. O.T. had made an elaborate proposal to
the Shelby County Fair Board to cover the Liberty Bowl stadium and part
of the fairgrounds in a fiberglass fabric tent with a Teflon coat.
O. T. had made a study of the material and was intrigued with its architectural
possibilities. Though the fairgrounds proposal sank, a friend and patron
emerged to offer O.T. the creative freedom to toy with the possibilities.
The Cannons had seen drive-through cleaners in Atlanta and were ready to
launch a cleaning establishment in Memphis. Given the choice between a $50,000
road sign and a flowing mass of fiberglass with suspended inside and outside
curves, they thankfully chose the latter. O.T. had fun designing
the building and it shows. Although school children frequently call with
questions about the 'sailing ship,' one has only to catch a glimpse of
Dryve Cleaners at dusk to know that this is a magical allegory for starched
white shirts hanging on a line. A beautiful branding statement.
Apprenticeship
As a young man, O.T. made a trip to Chicago during Christmas break. In
a blinding snowstorm he ventured onto the Illinois Institute of Technology
campus where in a swirl of whiteness the structural mirage of Mies van
der Rohe's Crown Hall appeared. Although the building was locked, O.T.
followed a janitor's boot tracks to obtain entry through the basement to
view the building's stark I-beams.
O.T. went on to take a course of apprenticeship leading toward architectural
certification. He apprenticed with Lucian Minor Dent, a master classically-trained
draftsman who had done considerable work in Williamsburg and who was
an expert at recreating historic styles through authentic and studied detailing.
The path to certification was long-- eight years plus a couple of more
years studying for the AIA certification exam at Vanderbilt. "In
all modesty," O.T. says with a tinge of delight in his eyes, "I got the
highest mark."
O.T. asserts that his favorite and most memorable projects are the Dryve
Cleaners project, the original five buildings and site plan for the State
Technical Institute campus on Macon Road built in 1968, and the Blue
Cross Offices at 85 N. Danny Thomas which were built over a 10-year
period, 1969-1979. In E. J. Johnson and Robert Russell's
Memphis: An Architectural Guide the suggestion is made that Marshall's
Blue Cross design is making a "deliberate comment" on the disposition
of parts and proportions of the nearby 1914 Jones and Furbringer Masonic
Temple at 272 Court. O.T. replies that the Blue Cross building is probably
a reflection of hundreds of buildings-- all buildings have a base, a middle
and a top. Interestingly, the building was designed as six stories
but it was originally constructed as four stories; the other two stories
topped off the building 10 years later. O.T. recounts how important it was
to get the proportion of the front and the long side walls right and how
"turning the corner" with the windows in the side walls was a design challenge.
The Blue Cross building was the first use of reflective glass in Memphis
and O.T. pushed to use buff-colored limestone rather than the typical common
ashen gray which "looks like death." The 'Glass House'
O.T.'s label as a "modernist" initially brought jabs from fellow
architects who didn't understand his style, but he is unapologetic for
his love of crisp design with new techniques and new materials. O.
T. has great admiration for the work of a contemporary, Frank Gehry,
who found fame and fortune in his seventies with the design and construction
of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. O.T. suggests
that Gehry has become the master of pushing form and materials to new limits
through computer-aided design. Early affirmation of O.T.'s
craft came as a young man when he designed and constructed his own "Glass
House" in 1959 in Memphis suburb Raleigh, by a lake. He literally poured
the concrete for the house, which is more than Phillip Johnson did. O.T.
won an AIA design award for this effort. It is with more than a
little sadness that O.T. remembers this house, now altered beyond resurrection:
"I wish at some point I could have bought it back," he says. Recent
O.T. Marshall projects include the soon-to-be-completed Student Service
Building at the University of Memphis adjacent to the Clock Tower;
Carnes Elementary School renovation and new addition at 943 Lane
Ave., and a major project for St. Francis Hospital in Bartlett.
O.T. even proposed a new City Hall and Office in an International Design
Competition for Tai Ghung, Taiwan. His rounded capsule design lost
but he got a trip to Taiwan. The Carnes School project is especially fresh.
Unlike other recent inner city school projects, his building is full of
windows and beckons the community in. It is not a fortress. O.T.
expresses preference for working on little projects because of the exploration
possibilities and because "you can get your hands on them." Asked
about the present state of architecture in Memphis, O.T. posits that the
first question that owners ask is about the budget. No one here would think
to hire Frank Gehry. O.T clearly looks forward to his next project
since architecture evolves from "layers and layers and layers" of prior
efforts, projects and mistakes. Driving up Highway 51 through Covington,
I have always noticed the wonderful little Art Deco-ish motel almost
hidden by the impinging dishevelment of the highway commercial stuff. I
have since learned that the Baxter Motel is an O.T. Marshall design of
1951. How much more pleasing our roadscapes would be if there were more
practicing artisan architects like O.T. Marshall!