Contact: Kenneth Billings
STARKVILLE, Miss.--A team of fifth-year architecture students at Mississippi State is winner of a $1,000 prize for a second place finish in the inaugural FORMCities Symposium and Design Competition.
Sponsored by the university's Jackson Community Design Center, the recent national event brought together business and education professionals and students to generate creative concepts for urban landscapes in mid-sized cities.
Titled "Jackson reformed," the entry by seniors Sarah E. Grider of Huntsville, Ala., Rachel N. Hill of Madison, Kirke McNeel of Jackson, and Amy K. Monarch of Evansville, Ind. It was among 22 entries in the Urban Divide Design Competition.
Participating teams submitted design proposals that sought to address negative impacts and urban forms of transportation thoroughfares that created visual, physical and psychological barriers--and tend to sort cities along race, income and class lines.
The Jackson Community Design Center is a research endeavor of MSU's College of Architecture, Art and Design. Students and faculty at the center continually analyze the history and theory of urban design in an attempt to understand oft-hidden forces that drive developmental patterns. They also provide research to various organizations for the purpose of developing land-use concepts, working regionally to influence growth and heal socioeconomic and municipal divides.
For more information about JCDC, visit www.caad.msstate.edu.
For more information about Mississippi State University, visit www.msstate.edu.