Newsletter of the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University
A student team fielded by the Texas A&M Department of Construction Science finished near the top in the National Association of Homebuilders Residential Construction Competition held Jan. 20 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
The Aggie team placed fifth in a field of 37 in the contest, staged during the Jan. 20-23 NAHB’s International Builders Show.
As part of the competition, the team of K’Rina Graham, Charlie Wolfe, Jeremy Morgan, Magee Solomon, Loren Schleimer, and Adam Sonntag, made an oral presentation to a panel of homebuilding industry professionals from across the nation, then fielded questions.
Their presentation included a complete set of working drawings developed by the students, as well as a detailed materials estimate and a complete construction schedule for a project based on a Centex Homes subdivision in San Antonio. The teams had received competition instructions during the fall ’08 semester.
Mirroring real world practice, after competing initial work on the original project, the 37 competition teams received a change order, forcing them to rethink the project just prior to the Las Vegas competition.
While at the Las Vegas event, the team’s coach, Russ Peterson, assistant professor of construction science at Texas A&M, received the NAHB Outstanding Junior Faculty of the Year Award.
A member of the Texas A&M faculty since 2006, Peterson is currently the principal investigator for a program that set up a mentoring partnership between the construction science programs at Texas A&M and Prairie View A&M University. The project is funded by a $100,000 grant on behalf of Texas A&M from the National Housing Endowment’s Housing Education Leadership Program.
For more on the partnership, see the related story.
