clay design build

04/03/2026

PROJECT HIGHLIGHT – 04.03.2026
Wildwood Reserve
Just as a landscape regenerates according to its climate, geology, and local seeding, we believe lasting structures are likewise formed. A place—its people and the things they have built—provides the seeds.
We gather the most robust precedents and distill their essential characteristics, advancing the old into new expressions that seek to clarify the distinct nature of each locale.
1) For Wildwood Reserve, a primary residential camp for a young couple, their four children, and aging parents, we found guiding seeds from the Choctaw, Crosby Arboretum, Felder Campground, and the towns of McComb and Brookhaven.
2) In recognition of the Choctaw, we raised a ceremonial plane with cardinal order to center the complex of structures and establish a central lawn (recalling Felder Campground).
3) Following the architectonics of the Pinecote Pavilion, the assembly of structure, enclosure, and skin is decoupled to varying degrees, exploiting the interdependencies of each element as compositions oscillate between total dissolution and taut compliance.
4) In a display of total dissolution at the entry to the Cabin, skin and structure animate a lacework of shadow reminiscent of Brookhaven’s Victorian details.
5) Approaching the Main House from the central lawn, the northeast corner brings structure, enclosure, and skin into a taut relationship.
6) Weathered gray acetylated pine, in both the structure and the vertical wood skin is contrasted with a warm sinker cypress to denote exposed enclosure and mark points of entry.
7) The living room has an east, pond-facing window on axis with the deck leading to the Studio.
8) The bedroom passage shares an interstitial space where the skin is draped over the decoupled structure filtering south light through the latticework of skin much akin to light passing through the pines.
9) From the open porch to the rear, the harsh west sun is sheilded with overextending skin and structure.
10) At the south face, skin is uncoupled from enclosure to present the façade as a woven patchwork of reeds or pine needles, blurring the distinction between solid and void, enclosure and skin.

03/27/2026

FIELD TRIP FRIDAY – 03.27.2026
Brookhaven, MS

Continuing our exploration of the Pine Belt, Brookhaven stands as one of Mississippi’s finest architectural towns, with a rich fabric of high-quality buildings and an urban life still animated by commerce, the arts, and lots of downtown activity..

1) Brookhaven’s Threshold
Dating to 1915, the “Homeseeker’s Paradise” sign establishes a formal threshold into Brookhaven, framing urban life beyond and, in the distance, the Brookhaven Little Theatre.

2) Before the Railroad
The Foster-Smith Log Cabin, c. 1825, recalls the world before Brookhaven’s railroad identity took hold and the earlier Pine Belt settlement that came before the rail corridor.

3) School of the Arts
Mary Jane Lampton Auditorium, built in 1913 on the former Whitworth College campus, now belongs to the Mississippi School of the Arts. Its classical front and carefully worked masonry reflect Brookhaven’s early institutional ambition.

4) Federal Masonry
The United States Post Office, built in 1912–13, is one of Brookhaven’s most refined civic buildings, with its arcaded porch, broad eaves, and detailed masonry shaped by Italian Renaissance and Beaux-Arts influence.

5) Eclectic Commerce
The McGrath Building, c. 1892, reflects the layered character of Brookhaven’s downtown. Its cornice, brick detailing, storefront, and canopy reveal a commercial facade shaped over multiple periods.

6) Defining Spire
St. Francis of Assisi is the oldest church in Brookhaven. Its Gothic Revival form and prominent spire make it a defining element of the city’s skyline.

7) Residential Evolution
Shadowlawn above and Englewood below show Brookhaven’s shift from Queen Anne toward a more formal classical expression.

8) Sherman-Thornhill House
The Sherman-Thornhill House reflects the richness of Brookhaven’s turn-of-the-century residential fabric.

9) Turrets and Lace
These two houses show Brookhaven at its most picturesque, with asymmetry, spindlework, wraparound porches, and turrets.

10) Three Gables
This early-20th-century house stands out for its unusual three-gable-end stack, showing Brookhaven’s continued commitment to thoughtful residential design.

03/21/2026

PROJECT HIGHLIGHT – 03.21.2026
Wildwood Reserve

We recently completed schematic design on this residential camp located in Ruth, MS.

1) Wildwood Lane
Wildwood Lane leads to this 40-acre property, set within a broader landscape of working timberlands where cyclical harvesting can reduce habitat continuity and diversity.

