Former student’s design group, residents revitalize neighborhood

The revitalization of an isolated, impoverished East Dallas neighborhood, a collaboration between its residents and a design group led by Brent Brown ’91, a former architecture student at Texas A&M, was highlighted at a recent conference at Southern Methodist University.

Brown, who earned [Bachelor of Environmental Design] (http://dept.arch.tamu.edu/undergraduate/) and [Master of Architecture] (http://dept.arch.tamu.edu/graduate/) degrees, heads [buildingcommunityWorkshop] (http://www.bcworkshop.org/bcW/) , a Dallas-based nonprofit seeking to improve community livability and viability through thoughtful design.

“The intent was to have the public interest in mind,” said Brown about the project, in which bcWorkshop consulted with residents in the neighborhood, resulting in the design and construction of several new homes.

Brown talked about the collaboration at [TEDxSMU] (http://www.tedxsmu.org/) , an offshoot of [Technology, Entertainment and Design] (http://www.ted.com/) , a global set of conferences disseminating ideas that have featured speakers including Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and a long list of Nobel laureates; speakers have a maximum of 18 minutes to present their ideas.

“You’re the local experts,” Brown told the audience. “You can join with us as technical experts and we can design our city.”