neckdown

The 2026 “Neckdown” Whirlwind

September 11, 2026

Our Fall 2026 “Neckdown” week was a smashing success! During Neckdown, students, faculty, and guest volunteer helpers step back from the heavy duty thought-based work to focus on the physical labor we need to do—labor to keep projects in excellent shape, maintain the spaces we love, and give projects that need help a few more hands. In the process, students connect to the community, learn how to maintain materials, and contrary to our age’s focus on the disposable, nurture their sense of stewardship. We appreciate the Landscape Architecture students and faculty trekking to Newbern to share this work and experience.

At the heart of Morrisette Campus, our teams repaired the Fabrication Pavilion so it can continue to serve as a work, storage, and teaching space. We gave the kitchen a thorough cleaning, tidied the Woodshop, and gave the ongoing Dining House project and Rural Studio Farm some extra hands and extra love.

Three students wheelbarrowing, shoveling, and raking gravel for the Morrisette House parking lot.

A little further out, we cleaned up and pressure washed both the Mockbee’s Subrosa Pantheon and the Bodark Amphitheater, and also fixed the roof on Chantilly House, the 1832 house that Mr. William Morrisette had disassembled and moved from Greensboro to Newbern. Spencer House, a relative baby by comparison (core of the structure built in 1890) and the community storm shelter also received some TLC: exterior painting and cleaning/pressure washing, respectively. We also love Newbern, so we got to work cleaning up and doing yardwork downtown at the library and town hall.

Two helpers pictured beginning to paint the window trim.

In Greensboro, we helped the Smith Park team check items off their checklist, and we filled in gravel in Horseshoe Courtyard downtown. It’s funny how gravel too large to stick in the soles of shoes seems to compress or disappear over the years; maybe the Gravel Fairy is at work. We even made the trek to Perry Lakes Park in Marion to replace boards on the boardwalk. It’s ready once again for birders and others to enjoy this spot on the Cahaba River.

In this whirlwind of activity, we probably forgot a few details. Thank you for understanding, and as always, thank you to all who participated!

Tags: neckdown

Tree Talk—The Smith Park team is developing green thumbs

February 17, 2026

An update on the basketball court, planting trees during neckdown, and pouring the first section of the walking trail.

Where we left off

Last year we prepped for the holidays by installing the basketball court at the park. You can read about how we prepared the formwork and installed the hoop posts in our last blog. Since then, we’ve applied a burlap finish to the court and cut all the control joints. A design is also in the works for a graphic painting on the court surface—something playful, colorful!

An overview of the order of—PEMDAS

Our project site is 2.5 acres, and we are touching almost every foot of it. That is a lot more square footage than a house! A big design challenge for us in recent days has been the staging and sequencing of construction. We are balancing tree delivery and installation, concrete pours, and more. To walk our readers through the order of events, we can apply a familiar algebra anagram PEMDAS.

Planting trees

The winter months are planting season, and we are looking to plant 115 trees at the park! Our goal is to get them in the ground before the weather gets too hot, so planting is our first priority. The first batch to be planted included seven black gum trees and three willow oaks. Lots of people helped during “Neckdown” Week , our time to maintain properties and make big project pushes. These helpers included our friends in Auburn University’s Landscape Architecture Program, all with their aid, 10 trees were installed in a little over a day!

Excavating the trail: Part 1

After we planted the trees, our friends at C&T Excavating came back and helped us with the excavation and base work for the first section of walking trail. Excavation for the trail is being divided into three parts. This strategy maintains truck access for concrete and tree deliveries while keeping the working area at a more manageable scale.

Make formwork

This part was pretty straightforward for the team since we had lots of practice forming up the basketball court last year. We are using 2x4s on the straight sections of trail and PVC board to form the curves. Our team placed formwork and the rebar cage for the bench in preparation for the first concrete pour.

Delivering concrete

Concrete is in the ground! Again. For the basketball court, a contractor completed the finishing, but the team will be pouring the benches and trail themselves!

Applying the finish

The trail consists of two different types of concrete finishes: exposed agregate and a broom finish. In this first pour, we displayed our skills at both! The bench shows off the broom finish, and the walking trail sections display the exposed ag.

Start again!

Now we are ready to start the process over again! The next few weeks on site will consist of a big delivery of trees, planting, and (weather permitting) many more concrete trucks.

Design work and mock-ups

On rainy days, we are continuing to make progress on the design of the bathroom. We are continuing to mock up and test design options. Our most recent mock-up was at the park, allowing us to look at the size and height of the pole barn pavilion.

Tags: basketball court, bathroom, concrete, neckdown, planting, trees, walking trail

“Neckdown” Week: Planting trees, planting our feet, using our hands

February 9, 2026

Another “Neckdown” week ended in success! Neckdown is where the entire student, faculty, and staff help out in the community by doing fix-up jobs. Everyone gets down into the dirt and jumps in the ditch. No project is too small or too big, and we have lots of hands.

This semester, the Studio worked on a multitude of projects both on and off the main campus. While the Morrisette House was getting cleaned top to bottom, the Fabrication Pavilion was getting some new structural fasteners put in the trusses and columns to prepare for a new roof. The Farm installed new planter beds over Christmas break, so we got them up and running with dirt and seeds.

Student planting new seedlings in the planterbeds

Instructor David Hill talking to students about planting trees

Meanwhile, some of the crew helped the CLT Core House plant trees and do some last-minute cleaning. Trees were the order of business elsewhere, too: We helped both the Dining House team and the Smith Park team plant trees. And we gave both teams a hand milling lumber.

