Class Acts

Former students touch base
with College of Architecture

 

CLASS OF 1951

Robert Sturdivant ’51 BLA served in the U. S. Air Force after graduation. He flew air refueling tankers and cargo aircraft in the reserves for five years. Robert advanced as far as major before he was discharged. He then went to work as an urban planner for Santa Clara County, California, and retired as planning director in 1995 after 37 years with the county. Since retirement he has been flying Cessna 172 airplanes with Angel Flight, a charity that transports people with serious medical needs to and from hospitals where they are receiving treatment. In the 1980s he took many professional groups to the USSR to meet with their Russian peers. In his spare time Robert is an active racquetball player and golfer.

CLASS OF 1952 - 1953

Alexander Brailas ’52 BARCH retired in November 1999 as the Harris County Hospital District executive director for planning and development. He moved to the Texas Hill Country overlooking Canyon Lake in 2005. Alexander is sad to report the loss of two of his friends and former classmates, John W. Denhart ’53 and Eddie Dansby ’53, who passed away in October of 2006. 

CLASS OF 1962

Dan Fuschak ’62 BARCH and ’94 MSCOMG retired and now performs home inspections as a part-time business in Olney, Ill.

CLASS OF 1963

Bryan Ralph ’63 BARCH is an analyst for Estes McClure & Associates – Engineers in Tyler, Texas.  He is also an instructor in sport fencing (foil, epee, sabre) at Tyler Junior College.

John Moore ’63 BARCH moved from Oregon to Missouri. He is a licensed architect in both states and with the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards.

CLASS OF 1966

Andy Cronk ’66 BARCH was an associate with a local architecture firm for 21 years prior to joining Texas A&M Dining Services. Andy has received numerous honors and awards throughout his career, including the Association of Former Students Distinguished Achievement Award in 2004.
A respected and valued member of the dining services senior management team, he has played a key role in numerous construction, renovation and remodeling projects on the Texas A&M campus, including renovations of Sbisa, Duncan Dining Hall, The Commons and Cain Hall. After 17 years of service with Texas A&M University Dining Services, he retired on August 31, 2007 from his full-time position as associate director. He will continue to work on a part-time basis to support and assist dining services until the end of the year and possibly beyond if necessary.

CLASS OF 1967

Gordon E. Landreth ’67 BARCH is the principal of Cotten Landreth Kramer Architects & Associates, Inc., in Corpus Christi, which celebrated its 30th year in business on April 1, 2007. He is in the last year of appointment by Texas governor Rick Perry as Chairman of the Texas Board of Architectural Examiners. This board regulates and licenses three design professions in Texas – architecture, interior design and landscape architecture. Landreth was appointed to fill a vacancy on the board by Texas governor George W. Bush in 2000 and then reappointed by Governor Perry for a full six-year term. He and his wife Linda celebrated their 41st wedding anniversary in December 2006; they have three children (two Aggies) and six grandchildren.

CLASS OF 1968

Dennis Walo ’68 BARCH has worked at HKS, Inc. in Dallas for over thirty years, first as an architect and then as information technology manager in 1980. He and his wife Kay were married in February 2005.

CLASS OF 1972

Alan Groffman ’72 BED and ’73 MARCH, director of design and construction for the U.S. Navy Exchange Service Command, has just moved to a new beachside home in Chesapeake Bay, Va. His son, Christopher, is a freshman at Virginia Commonwealth University majoring in Fine Arts/Film Making. 

Charles E. Lampe ’72 BED has been director of Facilities Planning and Development with the University of Texas system for 31 years. He worked 20 years at the UT Health Science Center in San Antonio and the last 11 years with Facilities Planning and Development. His leisure time is spent with family and playing trombone in the church orchestra.

Gary Boyd ’72 BARCH just returned from Abu Dhabi, one of the United Arab Emirates, where he was infolfed in managing the design and construction of three  new university campuses, the Sorbonne University of Abu Dhabi, the new campus of Zayed University and the UAE’s first military college.

