Pavilion and Rain Gardens at Oktibbeha County Heritage Museum – Architecture and Landscape Architecture design-build collaboration
(photo by Megan Bean / © Mississippi State University)
Via thefield.asla.org
The Oktibbeha County Heritage Museum was founded in 1976 in Starkville, just a half-mile from both the historic downtown area and Mississippi State University and works to preserve, publicize and educate the public about the rich history of the region. The building itself is housed in a renovated railroad depot first built in 1874, but renovations initiated in 2009, by the Departments of Landscape Architecture and School of Architecture at Mississippi State University, sought to make the museum a demonstration case to the alternative water management and habitat creation practices being implemented around the country to incorporate green infrastructure into the urban setting.
When the “Rain Garden” project was finished in spring 2013, a green roof pavilion, cistern, and infiltration areas had been installed on the 0.5-acre site to retain and clean rainwater. The purpose of this report is to document the ways in which the Rain Garden project has benefited the Oktibbeha Heritage Museum and the surrounding areas, a measurement termed Landscape Performance. Four distinct benefits have been explored: environmental, social, economic and educational. These benefits were compared before and after the Rain Garden installation.
The Oktibbeha Heritage Museum is centrally located around apartment housing, shopping centers and the largest open green space in town, the city cemetery. One block over lies the western edge of the internationally-recognized, new-urbanist, mixed-use Cotton District. The museum building itself is a 5,000 square-foot structure, whereas the exterior, prior to the design installation, was primarily used as a concrete parking lot with minimal foundation plantings and no exterior amenities for public use.
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The Oktibbeha County Heritage Museum pavilion, rain gardens and the faculty involved have received a combined total of eight national and regional awards for teaching, collaborative practice and design. Most recently, the SuperUse Pavilion was recognized by the American Institute of Architects, Mississippi Chapter, with one of only two chapter Honor Awards granted in 2015.