sustainability

On Saturday, April 28, Texas A&M urban planning students are staging the “Urban Plan-It Challenge,” a fun-filled, campuswide fund-raising competition based on the popular “The Amazing Race” television series. Contestants will vie for prizes in a series mental and physical tasks related to challenges confronting the planet.

Four of the world’s leading “green” experts discussed sustainability, energy and “green” development in a March 6 forum moderated by Jorge Vanegas, dean of Texas A&M’s College of Architecture, at a global real estate convention in Cannes, France.

Charles Culp, professor of architecture at Texas A&M, will help chart the course the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers as a new member of its board of directors and chairman of the group's Technical Activities Committee.

Visitors to Pointe du Hoc in Normandy, France, can once again visit a cliffside monument honoring the World War II heroism of U.S. Army Rangers, led by a future Texas A&M president, following a $6 million site restoration based on information gathered by the university’s Center for Heritage Conservation.

Students led by Nancy Holland, associate professor of construction science, are getting a first-hand look at how plastic bottles could help save concrete buildings from catastrophic failure in an earthquake.

Ted Flato, founding principal of Lake|Flato, a widely acclaimed, award-winning architecture firm based in San Antonio, will discussed the firm’s culture, tactics and philosophy at the 2012 John Miles Rowlett Lecture Series April 13 at Rudder Theatre on the Texas A&M campus.

An innovative wall system created by Texas A&M environmental design students was one of thirteen pieces selected through an online vote for inclusion in an exhibit at a Kentucky Gallery this September.

The use of durable construction materials in maintenance and renovation projects can lower a building’s carbon footprint while lengthening its service life, said Manish Dixit, an architecture Ph.D. student at Texas A&M.

Historic preservation efforts undertaken after natural and manmade disasters were the focus of “Disaster,” the 13th Annual Historic Preservation Symposium at the Langford Architecture Center.

Philip Berke ‘81, an outstanding alumnus of Texas A&M’s College of Architecture and one of the nation’s top land use planning scholars, presented “Sustainable Cities: Demographic Trends, Impacts and Future Plans” on Jan. 20 in the Wright Gallery.

Relationships between architectural design and health care for the under and uninsured are the focus of the Center for Health Systems & Design’s Spring 2012 Architecture-for-Health Lecture Series.

Two former Texas A&M landscape architecture students, Elizabeth Chapman ’10 and Trace Unruh ’11, helped develop the city of Austin’s new invasive species management plan while working as interns at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center .

Liliana Beltrán, associate professor of architecture at Texas A&M, is part of a global effort to lead renewable energy technology education, development and implementation as a new board member of the International Solar Energy Society.

Graduate engineering students at Texas A&M advised by Ken Joh, assistant professor of urban planning, earned first place and $10,000 in scholarship money in a sustainable transportation planning contest sponsored by the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority.

Sam Brody, professor of urban planning at Texas A&M, was interviewed on PBS Newshour about Galveston’s efforts to build a healthier city after Hurricane Ike. He is also the Mitchell Chair in Sustainable Coasts at TAMU-Galveston and director of the Center for Texas Beaches and Shores.