The Howorth and Associates Architects design team was selected by the State of Mississippi and the Mississippi Veterans Affairs Board for the master planning, design and construction administration of a new $7 million dollar State Veterans Cemetery. The cemetery is located in Newton, Mississippi. The key consultants on the project are landscape architects Lewis Scully Gionet, of Vienna, Virginia and Williford, Gearhart, Knight, civil engineers and surveyors with offices in central Mississippi.

The project scope includes master planning of an approximately 76-acre site with design and construction of the first phases of buildings and infrastructure. These phases will incorporate entrance elements along the state highway, an avenue of flags leading into the cemetery, the initial burial areas with an assembly area, a committal service shelter and a memorial walk. The initial facilities and infrastructure include the administration building, a maintenance facility, related roadways, landscaping, parking areas and infrastructure.

The unusual site is carved out of a piece of land formerly owned by Mississippi State University. It is located between a major interstate and local state highway. The cemetery requires visibility from both the interstate and the highway with buffering from the roadway noise. The site includes rolling hills and a drainage stream protected under the U. S. EPA. The master plan and civil work must incorporate the site constraints and re-working grades for functional burial grounds, roadways and structures. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2009.