planning

Rick Mobley ‘81, a leading transportation planning expert who led numerous, major transportation projects throughout the U.S., passed away April 13, 2020.

Real progress is being made by Texas A&M urban planning faculty to help communities better prepare for and recover from natural disasters.

Hailed as “an extraordinary contribution to the hazard and disaster planning field,” a new book edited by Michael Lindell, professor emeritus of urban planning, emphasizes the importance of combining urban planning and hazard mitigation.

Despite an ever-rising number of pedestrian and bicyclist deaths on U.S. roads each year, there’s no widespread public pressure to improve road safety — a situation influenced by how news articles about crashes are written, said Tara Goddard, assistant professor of urban planning.

The Master of Urban Planning program at Texas A&M has vaulted into the upper echelon of programs of its kind in new rankings published by Planetizen, an independent, online platform that reports urban planning news and resources.

Uneven walking surfaces, incomplete sidewalks, and broken steps are small matters to most pedestrians — but to the elderly, they can be major barriers that have a significant, negative impact on their overall health, said Chanam Lee, professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning.

Six former students from the College of Architecture who have distinguished themselves as leaders and humanitarians in their respective fields will be honored as Outstanding Alumni at a Nov. 14, 2019 banquet in the Hildebrand Equine Complex.

In a paper published March 2019, a group of scholars including Robert Brown, professor of landscape architecture, said that open spaces such as parks, plazas and even street design could strengthen a community's recovery after an earthquake.

One of the nation’s premier hazard research hubs, the Texas A&M Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center, will continue focusing on disaster preparedness, mitigation and recovery with its new director Michelle Meyer, assistant professor of urban planning.

For her impassioned work to protect Texas’ endangered, historic African-American communities, Andrea Roberts, Texas A&M assistant professor of urban planning, received a $50,000 grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

More than 50 tech industry experts, community leaders and Texas A&M scholars gathered in College Station May 14, 2019 for the ENDEAVR Tech Summit, an event exploring the anticipated future of education as realized through “smart” cities.

A career marked by groundbreaking urban development research findings netted Ann O’M. Bowman, professor of government and public service, the inaugural Transformative Research Award from the university’s Center for Housing and Urban Development.

More than 75 leading land-use scholars will explore the growing, worldwide impact of natural hazards and global warming in the 13th annual conference of the International Academic Association on Planning, Law and Property Rights Feb. 18-23 at the Texas A&M Memorial Student Center.

Leading planners, designers, authors and educators will discuss a wide variety of trending topics at the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning Spring 2019 Lecture Series. The public lectures are scheduled at 6 p.m. in Scoates 208.

Two small Texas towns recovering from Hurricane Harvey are getting help from Texas A&M urban planning graduate students.