Newsletter of the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University
CLASS OF 1968
William Freed '68 BARCH, architect/owner of Freed Construction Management Company in Virginia Beach, Va., plans to slow down his consulting and enjoy his four grandchildren in northern Virginia and Kansas. Seven years ago, after selling his design/build company, he became a consultant to a restaurant development firm in Arizona, overseeing the design of four restaurant concepts and six Kokopelli restaurants in six states.
Weary of commuting between Virginia and Arizona, he retired, but went back to work after two years to oversee a 2-year, $15 million design and conversion of a historic hotel in downtown Norfolk into an office building.
CLASS OF 1969
Thomas Woodbury '69 ARCH CONST has retired as a new development project manager after a 37-year degree with Exxon Mobil. He's actively involved with the Bryan-College Station Habitat for Humanity and the Chair of Faith in Action Committee.
CLASS OF 1970
Joseph G. Sprague '70 ARCH received the Individual Achievement Award from the 2010 Symposium on Healthcare Design and Expo in Chicago. The award recognizes an individual in the field of architecture, interior design, or facility management who has displayed leadership and vision within their organizations or project teams, and has gone above and beyond to enhance the healing environment.
Sprague, a member of the American Institute of Architects' College of Fellows, in the principal/director of health facilities with HKS, Inc.
CLASS OF 1973
Clyde "Donnie" Byrd '73 BED, '74 MARCH welcomed his second grandchild into the world in August 2010. Byrd, who also has a 3-year old grandson, is vice president of Marx/Okubo Associates, Inc.
CLASS OF 1975
Deborah Winkelmann Soja has moved from Delaware to Texas with her recently-retired husband Bill.
CLASS OF 1976
Paul Johnson '76 BED of Johnson Johnson Architecture in El Cajon, Calif., is spending much of his time working in historic preservation.
CLASS OF 1978
Fred Cawyer '78 BED, '78 MARCH is the 2010 president of the Texas Registered Accessibility Specialists Association. RASs are certified to provide state-required accessibility plan reviews and onsite inspections of commercial projects in Texas with construction costs of more than $50,000. Fred also provides litigation expert-witness consulting, Americans With Disabilities Act and Fair Housing Act consulting throughout the U.S.
CLASS OF 1979
Chris Clements '79 BED, is vice president of South Texas Interiors in San Antonio. His son Tyler '12 is majoring in history and kinesiology at Texas A&M and is aiming for a career in coaching or teaching.
CLASS OF 1985
Kimberly Yancy Petras '85 BED is an architect with Key Studio in Austin. She's been working from her home office for more than 2 years, specializing in custom residential design; she especially enjoys 3-D modeling using Revit 3ds Max.
CLASS OF 1989
James Mullen '89 BDCR is vice president of Blessing Residential, Inc. in Conroe, Texas. He and his wife Esther had a baby girl, Ellie Grace, July 23, 2010.
CLASS OF 1990
Walt Ugalde '90 BED has been appointed as master planner/integration architect for Houston's Johnson Space Center, responsible for the development of JSC's longterm facility investment strategy as it transitions from the space shuttle program to a new direction, exploration beyond low earth orbit.
CLASS OF 1995
Ariel Fausto '95 BED has been named partner at H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture, a New York design firm. Some of Fausto's projects include the Lincoln Center Theater in New York, the Maritime Industry and Seafood Industry Museum in Biloxi, Miss., and Adas Israel Synagogue in Washington D.C.
G. Zamir Garcia '95 BED is beginning a new series of paintings and wants to share the process with visitors to his website, www.gzamirgarcia.com. "Art to me represents an opportunity to explore ideas about design, composition, space, scale, and time. I see art as having an ability to tell not one story, but multiple stories layered on top of on another, waiting to be discovered." Garcia is a registered architect in Pennsylvania and is an LEED Accredited Professional.
CLASS OF 1997
Thomas McPeek '97 MARCH, '09 Ph.D. Arch, was the first faculty member hired for the University of Central Florida's new bachelor of design in architecture program. In addition to teaching design studio and design visualization as an assistant professor he's an affiliate faculty member with UCF's Institute for Simulation and Training. He was previously an assistant professor of architecture at Southern Illinois University.
Emma Hocker '97 MS ARCH, won the Martin E. Weaver Award from the Association for Preservation Technology for her article, “Maintaining a Stable Environment: Vasa’s New Climate-Control System,” published in APT Bulletin Vol. 41, No. 2-3, 2010. The Weaver award recognizes the year's best article demonstrating excellence in the history of technology or wood conservation.
Hocker is the chief conservator of the Vasa, a 17th century 64-gun warship, on display at the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, Sweden.
CLASS OF 1999
Ron Edwards '99 COSC is attending Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, Scotland, to purse a masters' degree in subsea engineering.
CLASS OF 2001
Cori Carlisle O'Brien '01 COSC has been working 20 hours a week from home for BRATH Inc, a Round Rock construction company, for the past four years. She does company proposals, marketing and "anything else needed for project management," she said. She and her husband Brent are raising their 3- and 1-year old children. She's also working as a sales representative for her stepmother's steel company, Cadit, Inc., a few hours a week.
CLASS OF 2003
Brett Davis '03 BED, has seen his firm, IKONIKO, deliver its first built project, the Kilrenney House, in the Cheviot Hills neighborhood in west Los Angeles. "The house represents a unique step forward in new, upscale residential design," said Davis.
Five bedrooms, five and a half bathrooms, two living areas and an oversize office are included in the 3,950 square-foot house. All spaces have access to numerous patios and balconies, allowing unexpected perspectives of Los Angeles.
Davis and Rosalio Arellanes owners and operators of IKONIKO, founded the firm in 2007. More information is available at ikonoko.net.
CLASS OF 2004
Haley Heard '04 BLA captured an honor award in the Analysis and Planning Category in the 2010 American Society of Landscape Architects Student Awards. "As the world develops, ecological systems become evermore threatened," said Heard, who recently earned a Master of Urban Design degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Riparian Urbanism provides a mechanism for protecting these systems, while allowing development to proceed more intelligently. This model achieves this by incentivizing development, while also providing valuable open space and protecting the ecological systems." Her Riparian Urbanism entry is available at http://www.asla.org
CLASS OF 2009
Josh Canez '09 BED is pursuing Master of Architecture and Master of Construction Management degrees at Washington University in St. Louis. He works in the university's digital initiatives lab operating a CNC router and 3-D printer.
He began graduate school after working with Engineering Ministries International, working on major projects in Uganda and Tanzania.
CLASS OF 2010
Michael Miller '10 MSLD is a project coordinator at William Cole Inc. His current project is a waterfront and golf course redevelopment on Sam Rayburn Reservoir.
Jeff Quantz '10 MARCH is employed at TheVeryMany, a design studio and collaborative research forum engaging the field of architecture through what its founder and principal, Marc Fornes, calls "explicit and encoded protocols."
"It’s one of the most important digital scripting and fabrication firms in the world," said Gabriel Esquivel, assistant professor of architecture.
- Posted Nov. 16, 2010 -
Contact: Phillip Rollfing, prollfing@archone.tamu.edu or 979.458.0442.
