Contact: Sammy McDavid
Mississippi State University architecture students are volunteering their Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend to help create designs for a proposed community resource center in rural Winston County.
The more than 200-member student body of the School of Architecture's five-year bachelor's degree program will be working Jan. 15-19 on what supporters hope will become a resource center for rural families. The center would be housed in the former Hinze Public School building, located approximately nine miles southwest of Louisville, the county seat.
Architecture professor Robert Craycroft said the center long has been a dream of Linda Triplett, a county resident and teaching assistant in the AmeriCorps national service program.
"Ms. Triplett envisions a 'one-stop shopping' complex where the residents of her rural neighborhood could get assistance in bettering themselves and their families, as well as the community in general," Craycroft said.
The center possibly could house such activities as classes in adult literacy and general education development, training in vocational education and computer literacy, and day-care programs for both pre-schoolers and the elderly.
Craycroft said the Mississippi State students are being inspired and guided by Samuel Mockbee of Canton, an internationally acclaimed architect now teaching at Auburn University, Mockbee's alma mater. A former adjunct member of the MSU architecture faculty, Mockbee founded the Rural Design Studio of Auburn's College of Architecture, Design and Construction.
Mockbee will be joining the MSU students for the project. Working in shifts over the weekend, the architecture majors will prepare renovation designs for the existing Hinze building, as well as plans for new structures and outdoor recreation facilities.
"They also will collaborate with Professor Mockbee in the design and construction of a picnic pavilion and barbecue pit," Craycroft said.
The five-day effort begins on campus during the evening of the 15th--the civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner's actual birthday--with a discussion of Mockbee's work and ideas. Activities will conclude at 4 p.m. on the 19th--the national King holiday--with an on-site presentation of design ideas to members of the Winston County community.
Mississippi Valley Gas Co., Union Planters Bank, Columbus Brick Co., East Mississippi Lumber Co., The Chalet Art Supply Store, and Gulf States Manufacturing Inc. are providing support for the project. East Mississippi Lumber, Chalet and Gulf States all are of Starkville.
In addition to Mockbee's work, Craycroft said the charrette--the architectural term for an intense work effort--is inspired by President Clinton's recent National Volunteer Summit in Philadelphia, Pa., and the follow-up Mississippi Volunteer Summit in Jackson.
While the project will provide students with lasting practical experiences in the various phases of an architectural career, Craycroft said the group effort involves a much larger goal.
"The design and construction of the picnic pavilion and barbecue pit will represent a tangible beginning for the community effort," he said. "We are hopeful that these contributions, along with the students' designs, will serve as a rallying point to move the dream of a resource center toward becoming a reality."