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Newsletter of the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University
A revitalization plan for Sealy, Texas’ downtown district, created by Texas A&M Master of Urban Planning students, won the 2011 Student Planning Award from the Texas Chapter of the American Planning Association.
The students, led by Elise Bright, professor of urban planning, will accept the award at an Oct. 7 ceremony during the chapter’s annual conference in Austin.
“The awards program allows Texas APA to promote the work of planners in our state by recognizing exemplary work,” said chapter president Veronica Soto. The students’ work, she added, shows the value of planners and planning to communities and residents of the state.
Sealy city officials have used the students’ plan, which include guidelines for building facades and a consistent landscape design, lowering vehicle speeds, making the district more friendly to pedestrians and bicyclists and changing the town’s bus route, to guide its revitalization efforts, said Kim Meloneck, executive director of the Sealy Economic Development Corporation.
“From the beginning, the Texas A&M Sealy downtown study has been part of our city’s comprehensive plan,” she told the Sealy News in a June 23, 2011 article on the revitalization effort.
“The city really took it, used it and is following it,” said Bright, adding that the plan’s implementation was part of the reason it earned the Texas APA Student Planning Award. “City leaders have invested in recommendations we suggested.”
Also, due in part to the implementation of Texas A&M planning students’ recommendations, Sealy was recently designated as 2011 Scenic City by the Scenic City Certification Program of Scenic Texas for its implementation of high-quality scenic standards for public roadways and public spaces. Additionally, the city recently qualified for a $25,000 matching grant from the Houston Galveston Area Council to install a downtown clock tower and water fountain.
The yearlong studio, Bright said, gives second-year MUP students a taste of the workplace through a “hands-on” planning experience. “It's great for the students and I think it helps the communities a lot too,” she said.
- Posted: Oct. 3, 2011 -
Contact: Phillip Rollfing, prollfing@archone.tamu.edu or 979.458.0442.
