Contact: Maridith Geuder
Three of six top awards given by the American Institute of Architecture Students are coming this year to Mississippi State University.
The honors result from public service projects in Prentiss and Winston counties undertaken during the 1997-98 school year by the School of Architecture's AIAS chapter. They include the Student Research Honor Award for work with the city of Booneville and the Special Accomplishment Honor Award for efforts to design and begin work on a family resource center serving several Winston communities.
In addition, associate professor Shannon Criss is receiving the 1998 Educator Honor Award for her commitment to teaching and to her students.
"Receiving all three of these honors in a single year is nearly unprecedented," said Dean John McRae.
Last year, Mississippi State tied with the University of Hawaii for overall best AIA chapter honors. Having also won the best chapter award in 1993, the MSU organization is the only one in the nation to twice earn that distinction.
AIAS includes more than 5,000 members in some 130 chapters. Each year, the Washington, D.C.-based organization presents awards for outstanding chapter, chapter president, student research, special accomplishment, educator, and regional coordinator.
McRae said projects and faculty members are nominated by the students, who must compile all application materials. "All of the projects they put forward represent collaborative activities and accomplishments," he added.
Senior J.D. Balzli of Vancleave was president of the AIAS chapter during the competition. Assistant professor David Perkes is chapter adviser.
Criss, a John Grisham Master Teacher at Mississippi State, directs the architecture school's Small Town Center and routinely involves students in projects. The West Point resident holds degrees from Kansas State and Harvard universities.
In Booneville, students worked with her and the Small Town Center on an information-gathering effort requested by the community. After helping research and document the relationships among the city's physical, economic and social environments, they presented recommendations to local leaders on ways to preserve and enrich the city's physical and social identities.
Judges said the Booneville project "demonstrated architecture education at its best: a multi-disciplinary, communal learning environment."
In Winston County, students undertook an intensive design project, or charette, involving the development of a family resource center at the former Hinze School site.
Beginning in January around the Martin Luther King national holiday, they spent weekends over several months designing and building a picnic pavilion and baseball dugouts to serve the communities of Little Calvary, Mount Calvary, Hopewell, and Saint James.
Judges called this project "an exemplary embodiment of the American Institute of Architecture Students."
The MSU chapter and Criss will receive their awards officially in late November at the AIAS convention in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.