Aggie Workshop presented speakers, charettes Feb. 7

A keynote address by Hitesh Mehta, a leading designer of lodges and landscapes at ecotourism sites throughout the world, highlighted lectures, charrettes and social events Feb. 7, 2014 at the 39 ^th annual [Aggie Workshop] (http://aggieworkshop.com/) , hosted by the Texas A&M student chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Workshop included lectures by Mehta, the founder of [HM Design] (http://h-m-design.com/) , Earl Broussard, founder of [TBG Partners] (http://tbg-inc.com/) , one of the United States’ premier landscape architecture and planning firms, and Alan Colyer ’81, principal at [Gensler] (http://www.gensler.com/#home) , a design, planning and consulting firm.

Students also worked side by side during with design professionals in an afternoon charrette and had an opportunity to network at an evening social event.

Hitesth Mehta, employs a multidisciplinary approach in planning and designing structures and landscapes at ecotourism sites. His designs emphasize solar, wind and other alternative energy processes, native plant species, tapping local knowledge during site analysis and planning stages, and the use of local labor and materials.

Among his award-winning projects are the [Crossswaters Ecolodge and Spa] (http://h-m-design.com/eco-architecture-crosswaters-ecolodge) in China, which won the American Society of Landscape Architects’ General Design Honor Award, the Bahsecheir New Urbanist Town in Turkey, which won the American Institute of Architects’ Merit Award and the [Diagnostic Center] (http://h-m-design.com/eco-architecture-diagnostic-center) in Nairobi, Kenya, which won the Architects Association of Kenya’s commercial category award.

Earl Broussard has turned TBG Partners into one of the nation’s premier landscape architecture and planning firms since founding it in 1987.

Some of TBG’s projects include: restoration of the [historic south grounds] (http://tbg-inc.com/folio/texas-state-capitol-south-grounds-austin-tx/) of the Texas State Capitol, the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site, Laguna Gloria historic grounds restoration, the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum and the Texas Governors’ Mansion’s historic restoration.

Broussard was inducted into the American Society of Landscape Architects' College of Fellows in 2010 and is the first landscape architect to serve on the Texas Historic Commission.

Alan Colyer is the director of planning and design for Gensler’s South Central region.

Colyer, an [outstanding alumnus] (http://www.arch.tamu.edu/community/formerstudents/outstanding-alumni/past-honorees/12/) of Texas A&M’s College of Architecture, led the the team that developed the master plan for Houston’s George R. Brown Convention Center and served as senior planner and/or designer at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum Complex and Haynes Ring Plaza at Texas A&M.