College diversity council honors best diversity-related projects

Student design projects envisioning a more diverse Texas A&M campus and more accessible facilities for those with disabilities were recognized as part of the College of Architecture Diversity Council’s 2017 Excellence in Diversity Awards.

A jury selected the winning projects, bestowing $300 and $200 prizes for the best graduate and undergraduate entries in categories for each College of Architecture department.

In the Department of Architecture division, graduate student Mitra Azimi sought to create connections between cultures, races, genders and languages with her winning building design to house a proposed Texas A&M Institute for Advanced Studies in International Music.

In the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning’s undergraduate category, the winning undergraduate team redesigned areas of the campus to be more accessible to people with disabilities. The team of Antoni Kwiatkowski, Natalie Somerville, Euntaek Yoon and Hao Huang, designed new disability services building, redesigned an entrance to Evans Library, and enhanced accessibility to nature-filled spaces throughout campus.

Gulafshan Ghori, who graduated with a Master of Urban Planning degree last spring 2017, earned two prizes for dual submissions in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning graduate category: one for a paper on housing discrimination and the other, a research proposal exploring the Federal Equality Act specific to the bathroom law. She proposed that gender-neutral public bathrooms be created on the Texas A&M campus.

An interactive electronic art piece based on the Korean language garnered a wind for graduate visualization student Hyojin Jang. The work, he said was created to motivate viewers to explore and learn Korean culture while encouraging coexistence.

To learn more about diversity-related initiatives at the College of Architecture, visit its diversity [website] (http://www.arch.tamu.edu/diversity/) .

Sarah Wilson
swilson@arch.tamu.edu