building a better texas

Transportation planners will find answers to key questions on road project prioritization in a new book co-authored by two members of the Texas A&M Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning faculty.

Evidence-based design and eco-effective, or sustainable, design are fundamentally compatible despite some conflicts, concluded Mardelle Shepley, professor of architecture of Texas A&M, in a research paper she’s presenting this May at a conference in Beijing, China.

Professional architects learned how to incorporate evidence-based design into healthcare projects at an April 12-14 “boot camp” sponsored by Texas A&M’s Center for Health Systems and Design.

Construction science students at Texas A&M recently got a peek at two alternative futures for the city of Houston in the year 2040 during a video presentation showcasing future scenarios imagined in a two-year research project undertaken by the Center for Houston’s Future.

For his creative use of several types of wood in the renovation of Houston Holy Ghost Catholic Church, architect David Morris ‘57 recently earned an Excellence in Wood Design Award from the Texas Forestry Association.

As the 2012-13 WHR Architects Tradewell Fellow, Akshay Sangolli, a graduate Texas A&M architecture student, will work on some of the firm’s upcoming projects alongside some of the nation’s leading healthcare facility design professionals.

Former Rice School of Architecture dean Lars Lerup, whose work focuses on the intersection of nature and culture in the contemporary U.S. metropolis, and on Houston in particular, kicked off the Department of Architecture’s 2012 Spring Lecture Series with a Feb. 13 presentation about new urbanism.

The effects of daylight on healthcare workers and the care they provide, and how that impacts operating costs at health facilities, are the focus of an award-winning investigation by Rana Zadeh, a Ph.D. architecture student at Texas A&M.

Next fall, students from a variety of academic programs will collaborate to install and monitor a green roof atop a campus building; an initiative preparing students as leaders in energy conservation, said Bruce Dvorak, an assistant professor of landscape architecture.

An award-winning solar light device developed at the Texas A&M Department of Architecture that can significantly reduce electric bills by delivering a bounty of natural sunlight deep into the interior of a building, will soon enter a new phase of development at the College of Architecture’s Digital Fabrication Facility.

Oak trees provide greenery and shade at an elementary school and along a farm-to-market road in League City, examples of the civic-mindedness of the late Lynn Gripon ’49, a former Texas A&M University landscape architecture student who passed away in 2000.

The dramatic $24 million facelift to Texas A&M’s baseball stadium, now known as Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park, was made possible, in part, by five Texas A&M College of Architecture former students.

Ted Flato, founding principal of Lake|Flato, a widely acclaimed, award-winning architecture firm based in San Antonio, will discussed the firm’s culture, tactics and philosophy at the 2012 John Miles Rowlett Lecture Series April 13 at Rudder Theatre on the Texas A&M campus.

The Department of Construction Science has launched a $5 million campaign to adapt and renovate historic Francis Hall as the state’s first facility dedicated to construction teaching, research and industry service.

Texas A&M land development graduate Jonathan Brinsden '92 helped his firm, Midway Companies, earn a 2012 Development of Distinction Award from the Urban Land Institute for its CityCentre project.