Honors

As head of Ellis Custom Homes, the fourth fastest-growing small business in the Brazos Valley, Keith Ellis ’88, a construction science former student, received a Bryan Rotary/Newman 10 Award. The honor was presented to the region's 10-fastest-growing businesses.

John Murphy ‘82, dean of the University of Texas at San Antonio’s College of Architecture, has been elected secretary-treasurer of the Architecture + Construction Alliance, a national organization that aims to foster education and research efforts between the fields of architecture and construction. Murphy earned three degrees at the Texas A&M College of Architecture.

Debra Dockery, a former student at Texas A&M’s College of Architecure, has been tapped by Texas governor Rick Perry to serve on the Texas Board of Architectural Examiners, which regulates the practice of architecture, landscape architecture and interior design throughout the state.

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.

As a “student evangelist” for Autodesk, designer of 3-D architecture, building construction and engineering software, Ph.D. architecture student Francisco Farias will be networking with Autodesk’s top clients, receive intensive training and certification, and supervise Autodesk’s top student "experts."

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.

Graduate visualization students won scholarships for their makers funded by major animation studios and former student animators. Former students at Pixar, DreamWorks Animation and Industrial Light and Magic made lists of the videos they deemed the best.

For top-notch teaching during the fall 2010 semester, Stephen Caffey, assistant professor of architecture at Texas A&M, earned a Student Recognition Award for Teaching Excellence from the Texas A&M University System. Caffey, who teaches Survey of Art II and History of Modern Art, received a check for $2,500.

An idea to rent folding bicycles from a kiosk earned first prize and $3000 for Patrick Daniels, a Master of Science in Land Development student, and Martin Griggs, a Master of Urban Planning student, in the 2011 Ideas Challenge, sponsored by the Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship.

The Placa Europa, a new social housing tower in Barcelona co-designed by Miguel Roldán, an adjunct professor of architecture for Texas A&M’s study abroad program in Spain, prompted one architecture critic to write that it's “hard to believe this is social housing.”

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.

The dean and two staff members of Texas A&M’s College of Architecture were honored as namesakes for summer 2011 Fish Camp and T-Camp, where incoming freshmen and transfer students learn about Aggie life and traditions. Namesakes interact with the 24 counselors and 150 freshmen in the camp named after them.

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.

Rodney Hill, professor of architecture at Texas A&M, added another award to his lengthy list of teaching honors May 2 when he was named a Piper Professor by the Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation. Hill was one of ten academicians receiving the 2011 award honoring superior educators, which includes a $5,000 honorarium.

A photo of senior visualization major Jill Bragdon sporting a “Texas Aggies Go Far” T-shirt in Rome earned first place in a photo contest sponsored by The Texas A&M Foundation, which asked students studying abroad to submit photos of themselves wearing the contest T-shirt at international locales.