CLASS OF 1973

Chuck Doherty ’73 BED and ’75 MARCH joined the U. S. Navy Civil Engineers after graduating. He is now working in design and construction management all over the world. After completing 20 years in the Navy he started work with Goldman Sachs – Archon Group and has been with the company for over eight years. He serves as a senior project manager and resolves problematic situations requiring a “building doctor.” Chuck is an active member of the North American Timber Framers Guild and lives in Arlington, Texas. 

William E. Carlson ’73 BLA is a regional architect with the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service in Albuquerque, NM. He and his wife Sherrie are going to retire to College Station soon. They plan to travel, visit friends and play lots of golf. 

Joseph Luther ’73 MUP and ’75 DED retired from the University of Nebraska in 2004.  He is a former professor of planning and architecture as well as former associate dean of the College of Architecture.  Joseph is now working as a volunteer on plans for the future of Kerrville and Kerr County, Texas.

Jose R. Rivera Jr. ’73 BDCR is a State of Florida certified general contractor and scheduled for LEED AP certification. He is a preconstruction manager with The Weitz Company.

CLASS OF 1974

Robert L. Nathan ’74 BED is the senior project engineer for the Gilbane Building Company. They are currently working on railroad capacity expansion.

Rick Osburn ’74 BED was named city manager of Levelland, TX in January 2004. He authored the city’s Main Street application that was approved by the Texas Historical Commission. Since then the Levelland Main Street program has been one of the leading Main Street programs in Texas. He won the Citizen of the Year award in both 1994 and 2005 from the Levelland Chamber of Commerce.

CLASS OF 1975

Michael Bradshaw ’75 BLA works for the Texas Trees Foundation, a Dallas-based nonprofit tree-planting organization established in 1992. He is now serving as the foundation’s executive director.\

CLASS OF 1976

Ricci (Wilson) Fitzpatrick ’76 BED is part-owner of an information technology services company in San Antonio. The company provides IT consulting, network design, equipment procurement, installation, maintenance and repair services. Due to customer demand, the company recently started offering small education classes for end users of Microsoft products, especially Office 2007 products.

CLASS OF 1977

Marco Cisneros ’77 MLA, returned to College Station to serve as the city of College Station’s parks and recreation director. He said it will be great to be back in Aggieland after so many years away from home and that he looks forward to working with Texas A&M University on many projects and initiatives.

CLASS OF 1978

Laurie (Kerr) Thomas ’78 MUP is now retired and lives with her husband in Canyon, TX.

CLASS OF 1979

Gary Tepera ’79 BDCR retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 2000 to work with Titan Corporation doing business development work for the government. He started his own consulting business in 2004 and now works directly for the Marine Corps helping to develop training requirements for new recruits. Gary specifically works on the next generation of modeling and simulation tools to train large Marine Corps staffs. He and his wife Janet have three children. Malise, a 2004 Virginia Tech graduate, is stationed with the Peace Corps in Moldova. Catherine is a junior at Texas A&M University and was chosen to be the editor in chief of the yearbook next year. Michael transferred from Blinn College to A&M in 2007 to join the Corps of Cadets. His goal is to be a Marine Corps pilot so he is now pursuing his private pilot’s license. Gary’s wife Janet ’80 works as a budget analyst for L3 Corporation. They hope to retire to Bryan in 6-7 years.

Scott Williams ’79 BSLA works for Texas A&M University as executive director of real estate development and is currently overseeing the Campus Pointe Project.

Michael Callahan ’79 BED is at Dewberry Davis, LLC, guiding the program integration of the $6.5 billion Fort Belvoir Virginia BRAC program. Callahan went to Dewberry Davis from the Parsons Transportation Group

CLASS OF 1981

James Molinelli ’81 BED stepped down as president of the Maryland Improvement Contractors Association In November 2006. He received a Governor’s Citation from Maryland Governor Bob Erlich, “on behalf of the citizens of Maryland, in recognition of your outstanding accomplishments and dedicated service as the volunteer president of the Maryland Improvement Contractors Association from November 2004 through November 2006 … in honor of your service to the home improvement industry, the Maryland Home Improvement Commission and the citizens of the State of Maryland.”

