Contact: Phil Hearn
Mississippi State's department of landscape architecture is partnering with Denver, Colo.-based Design Workshop Inc. to conduct a week-long student exploration into South Mississippi reconstruction issues stemming from Hurricane Katrina.
Leading the Monday-Friday [Jan. 23-27] discussion and planning effort will be Design Workshop's chief design officer Todd Johnson, founding partner Dan Ensign and landscape architect Jeremiah Dumas, a Prentiss native and MSU alumnus.
Other featured speakers during the week will include Leland Speed, director of the Mississippi Development Authority, ecologist and author Janisse Ray, and geologist Allen Lowrie. Speed's address is scheduled noon-1 p.m. Wednesday (the 25th) in the Bost Extension Center auditorium. He will meet with students, faculty and other groups during the afternoon.
Most activities will take place in the auditoriums of the Bost Center, Wise Center or Landscape Architecture Complex. The Bost Center is located just west of Scott Field; Wise Center (home of the College of Veterinary Medicine), on the south side of the campus near the Stone Boulevard-Blackjack Road intersection; the LA Complex, on the new campus section of Bully Boulevard.
(For more details and complete schedule, visit www.msstate.edu/dept/la/kat.)
"This student charrette is an outstanding collaborative educational opportunity for our students while providing a substantial service for the southern Mississippi communities affected by Katrina," said Jason B. Walker, MSU assistant professor of landscape architecture and Design Week coordinator.
He said the post-hurricane planning workshop will engage more than 225 MSU students in landscape architecture, architecture, the university's Carl Small Town Center, civil engineering, environmental planning, real estate, and business.
Two other major sponsors of the event are Michael Hatcher & Associates of Memphis, Tenn., and The Landscape Studio of Hattiesburg.
Walker may be reached at (662) 325-4561 or jwalker@lalc.msstate.edu.