Ļć½¶Ö±²„student receiving national landscape architecture award
Contact: Vanessa Beeson
STARKVILLE, Miss.āA recent Mississippi State graduate from Madison is among a select group being honored with a major international design honor.
Next month, Travis R. Crabtree travels to Chicago, Illinois, to accept an American Society of Landscape Architects community service award.
A May graduate of the university, he was among five landscape architecture majors that designed, constructed and installed four wooden letters spelling āreadā at the Starkville Public Library. For the sculpture situated in a 20-by-100-foot garden along the buildingās east side, they also selected low-maintenance foliage to accent the letters and complement the existing plant palette, as well as low-voltage LED fixtures to illuminate the letters at night.
For that achievement, he is among nearly two dozen students selected recently for 2016 ASLA recognitions. Nearly 330 students representing more than 80 schools around the world were considered for this yearās awards.
In addition to Crabtreeās ASLA honor, the Ļć½¶Ö±²„āReadā project is being featured in the October issue of Landscape Architecture magazine. For more, see .
Cory Gallo, an associate professor of landscape architecture, was project adviser.
āThe sculpture transformed the image and identity of our townās public library,ā Gallo said. āIt also contributed to the burgeoning art scene in downtown and created a playful backdrop for the childrenās reading room.ā
Explaining why an action verb was selected as the sculptureās focal point, Gallo said, āWe wanted the piece to express the cityās commitment to literacy for children and the community in a playful way.ā
He added, āThis idea can be represented by a passage from a poem by Roald Dahl, āSo please, oh PLEASE, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away, and in its place you can install, a lovely bookshelf on the wall.āā
Dahlās poem is displayed on a lamppost plaque next to the sculpture that describes the piece.
Library director Ginny Holtcamp said the new sculpture āsignificantly identifies our building and its purpose in our community. We are very proud of it.ā
Crabtree now is enrolled in the urban design masterās degree program at the University of Michigan. He credits the Ļć½¶Ö±²„project for providing valuable lessons about how landscape architecture can contribute to the broader community. Ā
āLandscape architecture has a lot to do with community involvement and interaction,ā Crabtree said. āMy graduate degree focuses on that aspect; how to design communities in an egalitarian kind of way.ā
Other landscape architecture majors on the team included Forrest Merrill of Meridian, Hardy E. Simmons of Ridgeland, and Xin Lin, Zhengfei Lu and Fan Yang, all of Starkville. Merrill and Simmons now are seniors; Lin, Lu and Yang, all graduate students.
Their low-budget project was initiated after Crabtree had received a national Brancheau Service-Learning Scholarship. He chose to apply the $500 award toward its implementation.
In addition to the library, additional support for the project was provided by MSUās Extension Service and Center for the Advancement of Service-Learning Excellence. Bell Building Supply, a neighbor to the library, provided all building materials at cost.
For more about the landscape architecture department, visit .
Ļć½¶Ö±²„is Mississippiās leading university, available online at .