Byron Van Den Berghe ’81 BDCR lives and works in San Antonio as a project executive for Yates Construction. He has 2 great kids; his son Cory is attending the University of New Orleans on a merit scholarship and his daughter Erin is a junior in high school.

David Watson ’81 BLA became the city administrator for the City of Newton, Iowa in September 2006.

CLASS OF 1982

Teresa (Davis) Hurd ’82 BED and ’84 MARCH married in 2005 and has changed her name. She is senior vice president of HKS Inc. in Dallas.

Cathleen Hart White ’82 BED is enjoying doing historical preservation at Alamo Architects in San Antonio. Her husband works at Zachary Construction Corporation in San Antonio. Their oldest son, Ryan, graduated from Texas A&M with a degree in geology and is working in Houston for TRC Solutions. Their daughter, Christin, is graduating from the U.S. Air Force Academy in May and is headed to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for graduate school in astronautical engineering. Their youngest son, Jonathan, is a sophomore at Texas A&M.

CLASS OF 1983

Barrie Cogburn, ’83 BLA is now director of landscape design & enhancements for the design division of the Texas Department of Transportation. Her work to promote the use of compost to control erosion on highway construction projects resulted in TxDOT becoming the nation's largest market for compost. She was the recipient of TxDOT’s 2003 Raymond E. Stotzer Jr. Award for outstanding leadership, dedication and service in the field of transportation. Barrie and her Reveille look-alike dog, Aggie, live in Austin.

Michael R. Hollis ’83 BDCR is the vice president of marketing for Custom Coils in Jacksonville, Texas. His oldest son has gone to college and even though it wasn’t to Texas A&M, Michael says he still has 3 more chances.

CLASS OF 1984

Dianne (Keel) Davis ’84 BED was honored in June 2006 with a leadership award from the Virginia Housing Coalition in recognition of her design for the first home of the L’arche Blue Ridge Community of Lynchburg, Va. L’arche is a global, faith-based organization that creates communities where mentally and/or physically handicapped individuals live along with their assistants in a family setting. Through the implementation of several design features, the project is an accessible home and hillside site that fits into a residential setting while providing a comfortable, dignified, and stimulating environment for its residents. The award was presented by Governor Tim Kaine at the coalition’s annual awards dinner in Richmond. Dianne is a project manager with Craddock Cunningham Architectural Partners in Lynchburg, Virginia. Her current projects include a second home for the L’arche Blue Ridge Community, as well as a new home for L’arche Washington D.C.  She lives in Forest, Virginia with her husband Wesley ’05 and their three children. 

Michael Lee ’84 BLA wrote “The German Mittelweg: Garden Theory and Philosophy in the Time of Kant,” which was published by Routledge in 2007. In April 2007, he was a visiting lecturer at the Rhode Island School of Design and the Harvard Graduate School of Design where he taught courses on the history of landscape architecture.

CLASS OF 1985

Charles R. Myers ’85 COSC started MYCON General Contractors in 1987 with four employees. They now have more than 35 employees and are ranked as one of the fastest-growing companies in North Texas.  MYCON has been the recipient of many industry awards, most recently, the Celebration of Enterprise Award in the $50M+ category of companies. The award was given by Inside Collin County Business journal. Myers said the greatest measure of MYCON's success is the repeat business it enjoys with many clients including Best Buy, LA Fitness, Landmark Bank, Bank of America and Weingarten Real Estate Investors. MYCON General Contractors was just awarded its largest project to date; the first two buildings of the Dallas Logistics Hub, which are being developed by the Allen Group. When completed, those two buildings will be more than 850,000 square feet.

Andrew J. Slavin ’85 BED and ’89 MSLD is the vice president of development for Parc Communities, LLLP in Atlanta, Ga. The company develops senior communities designed for independent living, with emphasis on an upscale, lifestyle-oriented rental product.

Brent Spraggins ’85 BED, ’87 MARCH has been named principal in TBG Partners’ Austin office. He is a design leader and manager of urban design and planning services. His nearly 20 years of experience encompasses land design, mixed-use development and high-density housing, as well as urban, commercial and retail planning projects. He embraces an integrated approach to planning that incorporates land design, architecture and landscape architecture to create livable, sustainable communities that offer a better quality of life.

