Kemp and Gregory present at 2018 MML Annual Conference

Posted on by carlsmalltowncenter

BILOXI, Miss.—The Carl Small Town Center’s Leah Kemp and Thomas Gregory presented at the Mississippi Municipal League’s Annual Conference in Biloxi on Tuesday, June 26.

The session, entitled, “Community Connections: Creatively Linking Key Destinations through Transit and Pedestrian Infrastructure,” discussed the impact that walkability has on a community’s health and economy.

Kemp and Gregory used case studies from successful CSTC projects in Marks, Aberdeen, and Ripley, Mississippi to illustrate the creative ways that communities have linked destinations in their towns through bike and pedestrian pathways.

The Mississippi Municipal League is a voluntary group of Mississippi cities and towns whose mission is to serve its members through legislative advocacy, benefits programs, training and educational opportunities, and multiple publications.

CSTC welcomes 2018 summer associates

Posted on by carlsmalltowncenter

Photo, from left to right: Shameen Akhtar, Felipe Olvera, and Baleigh Hull.

STARKVILLE, Miss.—The Carl Small Town Center (CSTC) at Mississippi State University is proud to welcome three summer associates who will be working in our office at Giles Hall this summer. Each associate brings a unique set of interests and skills, which will contribute to the CSTC’s design projects.

Shameen Akhtar is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst with a BFA in architecture. For the past year and a half, Shameen worked for the Master Plan Street Team in her hometown of Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she used community engagement to develop the master plan’s five areas of focus. Shameen is interested in the collaboration of public interest design and architecture.

Felipe Olvera is a native of Memphis, Tennessee and is a third year architecture student at Mississippi State University. Felipe’s interests include mass timber and passive building systems. Felipe is the public relations chair for AIAS, serves as the co-editor of BarnWorks at MSU, and served on the Freedom by Design team, which worked to build an ADA ramp for the Oktoc Community Center.

Baleigh Hull is a fourth year architecture student at Mississippi State University from Collinsville, Mississippi. Baleigh has been working for the CSTC for the past year on a variety of community design projects, including the Ripley Master Plan. Baleigh is interested in sustainable design and the use of reusable building materials. She has served as a volunteer for Clean the Stream in West Alabama.