Mississippi State University said its landscape architecture students and faculty advisers received an Honor Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects at the organization’s recent annual conference in Los Angeles for a courtyard project at Sudduth Elementary School in Starkville.
According to the university, about 60 MSU students and faculty advisers contributed to the project, which turned a central outdoor area at the Starkville Oktibbeha Consolidated School District school into a space for outdoor dining and classroom instruction. The design includes talking tubes, an abstract forest, a stone abacus and a winding caterpillar bench, the university said.
The project began a few years ago as a design exercise in Associate Professor Peter Summerlin’s Construction Materials class, according to MSU. Students worked with the school’s parent-teacher organization, staff and students on the final design, and elementary students offered feedback on its shape, color and scale, the announcement said.
MSU said Summerlin advised the team with instructors Simon Powney and Casey Johnson and former Assistant Professor Abbey Franovich. Graduates Rachel Bowers and Jake Lindley accepted the award with Summerlin at the conference, according to the university.
Bowers, a 2026 graduate who is pursuing a master’s degree in urban design at the University of Michigan, said the project showed her that small-scale community improvements matter. Lindley, who earned his master’s degree in landscape architecture in 2024, said students’ willingness to question their work helped produce a more meaningful result, according to the announcement.