sustainability

Texas A&M College of Architecture Outstanding Alumnus Adrian Smith, of Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture in Chicago, announced today that his firm is designing yet another “World’s Tallest Building, the Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, near the Red Sea.

Texas A&M Master of Urban Planning graduate Heather Wade ‘11, Texas’ first coastal community development agent, is creating plans with leaders in Coastal Bend counties with the twin aims of retaining the area’s coastal charm while growing in environmentally responsible ways.

Students in a construction science class are preparing bids for an off-the-electrical-grid high school concept based on a project in Addison, Texas, where they took a site tour led by contractor Satterfield & Pontikes.

Peter Lang, associate professor of architecture, discussed his border studio initiatives in the Los Lomas colonia at the June 24-26 Dwell on Design conference in L. A. His students developed survival strategies and partnered with colonia residents to improve the border community.

Students in the Master of Science in Land Development program prepared for careers in the property industry by visiting three of the Houston area’s most notable mixed-use developments, then worked with the developers to craft leasing proposals for a hypothetical business.

Chanam Lee, professor of urban planning at Texas A&M, will tell the American Public Health Association how the built environment can impede the physical activity of children and overweight adults at the group’s annual meeting this fall in Washington, D.C.

The approximately 40 students and faculty at Texas A&M’s College of Architecture who earned introductory accreditation in an internationally recognized “green” certification system earlier this year can credit part of their success to classes led by Patrick Daniels, a graduate student pursuing three masters’ degrees at Texas A&M.

Serenbe, an environmentally friendly residential development an hour’s drive from Atlanta designed by Phillip Tabb, professor of architecture at Texas A&M, was lauded by Architectural Record magazine as a masterfully planned, sustainable residential community.

Landscape architecture students’ designs of educational butterfly gardens and a master plan-level analysis of “green,” low-impact development techniques for a portion of the university campus earned awards from the Texas chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

First-year environmental design students at Texas A&M designed a high-density, mixed-use housing cluster with “green” elements for a theoretical site in College Station during a spring 2011 studio led by Phillip Tabb, professor of architecture.

Members of the Texas A&M student chapter of the National Electrical Contractors Association conducted an energy audit of Neeley Hall, a campus dormitory, as part of their competition entry in the NECA's annual 2011 Green Energy Challenge. Finalists will present their work at the Oct. 22–25 NECA Convention in San Diego.

Texas A&M Architecture Ph.D. student Simge Andolsun is investigating how a modified air-conditioning system can produce energy savings for low-income households in hot, humid climates. Her study is funded by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers.

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.

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.