The latest in our ongoing series re-printing the 2-year run of Mississippi Architect from 1963 through 1965. Today’s article is the feature in the April 1963 issue. As always, you can view the full issue, which includes articles on non-Mississippi issues such as computers solving trusses problems and the Sheridan Park development in Ontario.
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College Science Building
With the launching of the space exploration program in America, the need for scientists and science technicians has become urgent. The companion need for a general understanding of science by the public has
become even more apparent. Hinton Hall, the new science building at Perkinston Junior College, reflects some of this growing interest in the field of science.
More than 1000 students, primarily from Harrison, Jackson, George ,and Stone Counties, are enrolled for the first two years of college or vocational technical programs of study at Perkinston.
The new science building already is at capacity use, with basic courses offered there in chemistry, physics and biology.
Throughout the design of the science building project, the architects made an effort to create an environment which would eliminate external distractions, but stimulate interest by providing internal attractions.
The building site is bounded on the north by physical education exercise fields, on the west by tennis courts, on the south by future building areas, and on the east by the main entrance into the campus.
To minimize distractions by the unrelated adjoining activities, the exterior walls of the building were built of solid masonry with windows located above eye-level. All rooms used as teaching stations open directly onto a large interior court. Hydroponics beds for growing plants with chemicals, beds for soil plants, and a pool for use as an aquarium are provided within the court. A place also is reserved for a future tower and telescope.
Since the building is not air conditioned, sliding glass doors afford a means of cross ventilation. Fumes and odors created in laboratory experiments can be cleared into the open court. The court also serves as a natural gathering space for science students and faculty between classes and at breaks during long lab sessions.
Hinton Hall is divided into three rectangular areas, one area housing chemistry, one physics and the third biology. The chemistry rectangle contains two laboratories, a lecture room and faculty office. The physics and biology rectangles each contain a laboratory, lecture room and faculty office. Rest rooms and the mechanical equipment room are located in one corner of the building.
The floor of the building is three feet above the ground in older to provide crawl space for repairing and replacing plumbing lines serving the laboratories. The floor and foundation are concrete; the walls, brick exterior and concrete block interior.
Exposed steel joists on steel columns support a flat roof deck of two inch insulating composition board. Vinyl asbestos tile is used on the floor of the chemistry labs and asphalt tile is used on the floors elsewhere. All interior lights are fluorescent, and heating is provided by hot water fan-coil units.
WILLIAM A. ALLEN, JR., AIA
LLOYD K. GRACE, AIA
WILLIS T. GUILD, JR., AIA
–Associates Architects
GRACE & GUILD, AIA, ARCHITECTS
–Principals in Charge of Project
CONSULTANTS
Mechanical- John S. McCormick & Associates, Gulfport, Mississippi
Electrical- Zervigon, Goldstein, Associates, Gulfport, Mississippi
Structural- Post & Witty, Jackson, Mississippi
GENERAL CONTRACTOR
Leon C. Miles, Inc.
Columbia, Mississippi
EQUIPMENT CONTRACTOR
Martin School Equipment Company
Jackson, Mississippi
AREAS
Enclosed Building- 8358 square feet
Covered Walks-2920 square feet
Court- 3384 square feet
COSTS
Building, Walks, Court- $120,273.00
Equipment (complete, including laboratory furniture)- $25,000.00
Categories: Architectural Research, Recent Past, Universities/Colleges
Preservation in Mississippi 
Not air conditioned? Ouch. Then again, we take so much for granted these days. I find it hard to imagine how Washington, D.C. must have been in the summer before a/c. Perhaps this is why the city shuts down in August.
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It’s hard to remember, but my elementary school was not air-conditioned in the 1970s. I went to the first fully air-conditioned school built in Jackson, Siwell Junior High, a couple of years after it opened, but then had to go back to the mostly un-climate controlled original Forest Hill where fifth period naps were de rigueur. How did we survive?
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. . . and with no air conditioning, look at how prominent the courtyard, covered walkways, and brise soleil become, both as formal and functional elements.
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Now that is a junior college with some world-class style. My junior college (Booneville ) was comfortable but not a lot of style.
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That’s a beauty, is it still around?
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I’m afraid I don’t know. I’ve been to Perk only a couple of times, before Katrina, and I spent a little time looking at the earlier buildings on campus but nothing later than maybe the 1930s. Maybe a reader who’s more familiar with the campus will chime in. My hope is that if it is still there, they haven’t put a big red gabled metal roof on it as seems to be the fad with colleges nowadays, at least in MS.
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I attended Perkinston Jr College in 1960 and 1961 and had some of the best teachers
I had in college, particularly Ms Nora Graves in English Lit.
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