building a better texas

A safety education lab for Francis Hall, future home of Texas A&M’s Department of Construction Science, will be built with a $150,000 contribution from Marek Brothers Systems, Inc., a Houston-based builder. An $8 million renovation of the historic building is scheduled for completion in fall 2014.

Recent enhancements to the Texas A&M’s Master of Land and Property Development degree have made it one of the most competitive programs of its kind in the world according to two leading real estate scholars.

Residents in a suburban area north of Houston can jog, hike, fish or observe nature in a award-winning park system primarily designed by landscape architecture students at Texas A&M.

Preservation efforts throughout Texas were highlighted at the Texas A&M Center for Heritage Conservation’s annual Historic Preservation Symposium scheduled March 1-2 at the Langford Architecture Center's Preston Geren Auditorium.

Beam-by-beam construction progress of the Arts and Humanities Building at Texas A&M was captured by Jeff Haberl, professor of architecture at Texas A&M, who photographed the construction site once a week from a perch on the fourth floor of Langford A.

There’s an unmistakable link between nature and wellness for people everywhere, whether they’re at work, at home, or in a healthcare facility, said Naomi Sachs, a Ph.D. architecture student at Texas A&M’s College of Architecture, in an architecture blog.

Models of an innovative structural system that could significantly reduce the amount of steel required to construct bridges, arches, domes and columns have been produced by Michael Bunch and Saied Zarrinmehr, two Ph.D. architecture students at Texas A&M.

Every spring and summer 2012 graduate from Texas A&M’s Department of Construction Science has an industry job, noted a Jan. 4 Houston Chronicle article.

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.

Student-designed proposals for the future development of two areas along University Drive, created by students at Texas A&M’s College of Architecture, were showcased Jan. 18 in room 102 of the Zachry Engineering Center.

Residents in a suburban area north of Houston can jog, hike, fish or observe nature in a new park designed by landscape architecture students at Texas A&M, which recently won a 2012 Parks and Natural Areas Award from the Houston-Galveston Area Council.

Circuit of the Americas, a major new Formula One auto-racing venue in Austin, garnered significant praise in an assessment conducted by Master of Land and Property Development students at Texas A&M, who evaluated the facility in terms of its social/cultural, economic, environmental and sensory values.

Last spring, Texas A&M graduate architecture students assisted sustainability specialists at Lake|Flato Architects with evaluating designs for a visitors’ center at Hardberger Park, a new 311-acre natural area in north San Antonio, for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification.

A section of the Langford A building’s rooftop was transformed fall 2012 into a green roof with succulents, grasses and a weather station by an interdisciplinary group of Texas A&M students in phase one of a three-year research initiative.

Residents will soon be able to boat from their home to work, restaurants and shops at Towne Lake, a masterplanned community in suburban northwest Houston that Peter Barnhart ‘95, a former Master of Science in Land Development student at Texas A&M, is helping to develop.