CLASS OF 1986

James P. Carter Jr. ’86 BED has been with the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Integrated Service Network 8 Office for 15 years, and lived and worked in Tampa Bay, Florida for two years. He oversees the capital infrastructure master planning for 7 major hospitals in Florida and Puerto Rico, plus their 48 associated outpatient clinics. He is a certified healthcare facilities manager from the American Hospital Association and American Society for Healthcare Engineering and is earning his Masters of Science degree in Engineering Management from Drexel University in Philadelphia. James is proud to be a graduate from the College of Architecture. He lives deep in the heart of the Florida Gators and Florida State Seminoles fan population but said, “When the Aggies made it to the Sweet 16 this year, I was hoping to Gig the Gators. No matter. Gig’Em Aggies!”

Paul Neidinger ’86 BED, ’89 MARCH returned to the United States after completing a teaching fellowship with the American University of Sharjah near Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. He served the National Park Service as a historical architect then took a yearlong sabbatical before taking a position with NASA on the east coast as architectural consultant for preservation of flight facility historic objects and buildings. Paul also served as point of contact for BIM and LEED components for rehabilitation of flight facility airfield buildings and sites. His current project is moving a historic U.S. Coast Guard lifesaving station by barge from Wallops Island, Va.

Scott Sandlin ’86 BED was recently appointed associate principal with Perkins + Will in Houston. He is a licensed architect in Texas and Colorado, a LEED accredited professional, a CSI-certified construction specifier, and a CSI-certified construction contract administrator. Scott currently contributes his expertise in the delivery of laboratory projects to Perkins + Will’s team serving as senior project manager for the construction phase of the new Galveston National Laboratory on the University of Texas Medical Branch’s Galveston campus. It’s one of only two national biocontainment labs in the country that are part of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ biodefense research program. He was one of four recipients of the 2002 AIA National Young Architects Award.

Steven Solka ’86 BDCR started the program management sector in January 2007, of Aguirre Corporation, a Dallas based construction, architecture and engineering firm.

Stan Cromartie ’86 BED is president of ARCON Architects Inc. in League City, Texas. His practice was established in 1991. ARCON recently relocated to a new office they designed. Stan would like to see graduates have more knowledge of construction documents but said “Aggies remain the most qualified and competent candidates for hiring among those seeking employment out of school.“

CLASS OF 1987

Robert J. Albers ’87 BDCR is the managing director for Project Solutions International in Bangkok, Thailand. PSI provides engineering and construction consulting services in Thailand, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and the United States to clients such as KBR, GM, P&G, and Chevron. PSI has doubled its revenue in the last two years and plans to continue that trend. They are hopeful for several new contracts in the U.S. and Thailand for oil and gas work in the coming months.  He often travels to Houston over the course of the year.

Joe Flores ‘87 BDCR is a planner with Texas Utilities in Dallas. They are in the planning stage of building several new power generation units throughout Texas. Previously, he was living in Mexico overseeing the project controls effort for the construction of a combined-cycle generating station in Valladolid, Yucatan, which is a 1.5 hour drive from Cancun.

Robert R. Spiller III ’87 BDCR is the project manager at Kiewit Construction Company and recently completed a project in Spokane, Washington. He and his family are relocating to a permanent position in Anchorage, Alaska.

Larry Grosse ’87 Ph.D. ARCH and ’83 MS COSC, retired in 2007 after 11 years as head of the department of construction management at Colorado State University. He served as department head of Texas A&M’s department of construction science for 4 years and as a faculty member for 11 years.

CLASS OF 1988

Donna J. Kacmar ’88 BED and ’92 MARCH owns her own architecture firm, Architect Works, Inc. She has been in business for 7 years and also teaches design studios at the University of Houston. Ten years ago she designed and built three townhouses with former classmates Mary Ann Young and Christopher Craig.

Robert Long ’88 BDCR and ’90 MSCOMG is project manager for D.E. Harvey Builders in Houston. In February 2007, he was working on a multiyear expansion at the Shell Woodcreek Campus in Houston. He said he works with many former students in the construction industry. In his spare time, Robert loves playing soccer and golf with his son Travis.

