When fifth-year students in Pete Melby's landscape architectural design class take on a class project, neither rain nor snow nor hurricanes stand in the way.
A day after Hurricane Opal blew through South Mississippi in October, 22 students arrived with Melby in Biloxi to listen to civic and business leaders discuss ideas for a re-designed entrance to the city.
The students, who recently designed an experimental salt marsh along a stretch of Biloxi's Gulf Coast, were there to listen, synthesize, and develop proposals for revitalizing a 20-acre area known as Point Cadet.
It marks the entrance from Ocean Springs to Biloxi and includes separate land parcels that support a seafood museum, a marine center, a marine laboratory facility, and an old seaplane hangar.
After hearing ideas from leaders that included Mayor A. J. Holloway, Chamber of Commerce President Franklin Kyle, City Arborist Eric Nolan and others, the students worked nearly through the night to develop proposals for a mid-morning presentation, Melby said.
"City officials told us they wanted this to become a public entrance into Biloxi, to tie together the diversity, and establish an area that could provide activities to attract residents and visitors," he explained.
Students devised preliminary proposals for a waterfront park that would accomplish the goals. "They developed five possible solutions, all guided by ideal land use relationships," Melby said.
Among suggestions were adding plantings and a boardwalk, burying utilities underground, providing space for fairs, markets and concerts, and creating a display of the city's heritage. Any of the suggestions could be implemented in stages with the assistance of a professional landscape architectural design firm, Melby said.
This World Wide Web version of MSU Memo was modified and updated by Chris Brown.
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Last modified: Friday, 14-Jun-2002 15:58:59 CDT.
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