RADFORD – Glencoe Mansion, Museum & Gallery and the Radford Heritage Foundation have dedicated the train observatory on the grounds to the professors and students who designed the project.
Last Wednesday, Radford Heritage Foundation Executive Director Scott Gardner dedicated the New River Train Observatory at Mary Draper Ingles Cultural Heritage Park with a plaque, honoring the roles of Virginia Tech Professors Kay Edge and Edward Becker in leading their students from the Virginia Tech School of Architecture + Design in the design and construction of the observatory.
Becker and Edge won an award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) for the train observatory design earlier this year. They won in the Design-Build category for the 2022 Architectural Education Awards, which honors the best practices in school-based design-build projects.
The train observatory is part of the Radford Cultural Heritage Park, adjacent to Glencoe, which features a bronze statue of Mary Draper Ingles and several interpretive panels of historical information. The observatory opened in 2019 after it was designed and constructed by Becker, Edge, and their students in conjunction with the City of Radford and its tourism department.
Radford News Journal Staff Report