building a better texas

For more than two decades, the Colonias Program has been implementing sustainable solutions aimed at transforming these communities, reducing their isolation and helping their residents become full participants in the U.S. economy and society.

Sustainable methods for reducing pollutants in stormwater runoff are being developed and tested by Ming-Han Li, associate department head at Texas A&M’s Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, with the help of $1.8 million in grant funds.

The July 13 dedication of a new park in Spring, Texas by landscape architecture students is an example of outreach projects the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning has undertaken as part of the university's Education First program.

A public housing development in Beaumont severely damaged by Hurricane Rita has been rebuilt nto a successful, sustainable community, concludes a study headed by Shannon Van Zandt, interim director of the Center for Housing & Urban Development.

Geoffrey Kornegay’s proposal for a network of community facilities in Mexico City, his final Masters of Architecture study project at Texas A&M, won “Best of the Best” honors at the Department of Architecture’s inaugural Celebration of Excellence.

An energy-saving thermostat and high-tech clothing tags that take the guesswork out of washer and dryer settings were among the award-winning ideas hatched by College of Architecture students in a contest sponsored by the Mays Business School’s Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship.

Hailed as a renowned thinker, innovator and a longtime leader in the healthcare design community, Kirk Hamilton, professor of architecture at Texas A&M, was named to a national design magazine’s 2012 list of the Most Influential People in Healthcare Design.

Environmental design student teams from Texas A&M swept a national design contest, winning first-, second-, and third-place awards, as well as honorable mention with plans for renovating a skilled nursing facility in Jacksonville, Florida.

A scholarship endowment gradually funded over the last 18 years by 27 community outreach projects undertaken by students in professor Jon Rodiek's Master of Architecture studios at Texas A&M University reached fruition last fall, for the first time providing scholarships totaling $14,000 for eight new MLA students.

The New York Times featured Texas A&M architecture professor John Fairey's beloved Peckerwood Garden, a 39-acre living repository of rare and unusual plants from the southern United States and Mexico, in its April 18 issue.

At an early age, Houston-based artist Rick Lowe became interested in learning what he could do to improve residents’ quality of life in low-income communities. He began, he said, by creating paintings and sculptures dealing with political and social issues.

Working under the tutelage of an algorithmic design expert and an aerospace engineer, students in an experimental design studio at Texas A&M recently created prototypes for two unconventional home exteriors fabricated from innovative composite building materials.

Student-designed concepts imagining the future of health facility design education and research at Texas A&M University and the facilities to house those initiatives were showcased at the Langford Architecture Center in an April 25 public review.

A College Station area consisting of strip malls and parking lots would become a pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use, downtown core in an award-winning master plan proposed by Master of Landscape Architecture students at Texas A&M.

Two leading contractors and a company that’s been manufacturing bricks for more than a century gave 160 upper-level construction science students at Texas A&M a close look at their operations during daylong construction site tours in Houston and Austin March 30.