Posted on Sun, Mar. 30, 2008

-- The Sun Herald is inaugurating a prestigious design award series to recognize the best of the built and the natural environment in South Mississippi since Hurricane Katrina.

The goal is to help the six coastal counties rebuild and grow in ways that are harmonious with the region's culture and natural resources.

The newspaper, in partnership with Mississippi State University, will present the awards in five categories: architecture, engineering, environmental, landscape architecture and planning. In addition to the annual awards, an Award of Excellence will be given for exceptional projects nominated by jury members.

"The Sun Herald believes our sponsorship of the Design Awards is a natural extension of our leadership awards," Publisher Ricky Mathews said. "While the leadership awards honor the women and men who are at the forefront of driving the recovery and rebuilding of our region, the design awards will honor the best work that is resulting from those efforts in architecture, engineering and planning. We believe it is important to celebrate excellence in many ways, and the design awards will put the best work in a spotlight that should encourage others to step up to the plate and set a standard for our rebuilding that will be notable."

Winners will be chosen by juries led by professionals and experts in each category. Awards will be announced in the Sun Herald over five days and the winners will be honored at an awards ceremony.

"Mississippi State is extremely honored to be a part of a process that brings celebration in the wake of one of the worst natural disasters of our time," said Jeremiah Dumas, assistant research professor of landscape architecture at MSU. "We are very proud of our resources that we have in our faculty, and it is because of their expertise that we can offer our assistance."

Dumas chairs the steering committee which includes Virgil Culver, director of the Mississippi State Community Action Team; Jim West, dean of MSU's school of architecture; Dennis Truax, head of MSU's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Sharon Hodge, outreach coordinator of the Northern Gulf Institute; Sadik Artunc, head of the MSU Department of Landscape Architecture; and Jerry Emison, associate professor of MSU's Public Policy and Administration. Stan Tiner, the Sun Herald's executive editor, also is a member of the steering committee.

The deadline for nominations is June 13.

For complete rules on the nomination process, go to sunherald.com/designawards.