Shelley A. Meyers ’88 BSLA is an art teacher in Allen, Texas. Since graduation she worked as a landscape architect for George Gentile and Associates in Jupiter, Fl., for Reece, Hoopes and Fincher in Atlanta and for Smallwood, Reynolds, Stuart and Stuart, also in Atlanta. When she married and had 3 children, Shelley moved back to the Dallas area. She lived in Plano for 12 years and taught art part time at a private school in Dallas for 8 years. In 2001 she divorced and became a teacher certified in All-Level Art. In 2002 she remarried; her new husband had 5 children, and she now lives in Allen teaching middle school art and raising their 8 kids.

Bob Stickney ’88 BED was hired in 2006 by Syska Hennessy Group to expand its Dallas market. SHG serves many markets from healthcare to vertical transportation. The Dallas location specializes in data center design and works closely with the architect to meet client needs. He is proud to be married to wife Lisa ’91 DVM, and they have three children, Amanda, Ryan and Trey.

Bruce Tepera ’88 BED designed and installed the new stadium graphics at Kyle Field, including the 3rd deck facade graphics and “super” graphics under the home side structure. He works as an account executive for MDC Wall Coverings in Dallas.

CLASS OF 1989

Rudy Garcia ’89 BED and ’94 MARCH rejoined his previous employer PBK Architects. He is excited to work as a projects manager out of their Dallas office. Rudy and his wife Dana have a four-year-old son named Bogan. 

Neil Platt ’89 BDCR moved back to Houston after spending 12 years in Southern California. He works as the category manager for turnarounds with Shell Downstream Inc. Neil and his wife have 2 children and a dog.

Russell W. Reid ’89 BED and ’01 MARCH aka “Rusty” or “Russ” was involved with architecture and environmental design in the Bryan/College Station area, when he moved his business to Austin. Rusty has been there since mid-2003 and loves it! He divides his creative time between hand-drawing architectural perspectives, large-scale commercial murals, and canvas paintings for gallery display. Rusty would like to hear from any of his old classmates or former students.

CLASS OF 1990

Neil Fitzpatrick ’90 BED, ’03 MSCIS, ’07 MS Modeling & Simulation, is a U. S. Marine based in California. He will be stationed at 29 Palms Base in California after September 2007 where he will be in charge of the base’s simulation center.

Angela (Ward) Hood ‘90 BDCR followed her husband Justin ‘90 around for 10 years while he was on active duty with the U.S. Marines. They settled down in 2001 in the Texas Hill Country to start their own development and design/building company, Aftefacts Development Corp. They are enjoying being back in Texas with their two children Victoria, 14, and Hunter, 10.
Kathy (Kerney) Owens ’90 BSLA is a landscape architect and the owner of Nature by Design, Inc. in Fircrest, Wa.  In 1997 she became licensed in Washington and California.  Her practice is mostly private work for developers in the region she lives in.  Kathy is working on a Superfund site – Asarco in Tacoma, Wa.  She says she is married to a great man and they have one child.

Sandra L. Skelley ’90 BSLA now lives in Crown Point, Indiana.  She has three children, two boys and a girl.

Gregory Taylor ’90 BED serves in the U.S. Army Reserve and returned from deployment to Afghanistan in April 2006. He works in Dallas at an architectural firm that specializes in municipal architecture work (libraries, police stations, churches) as well as federal project work. Gregory is studying to finish his architecture registration exams. He has been in the reserves for 17 years and plans to retire after 20 years of military service.

CLASS OF 1991

Kathy Biehn ’91 BED is an interior designer/architect intern with The Arizpe Group in San Antonio. In 2006 she became licensed in Texas as a registered interior designer. She moved to New Braunfels in May 2007 to begin her current job. Kathy expects to complete the Intern Development Psrogram by December 2007 and begin taking the Architect Registration Exam in January 2008.

Joshua Coggeshall ’91 BED co-founded Shimizu + Coggeshall Architects in 2005, after being the sole practitioner of Cog Work Shop, a research, design, and building studio. Shimizu + Coggeshall has received national and international publicity for their residential work. Their current projects include two new houses in Los Angeles and a grant to study the feasibility of harvesting urban timber for use in the design/build program at Woodbury University. Josh is a faculty member in the School of Architecture at Woodbury University in Burbank, Calif., and recently gave a lecture at the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design in their “Out There Doing It” series.

