Contact: Sasha Steinberg

STARKVILLE, Miss.—As part of its Robert and Freda Harrison Lecture Series, Mississippi State University’s School of Architecture is sponsoring a Feb. 16 presentation by a co-founder of one of the Southeast’s most recognized architectural firms.

Free to all, award-winning architect Merrill Elam’s lecture takes place at 4 p.m. in the Robert and Freda Harrison Auditorium on the second floor of Giles Hall, home to MSU’s College of Architecture, Art and Design.

Elam, who served as a visiting critic at MSU in the 1980s, is principal in the Atlanta, Georgia-based firm of Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects, which specializes in architecture, graphic, exhibit and interior design, planning, programming and research. Having worked together in architecture for more than 40 years, Elam and fellow principal Mack Scogin have extensive experience in the formation and leadership of multi-disciplined project teams.

While colleagues at Heery and Heery Architects in Atlanta, Elam and Scogin honed their design and management skills on project types ranging from airports and hospitals to corporate and industrial campuses. For more, visit http://msmearch.com.

“Merrill Elam is certainly one of the most important and critical architects practicing in the world today. Her firm’s work has been published extensively and received numerous national design awards,” said MSU F.L. Crane Professor and School of Architecture Director Michael A. Berk.

“Since its early days, our school has had a strong connection with her firm and her partner, Mack Scogin. Many of our students over the years have had the good fortune to visit and tour their offices while on a Design Studio architecture field trip to Atlanta,” Berk added.

The School of Architecture is sponsoring two more 4 p.m. lectures in Harrison Auditorium throughout the spring semester. During a March 28 presentation, MSU fourth-year architecture student Daniel P. Smith of Canton will discuss his summer research experience as a 2017 MSU Aydelott Travel Award recipient. Mark West, an educator and architectural researcher from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will conclude the spring lecture series with a talk on April 13.

Part of MSU’s College of Architecture, Art and Design, the School of Architecture offers the only curriculum in Mississippi leading to a professional degree in architecture. For more, visit www.caad.msstate.edu and follow on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @CAADatMSU.

MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.