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| March 27, 2008 |
An Oct. 18 dedication has been scheduled for the student-designed Texas A&M University Freedom From Terror Memorial, a gift from the university’s classes of ’68 and ’03. The award winning design for the memorial was chosen from 27 entries in a 2006 college-wide competition that was also sponsored by the former students. The memorial will be built next to the campus central utility plant at the corner of Coke and Lubbock streets from a design by Jorge Martinez, David McMillin, Hernan Molina, and Mariano Ortiz, all of whom were graduate students in architecture at Texas A&M and have since graduated. Pictured Above: A rendition shows the Freedom From Terror memorial, which has entered the construction phase on campus at the corner of Coke and Lubbock streets. The memorial was designed by graduate students at the Texas A&M University College of Architecture.
NAAB accreditation The Texas A&M Department of Architecture has a “strong” Master of Architecture program and its students and faculty “have a lot to be proud of” said Kevin Montgomery, leader of the five-person National Architectural Accrediting Board team that completed its accreditation visit to College Station Wednesday, March 26. “We saw an openness, a transparency, and a candidness that tremendously helped our effort,” Montgomery told faculty, students and staff at the close of the team’s three-day visit. “There is extraordinary faculty here. The quality of the education, the credentials, are second to none.”
Research centers gather nation's A first-ever gathering of the nation’s top architectural programmers was orchestrated Dec. 2007 at the Texas A&M College of Architecture by the CRS Center for Leadership and Management in the Design and Construction Industry and the Center for Health Systems & Design. “It was special, one of the highlights of my stay in the United States, that I was able to interact with very well-known academics and professionals,’ said Carlos Nome, a Ph.D. student in architecture from Brazil who helped organize the gathering.
LAUP spearheads graduate certificate The spring 2008 semester saw the debut of a new graduate-level Transportation Planning Certificate Program offered through the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center, part of Texas A&M University’s College of Architecture. The program is a collaborative effort among the College of Architecture’s Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, the Texas Transportation Institute, the Texas A&M Department of Civil Engineering and the Bush School of Government and Public Service.
Aggie Solar Decathletes to be featured The Texas A&M Solar Decathlon competition team’s harrowing race to erect and test their solar-powered groHome on the Washington Mall last October will be featured prime time, 8 p.m. April 1 on the Sundance Channel series, “Big Ideas for a Small Planet.” The show’s season premiere showcases the latest innovations in solar power with a behind-the-scenes look at the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon, where 20 universities from the U.S. and Europe competed to build the best fully functional solar home on the Washington Mall. The homes demonstrate the most cutting edge solar-powered appliances, lighting, and hot water systems.
College to douse lights for ‘Earth Hour’ as lead-up
More information on Earth Hour is available online at http://www4.earthhourus.org/ College of Architecture’s participation this international event sets the stage for its April 22 college-wide Earth Day Celebration, which kicks-off the “Maroon is Green, Sustainable College Initiative.” Spearheading the Maroon is Green initiative on the college’s behalf are the Texas A&M chapters of the American Institute of Architecture Students, the American Society of Landscape Architecture Students and Emerging Green Builders. The students are working together to promote green, sustainable practices throughout the college. Tentative plans for the Earth Day Maroon is Green launch call for live music, an environmental fair with booths and live demonstrations, documentary screenings and a special guest lecture. Additionally, the students will be inflating 100 giant green balloons to be creatively arranged at the Langford A entrance. Participating students have launched a Maroon is Green Facebook group to provide up-to-date details as the event takes shape. For additional information on how you can get involved or to reserve booth space at the fair, contact Lindsay Trussell in the dean’s office at 979.862.8332.
Architecture student lighting projects The College of Architecture’s Architecture Ranch will be ablaze with light 9 p.m. Friday, April 25 when students in Jill Mulholland’s architecture studios display their lighting installations for final review. Mulholland’s studio light shows have become a popular, much anticipated event at Texas A&M. This semester, the show is moving from its previous venue at the college’s Langford Architecture Center to the Built Environment Teaching and Research Facility, or “Architecture Ranch,” at Texas A&M’s Riverside Campus. Mullholland said this location provides students more room for their projects as well as the option to use the ranch’s digital fabrication, woodworking and metalworking equipment.
Nolan Flowers takes helm as college's Nolan Flowers, the former network administrator for the Texas A&M Department of Computer Science, was welcomed to the College of Architecture staff this week as director of information technology. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science from Texas A&M. Flowers' arrival marks the first of several staff and procedural enhancements planned for the college’s IT environment.
