Contact: Maridith Geuder
A Friday [Sept. 26] dedication and lecture will officially open a new Jackson home for Mississippi State's fifth-year program in the College of Architecture.
The Stuart C. Irby Jr. Studio, named for the late Mississippi businessman and philanthropist who donated the building at 509 East Capitol St., will be dedicated at an 8 p.m. ceremony in the renovated university facility.
Preceding that event, New York-based architect Thomas Phifer will deliver a dedicatory lecture at 6:30 p.m. in the nearby Old Capitol Museum. Phifer, who heads the Thomas Phifer and Partners firm, currently has projects that include a new sculpture park in North Carolina and a federal landmark renovation in Manhattan.
Irby, longtime head of the Jackson-based distributor of electrical goods that also bears his name, died earlier this year. He donated the $300,000 building and was instrumental in helping secure more than $2 million of combined state and private funds to undertake the nearly two-year renovation effort, said MSU architecture dean James L. West.
"We consulted with the family about naming options and selected this name to honor Mr. Irby's memory, as well as to highlight the nature of the building's use and its architectural studios," West said. "This building is distinct from any other educational or business structure that bears the Irby name."
Occupied since mid-June, the new building features three stories divided by two large gallery light wells. Bridges span the galleries at the second- and third-floor levels. In addition to classrooms and studios, the building also houses the Jackson Community Design Center--a research arm of the college--an architecture library and other university offices.
"We want to encourage architecture professionals to make use of the library and the facility," said West. "The gallery space will be open for public use for a very nominal fee because we want this building to be an important link to the community."
The MSU architecture program has had a presence in Jackson since being established by the Mississippi Legislature in 1973. While the Starkville campus provides an academic focus on fundamental design issues and a number of small-town design projects, Jackson introduces students to a wider world of training in the professional program.
"This is a complete change of venue and focus for every MSU architecture student," West observed.
David J. Buege, director of the fifth-year program, said the soon-to-graduate students "are immersed in the specific conditions, challenges and opportunities to be found in urban areas, specifically those in Jackson."
He said that a recent studio assignment had students developing designs that would suggest future conditions and development for an area of West Street that lies south of Capitol Street. While the students are looking at the theoretical underpinnings of projects and trying to suggest images of the possibilities, the Jackson Community Design Center focuses on real solutions.
The JCDC is involved in specific projects that fall outside normal, profit-making architectural practice, West said. Recent projects have focused on historic renovations along Farish Street, planning for the Jackson Metro Parkway Open Space, and design and construction of a sustainable Habitat for Humanity house.
For more information about the Sept. 26 event, telephone the College of Architecture at (662) 325-2202.