2) Site
Ruth is a small rural community in southwest Mississippi, between Brookhaven and McComb, near the heart of the Piney Woods.
Inspired by the Crosby Arboretum, the clients sought to transform the recently harvested site into a more permanent and ecologically diverse landscape composed of varied ecosystems that support wildlife, provide habitat, and contribute to long-term land stability.

3) 40 acre 3D model
We studied the 40-acre site through drone photogrammetry and LiDAR scanning, producing a digital 3D model of the landscape accurate to within 1/8 inch.

4) Working with the Land
Project landscape architect Bob Brzuszek conducted soil sampling to identify zones of soil type and saturation, allowing the planting strategy to respond to the site’s geology, hydrology, and topography.

5) Site Plan
The proposal repairs and enlarges the existing mill pond dam to expand the water surface to more than four acres and establish a gum pond. Privacy and gradual discovery shaped the landscape design with plant communities ranging from meadow and old field to woodland.

6) Compressed entry
Turning off the access road, the space contracts along the aggregate driveway, with native shrubs and denser rows of oaks and hickories limiting outward views.

7) Funneled openings
Deeper into the site, the view opens into a meadow, offering the first glimpse of the mill pond and main camp house.

8) Ridge road
The driveway follows higher ground, tracing the natural contours of the land.

9) Gum Pond
The gum pond is located in suitable soil conditions and reinforced by restored tree canopies along the southern exposures.

10) Structures
The primary building site was situated on the windward side of the mill pond.
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Check back next time as we highlight the multiple structures within the project.

03/13/2026

FIELD TRIP FRIDAY – 03.13.2026
Felder Campground

We are continuing our exploration of the Pine Belt. Felder Campground, near Summit, is one of Mississippi’s oldest Methodist camp-meeting places (established in 1843). For many people, it will feel similar to the Neshoba County Fairgrounds with its cabins, porches, shared grounds, and a central gathering structure.

1) Central grounds
This is the main spatial condition at Felder: a central green held by cabins facing inward rather than separate buildings turned away from one another.

2) Tabernacle
The tabernacle is the organizing center of the place. The present open-sided structure dates to the 1881 revival of the camp meeting and was later expanded in 1898. Notice the sawdust floors.

3) Roof framing
Looking up at the beautiful roof structure, the tabernacle’s timber framing and pyramidal form funnel warm air up through the vented roof lantern to keep the space cool.

4) Structure and benches (open-air assembly)
Inside, the building is mostly structure, shade, and seating. Posts, braces, roof framing, and benches do the work, with little separation between inside and outside.

5) Porch life
The cabin porches are not just entry points. They extend living space outward and make the outdoor edge part of daily life.

6) Cabin fabric
This side of Felder shows the ordinary building fabric that accumulates over time—wood siding, patchwork additions, utility runs, and the marks of long use.

7) Connected porches
One thing that stood out most here was the interconnected porches. They make the raised exterior space feel shared rather than private.

8) Bridge between cabins
These above-grade connections keep movement outdoors and help tie cabin to cabin. Small elements like this make the campground feel communal.

9) Raised cabins and understory
The elevated cabins create shaded crawlspaces below, and the posts and diagonal bracing form a strong latticework underneath.

10) Cabin and cross-bracing
This final view brings several lessons together: raised floor, deep porch, simple gabled cabin, and the cross-braced understory that gives the whole place a clear structural character.

02/28/2026

FIELD TRIP FRIDAY -- 02.27.2026
The city of McComb, Mississippi

1/ McComb is still a railroad town in the most literal sense. Amtrak still stops here, running the same north–south corridor that built the city in the first place—linking McComb to New Orleans and Chicago.

2/If you want to understand McComb, start at the depot. The McComb City Railroad Depot Museum has model trains, historical videos, artifacts, and you can walk through seven vintage rail cars. The museum is reopening Saturday, March 7, 2026.

3/This is the coal loading tower—the workhorse of the steam era. Coal-burning engines had to be fed constantly, and this is where the railroad loaded fuel fast enough to keep schedules on track.

4/These old maintenance sheds are the backshop side of McComb. This is where cars were maintained, repaired, and built. A rail town isn’t just trains passing through; it’s the labor and skill required to keep them alive.

5/The old rail warehouses are vacant now, but illustrate the efficiency of the town layout around the railroad -- storage right beside the tracks, so freight could move directly from rail cars into town commerce.

6/This is the old city hospital, a two-story Art Moderne building that served as a hospital roughly c.1925–c.1965.