Historic preservation experts highlight Approximately 80 participants took part in “Conserving Modernism,” the ninth annual historic preservation symposium sponsored by the Center for Heritage Conservation at the Texas A&M College of Architecture. The two-day event, held Feb. 29 and March 1 at various venues around Bryan/College Station, focused on the significance and preservation of modern architecture. The conference began at the A&M United Methodist Church Annex, which was designed by Ernest Langford, who headed the Texas A&M architecture program from 1929-56 and is the namesake for the facility housing today’s Texas A&M College of Architecture.
USDA undersecretary views On March 20 – 21, representatives from Texas A&M’s Center for Housing and Urban Development led a U.S. Department of Agriculture undersecretary on a tour of colonias near Laredo and Eagle Pass. Nancy Montañez Johner, the undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services, came to the Rio Grande Valley at the invitation of Oscar Muñoz, CHUD’s deputy director, so she and her department could meet colonias residents, assess the effectiveness of USDA’s services there, and see how they might be improved in the future. She was also interested in learning about CHUD’s Colonias Program.
Doctoral candidate receives grant to study
In his research, Yang will focus on storm water data resulting from simulated neighborhoods built with different planning methods and compare the virtual data to actual storm water data.
Ulrich cited in Atlantic Monthly story;
Postrel’s article on patients’ surroundings in hospitals can be accessed online.
The article by Jane Adler looked at the growing evidence that seniors benefit from contact with the outdoors. The article is available online.
Outstanding Alumnus' restoration efforts In his March 24 Galveston County Daily News column, Tom Linton lauded Raiford Stripling, an Outstanding Alumnus of the Texas A&M University College of Architecture, for his role in the 1930’s restoration of a historic church in Goliad, Texas. On one of his frequent sojourns to Texas state parks, Linton traveled to Goliad State Park and Mission Espiritu Santo State Historic Site. He was taken by the mission’s depression-era restoration, performed under Sripling’s supervision. At the time, he was an architecture student at Texas A&M. The project superintendent, S.C.P. Vosper, was a professor of architecture at Texas A&M.
Ben Lednicky, Jr. '62, friend, former student Landscape architects and Texas A&M lost an old friend March 5, 2008 with the death of Benjamin J. Lednicky, Jr. of Houston. He was a lifelong Aggie fan and a member of the Corps of Cadets Army Company E-2, and served as a commissioned officer after graduation. He also acted as his class agent from 1977 until 1982.
Corrections: Editor's Note: A news brief published in the March 6 issue of the Texas A&M College of Architecture’s Inside Track e-newsletter incorrectly noted the contribution of Anat Geva, associate professor of architecture at Texas A&M University, to Corgan Associates' award-winning design for the proposed Bezalel Academy of Arts facility in downtown Jerusalem. Geva served as a consultant on the project, which was designed by Corgan Associates architects.
In case you missed it: Time magazine features Gail Vittori, Gail Vittori’s efforts at building green health care facilities, including a new children’s health care center in Austin, were noted in the April 27, 2007 issue of Time magazine. Vittori is the wife of Pliny Fisk, an associate professor of architecture and landscape architecture and urban planning at Texas A&M University.
A five-member architecture student team from Texas A&M won first prize in a national contest for a “green” home design that allows a team of four to build a home in a matter of days.
Louis Tassinary, professor of architecture and associate dean of research at the Texas A&M College of Architecture, suggested that college students in all disciplines would benefit from curricula infused with an educational tool common in architecture studies — the studio.
BED student essay earns trip to Environmental Design student Hannah Haese’s prowess with the written word landed her a free trip to an international lighting conference last October with other select students from the U.S. and Canada.
Robert B. Warden, professor of architecture at Texas A&M University, was appointed director of the College of Architecture’s Center for Heritage Conservation in June 2007.
Peter Lang, assistant professor in the Department of Architecture at Texas A&M University, visited the The Hague, The Netherlands June 6, 2007 to talk about his work as a member of Rome-based hybrid collective Stalker/ON. The group engages in actions within the landscape with particular attention to the areas around a city’s margins and forgotten urban space.
College of Architecture former students head 17 of the 100 fastest-growing companies owned or operated by Texas A&M graduates in 2007, according to the third annual "Aggie 100 Project," a list of über-achievers compiled by the Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship at Texas A&M's Mays Business School.
Five Texas A&M University College of Architecture former students received Merit Awards on the behalf of their companies at the annual American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Texas State Conference held last April in Houston.
Shelley E. Potter of Dallas, a summa cum laude graduate who earned a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture from Texas A&M University in 1978, is currently serving as president-elect of the Association of Former Students of Texas A&M University.
