Class Acts

Funds raised from the sale of two playhouses designed by Dan Fletcher, who earned a Master of Architecture degree in 2007, will benefit a nonprofit advocacy group in Dallas for abused children in the court system.

Any visualization student will contend that movie magic is neither art nor science but a perfect blend of the two. Personifying that contention is former visualization student Kevin Reuter, who worked on the fourth installment of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise.

Speaking to the Architectural Record shortly after the death of Osama bin Laden, Maj. Gregory Taylor ’90, a licensed architect and Texas A&M former student serving with the U.S. Army Reserve in Afghanistan, said his fellow soldiers were eager for details.

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.

June 4 was an evening of celebration as former students, colleagues and friends toasted retiring architecture professor John Only Greer '55. Greer, a former department head, interim dean, executive associate dean and mentor to generations of Aggie architects, retired in May after 49 years on the Aggie faculty.

In the computer-animated movie “Rango,” dusty, sun-baked talking creatures and the mythical town of Dirt have a realistic look thanks in part to Kevin Reuter, one of the movie’s two look development supervisors and a former student of Texas A&M’s College of Architecture.

Dining tables at an upcoming International Association of Lighting Designers fund-raising event will be adorned with innovative light centerpieces made by students at the University of Oregon under the direction of visiting Baker Chair Jill Mulholland, a lecturer at Texas A&M’s College of Architecture.

Two former Texas A&M design students that created the hugely successful Glif, a stand and tripod mount for the iPhone 4, are back with a new project: a stylus called The Cosmonaut that works with Apple’s iPad and other touchscreen devices.

Robert Riggs, who earned a Bachelor of Environmental Design degree in 1971, was a panelist at a social influence workshop during a 2010 emerging media conference. Riggs told participants there’s “a growing demand for users to be connected to the Internet anytime, anywhere on any screen.”

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.