Student-made videos highlight
annual MSLD Alumni Banquet

The screening of student-made videos and the first ever Master of Science in Land Development Video Awards highlighted the 26th Annual MSLD Alumni Banquet, held Feb. 9 at the Langford Architecture Center on the Texas A&M campus.

The six student videos and project reports, which can be viewed online at http://tiny.cc/MSLDvideos, focused on MSLD student team projects aimed at showing how excellent planning and design creates real estate value for selected properties.

Working in teams, students created the videos to accompany written reports detailing how the planning, design, delivery and management of real estate raised property values for six select Texas projects.

In producing the films, students referenced “Urban Design and the Bottom Line: Optimizing the Return on Perception,” a book written by Dennis Jerke ’78, an outstanding alumnus of the College of Architecture.

In his book, Jerke, a Master of Landscape Architecture graduate, champions the dividend generated from high-quality, pre-investment design and investigates the benefits and impact of good design upon all facets of an urban area — the community, businesses, employees, the general public, city officials and the developer.

Three of the projects examined projects undertaken by TBG Partners, an Austin-based landscape architecture and planning firm, including Market Street in The Woodlands, the Dallas Design District and Town Lake Park in Austin.

The Town Lake Park video garnered first place honors in the TBG Partners category of the MSLD Video Awards competition.

The other three student projects featured work undertaken by the Texas Historical Commission, including the Lampasas County Courthouse, the University of St. Thomas in Houston, and the Wharton County Courthouse. In this category, the video featuring the Lampasas County Courthouse placed first.

The winning videos were selected by viewers via an online public poll.

The annual MSLD banquet, emceed by Geoffrey Booth, the Nicole and Kevin Youngblood Professor in Residential Land Development, attracted current and former MSLD students, faculty and friends of the program. In addition to the video showcase, the night’s festivities featured student work, recognized student research and service contributions to the state of Texas, and highlighted the program’s implementation of Texas A&M University’s “Education First” initiative, which integrates teaching, research and service missions.

- Posted: Feb. 15, 2011 -

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