Student News

(From left) Glenn Cook FASLA, Jay Everett, Cindy Willingham, Student ASLA, Seth Winchester, Student ASLA, Alex Man-Bourdon, Student ASLA, Student Representative Jeffrey Orkin, Student ASLA, Blaine Frischhertz, Student ASLA, Austin Jones, Student ASLA, Mark Spurlin, Student ASLA, Nick Meeks, Student ASLA and Jordan Jones, Student ASLA brainstorm park improvements.

Mississippi State University Landscape Architecture Students Take on Park Clean-Up And Improvements

Students from the Mississippi State University chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) and Professional Landcare Network (PLANET) descended upon J.L. King Park last month to participate in continuing efforts to improve the park. The service project was organized as part of National Landscape Architecture Month. Thirty students and two professors participated. Previously students had conducted surveys of park users to help determine areas of the park that needed improving. An onsite brainstorming session was also held in which the students listed aspects of the park they thought could be improved just from observation. The data from the park surveys was analyzed and compared with the results of the onsite brainstorming session; this “laundry list” was then divided into a program of achievable goals. “After the first clean-up day, we felt we could make a noticeable impact by improving the two basketball courts. The lines were barely visible and of the four goals only one had a net. We also noticed that the rear basketball court was isolated because of its location between two hills and the dense amount of vegetation between it and the street. We believed that we could easily improve the appearance, function, and safety of the basketball courts, so that has been our goal for this semester,” Jay Everett, a senior landscape architecture student, and organizer of the project explained. Some of the money for the project came from the city and the Mississippi State Student Chapter of ASLA, other materials were donated or sold at discounted prices by local businesses. Some landscape contracting students furnished other needed tools and equipment.