clay design build

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.

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.”

Happy Holidays from CLAY

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