Contact: Maridith Geuder
At Mississippi State University, architecture majors are being taught to design commercial buildings, residential homes and vast public structures.
As part of the learning process, associate professor Michael Berk puts into practice a belief that School of Architecture students also should know how to get their hands dirty. That's why he recently asked the 12 members of a third-year design class to tackle a real project at a real site, with real materials, a real budget, and real deadlines.
The assignment: Using two-by-fours, plywood, concrete, and glue, create functional sculptures for a city park. In addition to being aesthetically pleasing, the finished items are to comply with appropriate safety and code requirements.
After a half semester of planning and campus work, Berk's class spent a cold late-fall day installing their creations in a new public arboretum near downtown Greenwood.
The project was underwritten by a grant from Fred Carl, owner and chief executive officer of Greenwood-based Viking Range Corp. Situated along the north bank of the Yazoo River opposite Viking's corporate headquarters, the students' creations share space with a walking path.
"I asked the students to work with everyday, pedestrian materials," Berk said. "They then were to take those materials and turn them into elegant landscape furniture."
The six two-person teams found creative ways to craft, glue and bolt their structures together. Then they loaded up the projects in vehicles and drove two hours to the central Delta city of nearly 19,000.
Berk's class included Robert J. Elder of Biloxi; Kwayera L. Franklin of Greenwood; Hugh S. Lacy and Benjamin T. White of Huntsville, Ala.; Daniel G. Nelson of Cordova, Tenn.; and Nhan T. Nguyen of Long Beach; Daniel S. Oakley of Starkville; David J. Pressgrove of Brandon; Patrick K. Smith of Collierville, Tenn.; Kandi K. Soliz of Cleveland; John C. Stantz of Houston; and Charles A. Watson of Tupelo.
Using pick-axes and shovels, the future professionals dug holes where hand-mixed concrete would be poured to form the anchoring bases. After the concrete had cured for two days, the designs were installed around the approximately three-acre park.
"The approaches were very imaginative," Berk said, obviously pleased with the effort.
One team, for instance, created a sculptural piece that is both a working sundial and a place to sit. Another designed an abstract piece symbolically aligning the Leflore County Courthouse across the river with a veteran's memorial park adjacent to the arboretum.
Berk said an overall arboretum design plan developed earlier by MSU's landscape architecture department guided his students in aesthetically situating their projects. Students of landscape architecture professor Glenn Cook completed the first project.
In the process of designing and constructing the arboretum additions, the MSU architecture majors took time to investigate another part of the downtown area. From this study, they produced a series of proposals for an old warehouse building that is to be the future home of a new Mississippi Valley State University student center.
"In this historic rehabilitation project, our students used drawings and models to demonstrate to community leaders how this 'worn-out' and 'run-down' structure could again have a vital presence in downtown Greenwood," Berk said.