The Crosby Arboretum is the premier native plant conservatory of the Southeastern United States opened in 1985 as a living memorial to L.O. Crosby, Jr.  Now a part of the Coastal Research and Extension Center of Mississippi State University, the Arboretum has grown into careful assemblage of seven distinctive natural areas encompassing 700 acres plus its focus of activities:  the 64-acre Pinecote Native Plant Center, which won an Honor Award from the American Society of Landscape  Architects (ASLA).  The noted architect Fay Jones, FAIA, of Fayetteville, Arkansas, designed all of Pinecote's original buildings.

In late 2004, its mission crystallized and its programs established, the Arboretum engaged Howorth & Associates Architects to design a new permanent Education Center.  Like Jones' architecture, the Education Center is designed to sit lightly on its site and tightly within the dense native vegetation.  The cruciform plan maximizes the building's permeability and minimizes its mass.  Corner Windows open the interior to engage the outdoors and erode the building's formal presence to marry it with the site.

The Education Center's motives and gestures pay homage to but do ot copy Fay Jones.  The building's six-foot organizing module recalls the six-by-nine-foot module of Jones' Pavilion.  The ridge skylights and their articulated trusses clearly allude to Jones' Pavilion.  The ground concrete floors recall the Arboretum's gravel footpaths.  Exterior wood finishes carry into the interior, both as structure and as finish, and the galvalume roof takes on the changing colors of the sky, making this building a part of its place.  Custom millwork light fixtures recall those Jones designed, following the lessons of his mentor, Frank Lloyd Wright.

The larger wing houses an office suite organized around a reference library-and-confernece area and a Large Program Room for education and reception use, both skylit.  A series of sectional glass doors open expansively to two western terraces.

At the wings' crossing is an introverted Gallery whose natural board walls and ceilings can be used for display, along with the central kiosk beneath square oculus atop the building's intersecting gables.

A primary goal of the 2009 redesign is to provide a LEED Certified Building that enhances the existing natural conditions.