Coahoma County Higher Education Center

This project creates a space for education, community programming, and events. A joint project of Coahoma County, Coahoma County Community College, and Delta State University, the complex is a culmination of the needs of the three entities, providing a 150-seat conference center, classrooms, distance learning facility, resource center, demonstration kitchen, and administrative offices. The existing gym was transformed into a new conference center, and a new 12,700-square-foot classroom building was added to the complex. Sited around the historic Cutrer Mansion, the ensemble overlooks the bluff from the city to the river bottom lands, framing the historic mansion and linking the complex to the city grid. The project celebrates the community’s diversity and the region’s landscape, culture, and blues heritage, as well as its full and complex social history. Duvall Decker was assisted by N. Montgomery Dodson, PE, I.C. Thomasson Associates, Inc, Construction Cost Analysis, Inc, Michelle Borst Lewis, ALSA, and Environmental Management Plus. Awards 2011 AIA Mississippi Merit Award 2011 Design with Brick Honor Award