Designs for Monte Alto community center
presented to U.S. congressman, residents

Design proposals for the Monte Alto community center from TAMU College of Architecture on Vimeo.

Faculty from Texas A&M presented designs created by students for a proposed Rio Grande Valley community facility to a U. S. congressman and area residents during a Jan. 23 trip to the region.

"The College of Architecture responded to a request from congressman Rubén Hinojosa to create designs for a community center in Monte Alto," said Jorge Vanegas, dean of the college. Monte Alto is an unincorporated community 15 miles north of Weslaco.

Acting on Hinojosa's request, Laura Trevino, lower Rio Grande region associate director for the college's Center for Housing and Urban Development and Salomon Torres, a district director on Hinojosa's staff, contacted Mark Clayton, professor of architecture and CHUD's associate director for academic affairs, about the possibility of a design studio at Texas A&M.

After Clayton and Logan Wagner, assistant professor of architecture, met with representatives from Monte Alto and Hidalgo County in May and June 2009, the studio was slated for fall 2009.

Led by Wagner, the fourth-year students designed plans that included a main meeting hall, amphitheater, pavilion, athletic field, community gardens, medical clinic, library, coffee shop, woodshop, kitchen, offices, police substation, day care center and classrooms.

To research the project students made two trips to Monte Alto, where they interviewed the residents with help from CHUD and Hinojosa's office.

Students were scheduled to present their work in person to Monte Alto residents at the end of the fall 2009 semester, but a winter storm canceled the trip. Instead, they made presentations to Torres and a handful of community members Dec. 15 via a live video link from the college.

Wagner, Peter Lang, associate professor of architecture, Marcel Erminy, senior architecture lecturer, and graduate architecture student Steve Mitchell presented the students' work during at community-wide meeting in January 2010.

"Hinojosa was so enthusiastic about the work he invited the college's representatives to accompany him for the rest of the day," said Lang.

The group, which included Trevino and Torres, attended a number of events in the area, concluding their tour at a literacy celebration held in the recently dedicated Mercado Delta, a marketplace and community facility in the nearby town of Edcouch Elsa.

Clayton, who holds the Liz and Nelson Mitchell Professorship in Residential Design, supported the studio's faculty and student travel through the professorship.

The students’ Dec. 15 presentations are available online at vimeo.com.

- Posted: Jan. 28, 2010 -