CLASS OF 1992

Hector De Santiago ’92 BED has advanced to corporate associate status within the firm Parkhill, Smith & Cooper, Inc. (PSC). He joined PSC in January 2003 to begin and lead the architecture division for the El Paso office. Hector has a diverse background of experience in different building types including educational, healthcare, commercial, religious, municipal, and recreational facilities.
He is very active in the El Paso chapter AIA having served as secretary, vice president, president-elect, 2005 fundraising committee chairman and 2007 chapter president. He is also a member of the Texas Scholars Think College Now, the Construction Specifications Institute, Texas Society of Architects, the City of El Paso Historic Landmark Commission, the El Paso Chamber of Commerce Education Committee State of the District Taskforce, and a graduate of Leadership El Paso XXVI. PSC is a full-service architecture and civil engineering firm established in 1945 in Lubbock, Texas.

Carter F. Vecera ’92 BED is the director of preconstruction for the Beck Group in Dallas.  He and his wife now have two sons including their latest addition, John, born last spring.

CLASS OF 1993

Hector Campbell ’93 BED, ’94 COSC works as a project manager for Katy ISD. He and his wife live in Katy, Texas with their daughter and twin boys. Hector obtained his architectural license in 2005.

Charles Henning ’93 BED was recently promoted to director for Williams + Paddon Architects + Planners in Phoenix.

Shawn P. Evans ’93 BED is an associate with Atkin Olshin Lawson-Bell Architects in Philadelphia. He has been in Philadelphia since receiving his M-Arch at Penn State in 1995. Shawn and his wife Kelly have a 3-year-old son, Calder, and another on the way. He is heavily involved with historic preservation in the Philadelphia region as well as in New Mexico, where his office recently opened a branch in Santa Fe. Shawn received the AIA Philadelphia Young Architect Award in 2004.

Scott Shippey ’93 BED, and his company, Chipotle, were included in a story in June 2007’s Architect magazine. Shippey is the director of design for Chipotle. He supervises a team of three architects, called design managers, at the company’s Denver headquarters. Shippey’s design team handled all store design internally until the company had to form partnerships with design firms due to Chipotle’s rapid growth. The article is at www.architectmagazine.com

CLASS OF 1994

Michael D. MacPeak ’94 BDCR is a pilot/first officer for Gulf Stream International Airlines.  He attended the Delta Connection Academy in Florida, as well as the Gulf Stream Training Academy in Florida.

Bryce J. Parker ‘94 BDCR is the project manager for Beniton Construction in Meridian, Idaho. He is currently managing construction of new school projects in Meridian and Boise, Idaho. Bryce was the muster chair of the Snake River Valley A&M Club in 2007.

CLASS OF 1995

Eric S. Brown ’95 BED founded Thoughtcrib, Inc. In June 2007.  He and his wife reside in Austin.

David R. Gunn ’95 BDCR formed Gunn Construction & Building Co. in early 2007. This general contracting firm specializes in architecturally designed custom homes in Houston and the surrounding area.

Thomas Woliver ’95 BLA is the development manager for Hillwood Development in Dallas. His role includes overseeing master planning developments in design, engineering, and construction. Thomas is currently working on the development of Heritage, a 2000-acre master-planned community in north Fort Worth and The Creeks of Preston Hollow, an exclusive gated community in Dallas. He is a member of the Urban Land Institute. Thomas enjoys spending time with his wife Tricia ’97 BLA, their 5-year-old daughter Bella and 2-year-old son Jack.

Carrie Zaboroski ‘95 BED and ’99 MARCH is the project director for Rebuilding Together, a nonprofit organization that rehabilitates homes for the elderly, disabled and needy in Dallas. In February of 2007, she and her husband adopted a baby boy – Frank Louis Zaboroski. They can’t wait to take him to his first Aggie game! 

