sustainability

An architecture firm led by Adrian Smith ’66, an outstanding alumnus of the Texas A&M College of Architecture, heads the 2015 Architect 50, a ranking of the nation’s top architecture firms compiled annually by the American Institute of Architects.

The characteristics of new “smart” materials that, with further development, could harvest energy, water and air when embedded in a building’s exterior, are the focus of a two-year, $240,000 National Science Foundation study undertaken by TAMU faculty and students.

As a vice president at the Landscape Architecture Foundation, Forster Ndubisi, head of the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, guided development of two award-winning initiatives aimed at enhancing the quality of designed landscapes.

A master plan created by Texas A&M graduate landscape architecture students that showcases “green” methods to cleanse storm water runoff and a ecological design and planning book compiled by the LAUP department head, earned 2015 Texas ASLA awards.

Futurist, architect and structural engineer Chris Luebkeman, director of Arup's Global Foresight, Research and Innovation team, presented "Designing on a Social Conscience" 2015 Rowlett Lecture at the Annenberg Presidential Conference Center.

Municipal planners can use a tool developed by a Texas A&M urban planning student to determine if the location of current or planned bicycle lanes in their community enhance the mobility of residents who may not have ready access to automobiles.

Undergraduate students interested in careers as planning or sociology researchers sharpened their research skills in summer 2015 with help from Texas A&M faculty during a 6-week Research Experience for Undergraduates program.

A research station on Palmyra Atoll, a remote, 680-acre South Pacific wildlife refuge 1,000 miles south of Hawaii, is operating primarily on wind and solar power thanks to efforts by David Sellers ‘02, a former environmental design student at Texas A&M.

Students successfully grew eight varieties of vegetables on the roof of Texas A&M’s Langford A building during the 2014-15 academic year, advancing findings in an ongoing green roof research project led by Bruce Dvorak, associate professor of landscape architecture.

Interdisciplinary groups of faculty and students in five U.S. universities will pair with counterparts in The Netherlands in a research project led by Sam Brody, professor of urban planning, to determine how to reduce the impact of coastal flooding.

A proposed “Ike Dike” to protect the Galveston/Houston area from hurricane storm surges should incorporate business parks, public spaces and pedestrian thoroughfares, concludes research funded by Texas A&M’s Institute for Sustainable Coastal Communities.

Miniature residences destined to house the chronically homeless designed and built by Texas A&M environmental design and undergraduate construction science students were publicly displayed May 14 and 15, 2015 at Rudder Plaza.

Second-year environmental design students at Texas A&M swept a national residential design competition sponsored by the Northeastern Lumber Manufacturers Association, placing first and second.

Chris Mulder, one of South Africa’s top environmental designers and an outstanding alumnus of Texas A&M’s College of Architecture, will present “De-Urbanization: Creating Sustainable Rural New Towns” at 5:45 p.m. April 29 in Scoates Hall Room 208.

A research team from Texas A&M’s Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center is working to identify best practices in pre- and post-disaster planning in communities recovering from a variety of natural and man-made disasters.