Design concepts of a new facility for the Texas A&M University System Health Science Center, created by a team of Texas A&M architecture students, won in a worldwide competition sponsored by the Global University Programs in Healthcare Architecture.
Bobbi Spencer, a 2007 Master of Architecture graduate from the Texas A&M College of Architecture, returned last fall to an architecture academy in Switzerland to continue studies in modern architecture that she began as a senior environmental design student.
Robert O. “Bob” Segner, who enjoys introducing himself with “It is my privilege to serve as professor of Construction Science at Texas A&M University,” received the 2007 Association of Former Students University Level Teaching Award.
Construction science hosts HISD students Students from the Houston Independent School District got a taste of what a career in construction science might be like during a Wednesday, March 26 visit to the Texas A&M University campus that was hosted by the Department of Construction Science. The students were taken to a construction site on campus to get a first-hand look at the construction process and toured part of the university campus and the three buildings in the Langford Architecture Center. Additionally, the students heard several professors, including department head Joe Horlen, talk about the construction science curriculum at Texas A&M.
March 27-30 April 1 The National Association of Home Builders Texas A&M Student Chapter meets 7 – 9 p.m. in the Preston Geren Auditorium. For more information, contact Trey Mailhes, 361-443-0734 or treymailhes@tamu.edu. April 2 April 7-11 April 8 April 9 “Proposals & Interviews,” an Interdisciplinary Capstone Lecture featuring Chad Schreiber and Ryan Montgomery of The Beck Group, is set for 1:50 p.m. in Room 009 of the Williams Administration Building. For more information, contact John Cargill at jtcargill@yahoo.com. April 11 April 11-17 April 14 Artist in Residence Lecture by Terry Allen will take place 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. Preston Geren Auditorium. Allen is a recording and conceptual artist whose creativity is impossible to categorize. Dabbling in and finding success in a wide range of activites from music and drama to art and multimedia his unique take on the creative process is sure to interest any student. For more information, contact Mary Saslow at 845.7073 or saslow@viz.tamu.edu. April 16 Lecture eyes Friesen Concepts: Larry Lammers, president of Lammers and Gershon Associates of Reston, Va. presents “The Friesen Concepts — The Impact on Today’s Hospital Design,” an Architecture-for-Health lecture sponsored by the Center for Health Systems and Design and the Student Health Environments Association in the Langford A205 at noon.
April 17
April 21 April 23 April 24 April 25 April 28 April 29 – 30 April 30 Student Animation Screening: Students enrolled in ENDS 489, ENDS 205, ARTS 203, ARTS 304, ARTS 305, ENDS 311, and ENDS 312 will exhibit time-based work 5 – 8 p.m. in the Preston Geren Auditorium. For more information, contact Terry Larsen, 979-845-7068 or trl@archone.tamu.edu. May 16 Oct. 23-25 Nov. 6
Recruiting new Ags Lou Tassinary, associate dean for research for the Texas A&M College of Architecture, discusses the benefits of a studio-based education during the filming of a Texas A&M recruitment video. The video is being produced by Frame by Frame, the same production company that is currently working on a video featuring College of Architecture research initiatives. Once complete the Aggie recruitment video, which targets undergraduate students, will be posted with other recent “Welcome to Aggieland” features and commercials, which can be accessed online at http://www.tamu.edu/home/ |
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On March 29, 2008 at 8 p.m., the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University is joining millions of people around the world in making a statement about climate change by turning off the lights throughout the Langford Architecture Center for Earth Hour, an event created by the World Wildlife Fund.
Bo Yang, a Ph.D. candidate in Texas A&M University’s Urban and Regional Science program, will study storm water patterns in The Woodlands, Texas, through a $5,000 research grant from the Texas Water Resources Institute.
An article by Virginia Postrel titled, “The Art of Healing,” appearing in the April 2008 issue of Atlantic Monthly cited the research of Roger Ulrich, holder of the Julie and Craig Beale ’71 Endowed Professorship in Health Facilities Design at Texas A&M University.
The March 23, 2007 issue of the Orlando Sentinel newspaper featured a story focusing on the research of Susan Rodiek, holder of the Ronald L. Skaggs Endowed Professorship in Health Facilities Design at Texas A&M.
Aggie groHome design wins
Prof promotes studio education
Robert Warden named director of
Lang tells Dutch about
Several College of Architecture grads head
Landscape architecture, planning
1978 A&M landscape architecture graduate named
Student travels to Japan, receives GUPHA award
Grad student receives ThinkSwiss fellowship,
Segner recognized for teaching excellence
