landscape architecture & urban planning

Six doctoral students in the Urban and Regional Science program at Texas A&M University honed their teaching skills this year while earning fellows certificates from the university’s Graduate Teaching Academy. They attended seminars, choose a faculty mentor, observed classrooms and created a teaching portfolio.

An architectural preservationist, a creative director, scholars, educators, an urban planner and noted architects — including the designer of the world’s tallest building — are among the eight former students of the Texas A&M College of Architecture to be honored this year as Outstanding Alumni.

Landscape architecture students could begin work with professional landscape designers as early as Fall 2011 in the construction phase of Circuit of the Americas, a $400 million, 1,100 acre motor sports race track, concert venue and conference center in Austin.

Texas A&M students studying abroad in Bonn, Germany during the fall 2010 semester impressed the city’s mayor and staff with their presentations of a master plan for a 10-kilometer redevelopment along the Rhine River. A published portfolio of the students' work can be viewed online in PDF format.

For outstanding teaching and research-based contributions to their respective disciplines, 10 Texas A&M College of Architecture faculty members have earned promotions. “They have empowered and emboldened students through their dedication,” said Lou Tassinary, executive associate dean at the college.

Students studying abroad in South Africa are designing a starter campus for the university and developing a business plan for a nonprofit utility company while working on a groundbreaking real estate development located on the coast of the the country’s Eastern Cape.

Michael Murphy and Donald Sweeney, two retiring educators from the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning who helped mold generations of landscape architects and urban planners during more than 80 years of combined service, were honored at a May 15, 2011 reception.

Chris Mulder ’80 lectured about his firm’s newest trend-setting concept and led a design charrette while in College Station to receive an Outstanding International Alumnus Award from The Association of Former Students.

“The Sourcebook of Contemporary Green Architecture,” a new book by Sergi Costa Duran featuring 100 of the world’s most outstanding examples of environmentally-friendly architecture, opens with an introduction from sustainability expert Pliny Fisk, a professor at Texas A&M’s College of Architecture.

Texas A&M urban planning professor Michael Neuman has authored a new book examining the city of Madrid’s 20-year urban planning cycle and co-edited another that eyes the future of urbanization.

Kenneth Fowler, principal, founding partner and executive vice president of Rialto Studio in San Antonio, discussed his three decades in landscape architecture in an April 6 lecture. He has practiced in the Alamo City since 1982 and is currently involved in project design and management of large-scale projects.

Christiaan Mulder ’80, one of South Africa’s top environmental designers and planners and an outstanding alumnus of the Texas A&M College of Architecture, received The Association of Former Students Outstanding International Alumnus Award at a ceremony held April 26, 2011 at the Clayton Williams Jr. Alumni Center.