land development

The city of Shanghai has recognized a former Texas A&M land development student’s contribution to its economic and social development by presenting him with the Magnolia Silver Award, one of the city’s highest recognitions for expatriates.

Relief efforts after a natural disaster should include local businesses as well as households, because “one can’t return without the other,” said researchers at the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center investigating Galveston’s recovery after 2008’s Hurricane Ike.

Due to the destruction of natural resources and poor community planning efforts, Texas remains extraordinarily vulnerable to hurricane damage, said two Texas A&M urban planning professors in an Aug. 28 Bryan-College Station Eagle report as Hurricane Isaac barreled through the Gulf of Mexico.

Ranked as one of the fastest growing counties in the U.S., groundwater-dependent Montgomery County, Texas is confronted with a looming water crisis threatening future growth, according to a study by urban planners at Texas A&M University.

For centuries, a symbiotic relationship between planning and transportation has existed. “For most of the 20th century, engineers decided what needed to go where. In the 21st century, that’s changing a bit,” said Forster Ndubisi, head of Texas A&M’s Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning.

A new research institute dedicated to a better understanding of establishing sustainable and resilient coastal communities, places and landscapes will combine resources of Texas A&M’s College of Architecture and Texas A&M University at Galveston.

Students from all disciplines at Texas A&M’s College of Architecture will design and build a single-family residence during the 2012-13 academic year in a subdivision near downtown Bryan as part of the new collegewide Real Projects initiative.

While exploring themes related to place and sustainability, students in two Texas A&M design studios taught last spring developed intricate scale models for a sustainable living learning center in Georgia and a mixed use residential and business development in College Station.

An eco-park concept aimed at reducing food waste through public education, developed by an interdisciplinary Texas A&M student team, netted first place in a worldwide contest seeking solutions to the world’s most pressing food issues.

Researchers at Texas A&M's Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center are investigating why the proliferation of hazard mitigation planning by local governmental agencies in disaster prone regions along the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts has not significantly reduced their vulnerability.

Design and planning students at Texas A&M envisioned turning the downtown Rhine riverfront in Bonn, Germany into a destination for residential and business development and tourism during a fall 2011 study abroad studio.

Chris Duerksen, a nationally known proponent of adopting community development codes that directly address sustainability issues, headlined “Imagining New Futures,” an annual urban planning workshop, Nov. 15 – 17 at Texas A&M.

Graduate and undergraduate students can maximize their career options by combining degrees in accelerated programs offered at the Texas A&M College of Architecture.

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.

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.