7/This church sits at Five Points, the visual center of downtown. It was built as a memorial for Captain J. J. White, who helped turn McComb from rail camp into a real city—building a major sawmill, pioneering steam locomotives on tramways for hauling logs, backing banks, and helping establish the McComb Cotton Mill.

8/Building entry detail on N Broadway (c.1930). Limestone veneer, Tudor/Gothic hints—and a pointed-arch surround with rope molding and verde marble wainscoting.

9/This is the William Frederick Holmes House, built 1894, a big Queen Anne landmark near downtown—also known as “Theosa.”

10/McComb’s downtown is the proof that Main Street can still work. The historic district is mostly 1–3 story brick commercial buildings dating roughly 1890–1940, and today it’s active and healthy. If you’re here at lunch, stop at Broadway Deli and try “The Phil.”

02/13/2026

FIELD TRIP FRIDAY -- 02.13.2026
Crosby Arboretum -- Picayune, Mississippi

1/ We’re starting a weekly series—field notes from places across Mississippi that reveal the beauty and cultural context of our state. We begin in the Piney Woods city of Picayune at the Crosby Arboretum.

2/ An arboretum is a curated landscape for learning—part garden, part museum—where plants (especially trees) are preserved, labeled, and studied. Crosby was envisioned as an interpretive landscape for native plant communities of the Pearl River Drainage Basin.

3/ Landscape architect Edward L. Blake, Jr. helped shape the Arboretum’s early direction—treating the site itself as the primary exhibit, and translating ecology into simple experiences of water, light, paths, and clearings.

4/ Longleaf pine ecosystems once defined much of the Gulf Coastal Plain. Industrial logging dramatically reduced these forests—making restoration today feel both ecological and cultural.

5/ “Turpentine” points to the Pine Belt story of naval stores—resin harvested from pines and refined into turpentine and rosin.

6/ Needle palm (Rhapidophyllum hystrix) is a quiet Gulf Coast original—armored, understory-tough, and native to the Southeast, including Mississippi.

7/ Mirror Perch Bridge was designed and built by Mississippi State architecture students led by Professor Hans Herrmann—utility-pole timber reaching out over the pond in a direct, resourceful gesture.

8/ Gum ponds are rare wetland landscapes—still, shallow systems that host distinctive plant communities and wildlife. At Crosby, this pond becomes a classroom and a lens for seeing the Piney Woods more clearly.

9/ Pinecote Pavilion by Fay Jones is one of Mississippi’s masterworks—an authentic Southern dialect of light, timber, rhythm, and shade.

10/ Up close, the roof reads like a controlled unlayering—structure becoming ornament; shade becoming detail.

Where should we go next Friday?

12/25/2025

Happy Holidays from CLAY

11/27/2025

11/28/2023

We feel privileged to have our clients and friends nominate the firm for Rankin's Best of the Best and would be grateful to have your vote. Best architect is number #44.

Here it is! Voting is now open for Rankin's Best of the Best. One vote per device per day. There will be a new link each day through Friday, Dec. 1st.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/H2JPHSK

10/27/2023

This new residence in Raymond, MS has presented us with some challenging and unique opportunities.

How do you build a new house in an established neighborhood of ‘60s ranch homes? What is the appropriate expression for a 5,000 sf house amongst much smaller homes? How do you respond to a site that has more than 35’ of slope from the rear property line down to the street?

Our final design aims to answer these questions and more in an authentic and poetic manner. The house is set back from the street (following the lead of its neighbors) atop a small plateau thus limiting the view of onlookers due to its heightened position. A low horizontal volume responds to the design of the adjacent ranch homes and is clad in Catahoula sandstone drawing on the early history of Raymond and the Mississippi Springs quarry (this quarry supplied the Catahoula sandstone that originally clad the exterior of the Old Capitol in Jackson). A lightweight gabled structure rests on this base and extends back into the site to conceal its true size. Cedar open-joint cladding charred black (Shou-sugi-ban is a Japanese wood preservation technique that is durable and low maintenance) and black metal rib roofing further hide this primary volume. A large retaining wall in the rear allows for a private courtyard and pool and yields a rear lawn for the master suite.

Do you have a unique project, big dreams, particular taste? Give us a call. We would love to hear about it.

02/03/2023

Here's a sneak peek at a project we are finishing up. Spaces overlap and intertwine. Details are driven by shadow.