MSU landscape architecture students, faculty advisors win national honor for local elementary school project
Author: Wendy Campbell
Students and teachers enjoy a new central courtyard at Sudduth Elementary in Starkville. The space, designed by MSU landscape architecture and environmental design students, recently received a national award from the American Society of Landscape Architects. (Photo by Submitted)
A Mississippi State Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Design team is the recipient of a prestigious national accolade for innovative work at a local elementary school.
The group of approximately 60 MSU students and faculty advisors was recognized with an Honor Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects at its recent annual conference in Los Angeles, California.
The project, which began a few years ago as a design exercise in Associate Professor Peter Summerlin's Construction Materials class, transformed a central outdoor area at Starkville Oktibbeha Consolidated School District's Sudduth Elementary School into a courtyard designed for outdoor dining and classroom instruction, encouraging learning through motion, activity and play. The MSU team partnered with the Sudduth parent-teacher organization and elementary staff and students to bring to life a final design that features talking tubes, an abstract forest, a stone abacus and winding caterpillar bench. Elementary students provided project feedback and suggestions, including the design's shape, color and scale.
"The project represents what we're about here at Mississippi State on a national scale," Summerlin said. "The things that we care about are craftsmanship, service, collaboration and a commitment to making the world brighter and more fun."
In addition to Summerlin, who also is the parent of a Sudduth student, the team was advised by instructors Simon Powney and Casey Johnson as well as former Assistant Professor Abbey Franovich. MSU landscape architecture graduates Rachel Bowers and Jake Lindley accepted the award with Summerlin at the conference.
Bowers, a spring 2026 graduate from Carey, North Carolina, who is pursuing a master's degree in urban design from the University of Michigan, said the project "reinforced the fact that small-scale community improvements really do matter, and they can actually have the biggest impact."
"The courtyard has a second life now," she said, "and it's really fulfilling to see a design's real-life implications knowing the intention and work that went into it."
Lindley, a Tupelo native who earned his master's degree in landscape architecture in 2024, said his fellow MSU students were invested in the project.
"In class, when you're constantly encouraged to question your work, you always end up with a more meaningful result," he said. "It's about taking something basic and making it good, then making good great, and making great exceptional."
In addition to Bowers and Lindley, former student team members include:
-AUBURN, Alabama: Katherine Barlow, 2025 Bachelor of Landscape Architecture and 2026 Master of Landscape Architecture graduate
-BANGLADESH: Quazi Fahim, 2025 Master of Landscape Architecture graduate
-BRANDON: Audria Hicks, 2023 Bachelor of Architecture and 2024 Master of Landscape Architecture graduate
-BUDA, Texas: Jacquelyn Smith, 2023 Bachelor of Architecture and 2024 Master of Landscape Architecture graduate
-CARY, North Carolina: Natalie Bowers, 2023 Bachelor of Architecture and 2024 Master of Landscape Architecture graduate
-DALLAS, Texas: Travis Bryan, 2024 Bachelor of Architecture and 2025 Master of Landscape Architecture graduate
-FALLON, Illinois: Jacob Land, 2025 Bachelor of Landscape Architecture graduate
-HUNTSVILLE, Alabama: Caya Perry, 2023 Bachelor of Architecture and 2024 Master of Landscape Architecture graduate
-PEARL: Xayvion Ross, 2026 Bachelor of Landscape Architecture graduate
-PERKINSTON: Brianna Jackson, 2023 Bachelor of Science in Interior Design and 2024 Master of Landscape Architecture graduate
-RIPLEY: Conner Griffin, 2023 Bachelor of Architecture and 2024 Master of Landscape Architecture graduate
-VERBENA, Alabama: Isabella Jones, 2025 Bachelor of Landscape Architecture and 2026 Master of Landscape Architecture graduate
For more about MSU's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Design, visit their websites.
Date: 2026-10-05
