Architects and Engineer to Teach During Alex Foundation’s Annual Summer Camps Architect Amber Banks of Little Rock, Architect Brandon Bibby of Boston, and Engineer Edward Holcomb and Engineer Devin Bradley, of North Little Rock will kick-off this year’s annual architecture and design summer camps hosted by Alex Foundation. The three-week summer camps will be held July 10-14 and July 17-21 at the University of Arkansas Monticello historic property, Hollywood Plantation, 184 Plantation Lane, Tillar; and July 24-28 at the former National Guard Armory, 1411 Park Street, Lake Village. The commuter camps are free to all rising 7th grade students from Ashley, Chicot, Desha, and Drew Counties and will convene from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.
Holcomb works alongside clients in designing the water and wastewater infrastructure that provides communities with clean and safe water. His expertise ranges from developing cost estimates and preliminary construction schedule to designing water system models. As an avid volunteer with GarverGives, the firm’s corporate giving program, Holcomb and Bradley regularly serves with the Alex Foundation.
Bradley is a project engineer on Garver’s Transportation Team designing roadways, highways and bridges that make up the nation’s vital transportation infrastructure. From roadway geometric design to erosion control design, Bradley has a wide range of transportation engineering expertise and has served major clients including the Department of Transportation in both Arkansas and Mississippi.
Holcomb and Bradley will teach students during the first week of summer camp at Hollywood Plantation. The third week of summer camp, students will travel to Little Rock for Engineering in a Day at Garver Engineer to explore realistic engineering and design projects that will introduce skills and knowledge about the profession.
Engineer Michael Bruce, with Clearwater Paper will teach during the second week of summer camp at the Hollywood Planation. Clearwater Paper and Garver Engineers are both summer camp sponsors.
An award-winning architect who joined Cromwell after interning with us and graduating from the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the University of Arkansas, Banks has worked on a variety of projects including education, military, medical, and city. Amber currently leads our student outreach efforts, hosting K-12 students from around the state and helping them gain exposure to careers in the architecture and engineering industry. Amber brings a fresh perspective to each project with an eagerness to learn and engage with both the Cromwell team and the clients. She is a graduate of Leadership Greater Little Rock, was named a “Woman to Watch” by Soiree Magazine, and volunteers with studioMAIN and Habitat for Humanity of Central Arkansas.
Bibby, an artist, activist, and architect raised was raised in the plains of Arkansas, where the Delta meets the Ozarks. He is a multidiscipline researcher and designer invested in questioning narrative, representation, and access in the built environment and its impacts on memory and behavior for marginalized communities. He is a next-generation preservationist motivated by movement, memory, and culture in contemporary Black space.
In his current role at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Bibby is the Senior Preservation Architect for the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. Founded in 2017, the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund is the largest program in the United States dedicated to preserving Black spaces and the contributions of African American sites of activism, achievement, and resilience in the American landscape. His portfolio of past and ongoing work includes stewarding the preservation, design, and interpretation of sites, including the John and Alice Coltrane Home in Dix Hills, Langston Hughes House in Harlem, Robert's Temple Church of God in Christ in Chicago, and King's Chapel Memorial to Enslaved Persons in Boston.
Bibby began his journey in architectural and preservation practice with WER Architects and Planners in Little Rock, Arkansas, and before joining the Action Fund in September 2022, was a Space and Society Fellow and Senior Architect in the Public Memory and Memorials Lab at the 2022 AIA Architecture Firm of The Year, MASS Design Group. He is a 2014 Bachelor of Architecture Graduate and Alpha Rho Chi Bronze Medal Recipient of the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design.
Celebrated for his design leadership and community activism, Bibby is a 2022 Ones To Watch Awardee and Scholar with the American Society of Interior Design. In 2019, he was named a "New Influential" in Arkansas Business' list of 20 in their 20s. He has taught with the Boston Architectural College, lectured with the American Institute of Architects, Architecture and Design Network, AARP, and served as a Health Equity Advisor with the International Well Building Institute.
Bibby’s visit is funded in part by a grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council. He will introduce students to architecture at The Belmont 1857 in Greenville, the former National Guard Armory in Lake Village, and the Grammy Museum in Cleveland.
This year marks Alex Foundation’s 11th year of offering free summer camps in the Arkansas Delta designed to give limited access students and students in rural areas some of the same competitive opportunities and exposures that students in metropolitan and urban areas have. Established in 2010, Alex Foundation introduces students to architecture and design through a multidisciplinary approach to learning including place-based learning, experiential learning and project-based learning. For additional information about Alex Foundation or to donate, visit www.alex-foundation.org.
