building a better texas

From tape measures to state-of-the-art laser scans, Texas A&M preservation students employed an array of tools while documenting an historic schoolhouse building in Wheelock, Texas in an effort to help garner funds for the 108-year-old structure’s renovation.

David L. Pugh, who headed of the former Department of Urban and Regional Planning and helped shape dozens of Texas cities and thousands of minds throughout his four-decade teaching career, passed away Dec. 26, 2017 at 75.

My perspective on David Pugh begins with his appointment to the tenure-track faculty in 1976. He was the ideal academic for the times, bringing broad academic preparation, real-world experience, intellectual curiosity, and a genuine passion for teaching combined with a dedication to outreach.

South Knoll Elementary School students in College Station can enjoy learning in Jeremiah Forest, an outdoor classroom, as a result of a two-year Texas A&M student outreach project led by Alex Santos, an undergraduate landscape architecture major.

Using motion graphics, kinetic type and their own design prowess, two Texas A&M visualization student teams won first place honors in a statewide short film competition to create standout promotional videos for the proposed Texas Bullet Train.

Dallas’ new civic jewel, A Tasteful Place, a verdant, 3.5-acre edible garden and a sparkling, 3,700-foot glass-walled building housing a teaching kitchen and event space, was designed by two former students from the Texas A&M College of Architecture.

A comprehensive planning document already shaping growth in Liberty County, Texas earned its graduate urban planning student authors top honors from the American Planning Association Texas Chapter in a category ordinarily reserved for professionals.

Former Texas A&M architecture students swept the Brazos chapter of the American Institute of Architects 2017 awards with their renovations of the Williams Administration Building and other historic structures in the region.

A new book by Nancy McCoy '81 and David Woodcock, professor emeritus of architecture, details the creation of 10 Texas A&M Depression-era buildings designed by Samuel Charles Phelps Vosper, a university architecture professor.

As tens of thousands of Texans undergo a long, difficult recovery from Hurricane Harvey, numerous faculty and students initiatives at Texas A&M University are helping individuals and communities learn how to emerge from the damage and mitigate the effects of future disasters.

As Harvey’s record-setting rainfall inundated coastal Texas, expert researchers in natural disaster planning, recovery and sustainability at Texas A&M, through analysis and numerous media interviews, described how land development practices exacerbated the flooding and prescribed actions to mitigate future disasters.

Walter Gillis Peacock, director of the Texas A&M Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center, is one of 15 experts serving on a committee established by Congress to review efforts to reduce life and property loss from windstorms, the nation’s costliest natural hazard.

Texas border region residents will soon have access to two specialty medical clinics converted from shipping containers by students at the Texas A&M College of Architecture.

To investigate the viability of micro-manufacturing in the United States, the National Science Foundation tapped Francis Quek, professor of visualization at Texas A&M, as one of 23 recipients of a $100,000 Convergence Award.

This fall, more than 1,400 students in economically distressed areas of South Texas will carry backpacks stocked with school supplies provided by the Texas A&M University Colonias Program.