building a better texas

Can moving to an activity-friendly neighborhood enhance the health of previously sedentary residents? That’s one of many questions at the intersection of public health and the built environment to be considered by researchers in a $2.7 million active living study.

Bob Segner, a beloved Texas A&M professor of construction science whose legions of former students occupy leadership positions throughout the building industry, is retiring at the conclusion of the spring 2016 semester ending a stellar 46-year teaching career.

A master plan created by Texas A&M graduate landscape architecture students that showcases “green” methods to cleanse storm water runoff and a ecological design and planning book compiled by the LAUP department head, earned 2015 Texas ASLA awards.

Undergraduate students interested in careers as planning or sociology researchers sharpened their research skills in summer 2015 with help from Texas A&M faculty during a 6-week Research Experience for Undergraduates program.

The completely renovated interior in historic Francis Hall, the home of construction science education at Texas A&M, has been recognized with an award by the Associated General Contractors’ Texas Building Branch.

Six former students from Texas A&M’s College of Architecture who have risen to the top of their respective fields while making significant public service contributions were honored as outstanding alumni during an Oct. 23, 2015 banquet at the Miramont Country Club in Bryan.

A proposed “Ike Dike” to protect the Galveston/Houston area from hurricane storm surges should incorporate business parks, public spaces and pedestrian thoroughfares, concludes research funded by Texas A&M’s Institute for Sustainable Coastal Communities.

To assist fundraising for a faith-based Ft. Worth boarding school proposed to serve economically disadvantaged youth0, Texas A&M students developed design concepts, construction schedules and operating cost estimates.

Miniature residences destined to house the chronically homeless designed and built by Texas A&M environmental design and undergraduate construction science students were publicly displayed May 14 and 15, 2015 at Rudder Plaza.

Within weeks of gaining prominence among the world’s best game design schools, Texas A&M was ranked as one of the nation’s best animation schools, placing third among public institutions in a 2015 analysis conducted by Animation Career Review, an online career resource for aspiring animators, game designers and digital artists.

The $10 million transformation of historic Francis Hall, the new headquarters for the Department of Construction Science, will be celebrated with a dedication at 12:30 p.m. April 9 in the College Station Hilton followed by an open house at Francis Hall.

Widely known as a fertile training ground for Hollywood special effects professionals, the Department of Visualization at Texas A&M University is rapidly gaining stature among the nation’s leading programs in video game design.

A research team from Texas A&M’s Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center is working to identify best practices in pre- and post-disaster planning in communities recovering from a variety of natural and man-made disasters.

Texas A&M’s national prominence in disaster planning research is evidenced in the February 2015 Journal of the American Planning Association special issue in which four of the publication’s 10 articles were penned by Texas A&M faculty and former students.

An elite group of urban planning researchers from Texas A&M University have been selected to play an integral role with scientists from 11 universities in a nationwide initiative aimed at helping communities prepare for and recover from natural disasters.