Students posing with Milled lumber on a trailer

We also accomplished other tasks at our local parks. At Perry Lakes Park, we replaced walkway boards. At Lions Park, we repaired bleachers, fences, and the concession stand, and we rebuilt the gate and gave it a fresh coat of paint. You would never guess who helped rebuild the gate: our fabulous alumnus Zane Morgan of Blackshop in Birmingham, Alabama.

Students repainting the large entrance sign at the Lions Park

Students posing with lumber for the Dining House

Students and Faculty gathering for end of Neck down Announcements

A shout-out to David Hill, who brought out landscape architecture students to plant trees and care for other parts of the landscaping.
All in all, the spring Neckdown week was productive, and the Studio is ready to get back to work on the projects at hand!

Tags: neckdown

Transitioning: A successful summer into a fruitful fall

September 19, 2025

A perspective of the north and west elevation.

As summer rolls into fall, we are continuing to work toward completing our project!

Students take a break from the heat on the front porch. — Jazzy Red or Mariana Trench Blue?

Group photo of the new and old students of Rural Studio. — Jazzy Red or Mariana Trench Blue?

In our last blog post, we had recently gotten “dried in” and were beginning to work on flashing, as well as mechanical, electrical, and plumbing. Since then, we have made lots of progress and are thrilled with how things are coming together.

A photo of the north elevation of the core house.

Our resident electrician, Sarah, has been hard at work running wires and installing everything in our mechanical / laundry space!

A photo of the lights on the utility room ceiling. — Electrifying!

A photo looking at the main entry of the core house. — Electrifying!

After putting insulation on the roof and flashing on the exterior, we made a big pish, putting up our corrugated metal siding. The details all required careful thought and planning: aligning screw spacing, cutting out for openings, and considering how to apply the metal panels to the roof and walls. It was rewarding to see our layers of effort enclosed and finally finished.

At the end of August, we officially completed putting up our metal siding!

The view of the core house from the neighbor's driveway. — HIP HIP HOORAY!

After metal was complete, it was time for “Neckdown Week,” the time when we focus on upkeep and cleanup. We had many amazing helpers! We safely put away all of our scaffolding. We moved our insulation into the house in preparation for insulating in the coming weeks. And we dug trenches, every helper’s favorite task!

Student hammers stake into the ground. — “I’ll just be here listening to my tunes.”

Students make music with glass bottles that they found while digging. — “I’ll just be here listening to my tunes.”

We got our main water line trenched and connected, so we now have water on site!

Students dig a hole and trench for the house shutoff box.

We also dug trenches and spread gravel to prepare for pouring the concrete for our porches.

Students dig the turndown for the front porch.

The team worked on formwork, vapor barrier, and rebar to prepare for the pour as well. Then, we poured our concrete and finished it, exposing the aggregate. We are so excited to have the porch concrete done. The porches have proven to be lovely spaces, and the front porch is even one team member’s favorite room in the house.

Student adds a stake to reinforce the formwork.

Now we are working on installing our exterior and interior doors, as well as final plumbing and electrical connections. We also grouted the tile in the bathroom recently and are thrilled with the finished look.

Student wipes off excess grout. — Door? Where?

A photo of the CLT door fully installed. — Door? Where?

Next up… insulation, then shiplap! Until next time!

Tags: CLT, designbuild, mep, metal siding, neckdown, porch culture, rsleftovers

Did You Hear About Our New Shovel?

February 26, 2025

It is ground-breaking!

We’ve been doing great and we are so excited to show you where we’ve been since December.

Unearthing our potential

Since we last sent an update your way, a lot has changed. After the Soup Roast review, we took our winter break to not only relax but also to dive headfirst into the world of project budgeting. We wanted to better grasp the costs of our proposals and learn what we can and cannot do based on those numbers. This exercise has allowed us to explore a variety of new, and returning, options for play, landscaping, and park infrastructure with a higher level of focus.

Enough money talk! With some refined eyes, our designs have taken major steps forward as well, especially with the park’s major infrastructure. We’ve chosen material for the parking areas, the walking trail and the basketball court along with their dimensions, orientations, and placements on the site. The next step is easy: figure out how to do it!

This project rocks

Along with the budgeting, material selection, and site placements of the new infrastructure pieces, the team began our first phases of site work in mid-January. To begin working on the park’s site, we had to prepare it by removing a lot of the existing infrastructure, including perimeter and baseball field fencing, the existing basketball surface, the field light poles, the baseball dugouts, and numerous others.

Over the course of a week, the team, along with some helpers, was able to completely transform the park into a whole new space. While it might look a bit bare, we have big plans for it coming very soon!

Sowing the seeds for success

Now that the park has undergone its first phases of clean up, we have been moving right along with the project’s design and details. Since January the team has had the opportunity to meet face to face with many new visitors and reviewers.

In February, David Hill, a landscape architect and professor from Auburn, met with the team and pushed us to think about how we could use our existing designs and materials to make the park feel like a cohesive project. In March, we met with Andrew Berman, an architect from New York, and Ted Flato, an architect from Texas, who both pushed the team to think about how to make the park a beautiful space using trees and the shape of the walking trail. All of these meetings have helped the team tremendously with the advancement of the design.

So, what is next? Coming soon, we have our first executive review. This is the first of two formal project reviews that help make sure the project is on track. Between now and then, you can find us working hard but not without the occasional break outside to enjoy the springtime weather.

See you next time!

– The Smith Park Team

Tags: neckdown, rs5thyears, smithpark