CLASS OF 1996

Michael M. Deck ’96 BDCR is the vice president of estimating for The George D. Alan Company. Based in Dallas, this contracting company specializes in waterproofing on commercial construction in Texas and surrounding states. What Michael has enjoyed most about his five years with the company is the variety of projects he participates in as well as the many different general contractors and architects he works with. Some of his interesting projects include the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, W Hotel, and Winspear Opera House.

Brad D. Ramsey ’96 BDCR works for Steele & Freeman Inc. as a project manager. He just completed his fifth elementary school for Keller ISD and started a new high school, slated to open in 2009.

Marjorie Strohmer ‘96 BDCR is a stay at home wife and mother. She and her husband had twins in October 2007.

Ko S. Wibowo ‘96 MARCH designed the exhibition space for the Indonesian Consulate in Houston and then went to work for Christian Bergumand Associates in Victorville, Calif. While working at CB&A, he volunteered to design a dormitory for a seminary in the Indonesian section of Borneo. Since 1997 he has been at McGranahan Architects in Tacoma, Wash. and has become one of the leading architects and designers in the office. Currently Ko is working on the construction administration of the Clover Park Technical College Student Center in Lakewood, Wash. Ko also designed and built his own house where he lives with his wife and two children. He is a registered architect in Washington state and serves as a board member for the AIA Southwest Washington Chapter.

CLASS OF 1997

Pierre Arcos ‘97 BDCR lives in Everett, Washington and works for Intracorp Real Estate Development. He is working on a 114-unit mixed-use project in the Queen Anne district of Seattle which should be completed in May 2008. He is happily married to Alisa, a high school Spanish teacher, and they have 3 children. They recently bought a 1928 cottage and are enjoying restoring and remodeling it together.

Ann Marie Boatcallie ’97 BED gave birth to her fifth child, Cathryn Lyn, on February 15, 2007.

Kevin Stewart ’97 BED works as a project architect for the Michael Hsu Design Office in Austin. He designed and built his own home in east Austin.

CLASS OF 1998

Jana Dancer ’98 BED is living in San Marcos with her husband, twin 2-year-old daughters, and their dog. She is doing commercial and residential work at a small architectural firm in San Marcos.

Allison Davis ‘98 BED has a daughter, Aubrey, who was born on August 22, 2005.

Scott Mannhard ’98 BED earned his Master of Architecture degree from the University of Oregon-Portland Center in 2004. He works at PATH Architecture in Portland, Oregon.

David Ihrke ‘98 BDCR is a company commander for the U.S. Army. He will be serving in Iraq from Feb. 07 – Feb. 08.

CLASS OF 1999

Clara Carlise ‘99 BED and ’00 MARCH and fellow student Holly Fisher ’01 started 708 Studios in Frisco, Texas. They specialize in residential, light commercial and healthcare facilities.

Alexander Clinton '99 BED, LEED AP, CDT is in his 7th year at Perkins+Will in Houston specializing in laboratory and research facility design and construction. In the past several years he has had the opportunity to take a primary role on some very unique and challenging laboratory and research projects. One very notable project under construction is the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC) for the U. S. Department of Homeland Security at Fort Detrick, Md. The facility will be the nation's primary resource for analyzing and countering bioterrorism efforts. Alex was responsible for the Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) portion of the facility which is designed as a suit lab in which researchers wear a positive-pressure “space suit” to protect them while they study deadly pathogens such as the Marburg or Ebola virus. In addition, Alex is a contributor to the feasibility study for the follow-up project to NBACC, the National Bio and Agro-defense Facility (NBAF), which will also include a BSL-4 facility but will be centered on the study of animal disease that could pose a danger of being spread to humans.
Clinton’s other recent projects include: the 47,000 sq. ft. Urschel/Slick laboratory renovation project at the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio, Texas, an Animal Biosafety Level 3 research facility being designed for the University of Minnesota, the completed Rangel College of Pharmacy at Texas A&M-Kingsville, and the completed Ratliff Engineering, Sciences, and Technology complex at the University of Texas-Tyler. Alex was also responsible for a detailed laboratory design for the new Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Building on the main campus of Texas A&M University.

