Two landscape architecture students win
downtown Bryan sign design competition

Street signs designed by two first-year master of landscape architecture students from Texas A&M will soon be marking new walking routes through downtown Bryan.

Jeffrey Slater and Lu Zhou tied for first place in a competition sponsored by Umbrella Partnerships-Be Active in Our Town (UP-BEAT), a program of the Brazos Valley Community Action Agency.

"A combined version of their two designs will be implemented and we will soon see these designs installed," said Chanam Lee, associate professor of urban planning. The designs grew out of a project students undertook in Lee's studio and a graphics studio led by Russell Reid, a visiting assistant professor at the College of Architecture.

Zhou said her designs used classic elements to show the routes' mileage as well as the pride of downtown Bryan. Her designs include a circle as a dominant feature, which she said expresses classic beauty and is a nod to the loop patterns of the routes.

UP-BEAT is implementing the routes to generate community interest in increasing physical activity; the mileage signs will be placed along the routes for guidance and distance information.

Contest rules called for the signs to have English and Spanish text and not to exceed 18" x 18". The UP-BEAT executive committee made the final selections with input of a tally of votes from the community.

- Posted: Nov. 22, 2010 -

Contact:   Phillip Rollfing, prollfing@archone.tamu.edu or 979.458.0442.