architecture

Environmental design student teams from Texas A&M swept a national design contest, winning first-, second-, and third-place awards, as well as honorable mention with plans for renovating a skilled nursing facility in Jacksonville, Florida.

The New York Times featured Texas A&M architecture professor John Fairey's beloved Peckerwood Garden, a 39-acre living repository of rare and unusual plants from the southern United States and Mexico, in its April 18 issue.

More than 50 year's ago two adventurous members of the architecture faculty at Texas A&M University traveled with their families and an associate to South Asia to establish the first architectural education program in East Pakistan, now Bangladesh.

Earlier this month, the Maroon Coats, student ambassadors of the Texas A&M Foundation, organized an impromptu “thank you” note-writing session for students to share their gratitude with scholarship benefactors and gift givers who support College of Architecture programs.

At an early age, Houston-based artist Rick Lowe became interested in learning what he could do to improve residents’ quality of life in low-income communities. He began, he said, by creating paintings and sculptures dealing with political and social issues.

Miguel Roldán, founding principal of R+B Architects in Barcelona and adjunct professor of architecture at Texas A&M’s study abroad program in Spain, discussed his firm’s projects Feb. 27 as part of the Spring 2012 Architecture Lecture Series.

Visualization and landscape architecture students will be working with counterparts from numerous other disciplines working on groundbreaking projects made possible by a new interdisciplinary initiative at Texas A&M.

The grace and power of equestrian events at this summer’s Olympic games in London will be showcased in a venue designed by Charlie Kolarik ’04, a Texas A&M Master of Architecture graduate.

Working under the tutelage of an algorithmic design expert and an aerospace engineer, students in an experimental design studio at Texas A&M recently created prototypes for two unconventional home exteriors fabricated from innovative composite building materials.

A high-tech, permanent installation for the newly renovated Memorial Student Center portraying Texas A&M students past and present, designed in part by a former environmental design student, will debut in December.

Student-designed concepts imagining the future of health facility design education and research at Texas A&M University and the facilities to house those initiatives were showcased at the Langford Architecture Center in an April 25 public review.

“The Celebration of Excellence,” a new Department of Architecture event recognizing outstanding student and faculty achievements, will include a juried evaluation of the year’s top five graduate final study projects, culminating with the presentation of a “Best of the Best Award” for the winning work.

Lorena Téllez Toffer AIA, a 2004 Master of Architecture graduate, will be recognized May 19 at the American Institute of Architect’s National Convention in Washington, D.C. for her leadership as co-chair of AIA Dallas Latinos in Architecture (LiA) Committee, this year’s AIA Diversity Recognition Program honoree.

Evidence-based design and eco-effective, or sustainable, design are fundamentally compatible despite some conflicts, concluded Mardelle Shepley, professor of architecture of Texas A&M, in a research paper she’s presenting this May at a conference in Beijing, China.

Professional architects learned how to incorporate evidence-based design into healthcare projects at an April 12-14 “boot camp” sponsored by Texas A&M’s Center for Health Systems and Design.