Brian Cole ’99 BED founded Green Grass Studios in 2003 along with JesseSandifer ’00 and Ryan Iltis. They. After 4 years, they have 16 people in their firm and provide architectural illustrations and entertainment solutions for clients including the Dallas Mavericks, Marriott International and Reel FX. 

Melissa Daigneault ’99 COSC graduated from Wake Forest School of Law in 2003, and now practices construction law with Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein, LLP in Raleigh, N.C. She is in the financial, construction and business disputes group, focusing on all aspects of construction law. Melissa and her husband Ralph had their first child Conner on September 18, 2006.

Gavin Daniels ’99 BED and ’04 MARCH started working in early 2007 for Hickok Cole Architects in Washington D.C. as a project designer. He will be working on a blend of base building and interiors. His previous employment was with OTJ Architects where he was the lead manager on a 55,000 sq. ft. project for the National Cable and Telecommunications Association. The project had many components, including a virtual house to showcase cable technology, a private, 100-seat THX-rated high-definition movie theater, multiple large meeting rooms, and office space.

Oscar Guzman ’99 BED is the job captain for Onyx Architects in Pasadena, Calif.  He is LEED-certified and hopes to obtain his architectural license in 2008.

Noah H. Kruger ’99 BED moved to Houston in August to pursue a Master of Business Adminstration degree at the University of Houston. His wife Danielle started her law career with Bracewell and Guiliani.

Brice Haynes ’99 BDCR is acting as interim construction services manager for the Houston division of Centex. He oversees the purchasing, estimating, and product development departments.

Russell Leist ’99 BDCR married in August 2003. He was a member of the project team that completed the Gaylord Texan Resort in Grapevine, Texas in 2004, and is currently working on projects at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

Jennifer Mannhard ’99 BED obtained her Master of Urban and Regional Planning degree from Portland State University in 2006, and passed the comprehensive planning examination to become a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners. She earned her graduate certificate in real estate development from Portland State University in 2004. Jennifer is now working at StastnyBrun Architects in Portland, Oregon.

Laura R. Musacchio ‘99 URSC received promotion and tenure in 2006 at the University of Minnesota’s Department of Landscape Architecture. She co-authored “Designing Small Parks: A Manual for Addressing Social and Ecological Concerns,” published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. in 2005. The book received a 2006 top 10 books award from Planetizen, a public-interest information exchange provided by Urban Insight.

Lauren (Deck) Walford ’99 BED and ’02 BDCR is an architect with RTKL in Washington, DC. Her husband (class of ’91) recently received military orders and they moved from Jacksonville, Fla. to Alexandria, Va. She is a designer in the healthcare studio with RTKL and has been working in healthcare planning since she graduated. Lauren enjoys the dynamic and creative studio that RTKL has and in her free time is studying to complete her architectural exams.

CLASS OF 2000

Erin Groffman ‘00 BED recently bought her first house that she shares with her dog. She is employed with O’Connell Robertson in San Antonio and has passed her first Architect Registration Examination.

Ryan Horne ’00 BED lives and works in Atlanta, Ga. He is in a small firm of 10 people. Recently, one of their projects received a LEED-NC Platinum Award. His primary focus is on sustainable design with an emphasis on adaptive reuse. Ryan has been the lead designer on a number of projects ranging from town homes to the City of Atlanta Cultural Center.

Mark Johnson ‘00 BED joined with a Houston cardiologist to form MD Trainer LLC., a medical training software company.

René Ramirez ’00 BDCR was promoted to construction project manager at Texas A&M System Facilities Planning & Construction in Nov. 2006. Since July 2002, he had been a construction cost and scheduling analyst. René has several projects on the Texas A&M University main campus and is involved in the Brazos County A&M Club. He also serves as chairman for the Bevo Burn Committee.

Jennifer (Bearden) Timms ‘00 BED was recently married and changed her name. She lives with her husband in College Station.

Jeong-Han Woo ’00 MSCOMG and ’05 Ph.D. ARCH is an assistant professor in the Architectural Engineering and Building Construction Department at the Milwaukee School of Engineering.  He is teaching BIM, estimating, scheduling and construction methods.  He was an assistant professor at Western Illinois University before going to teach in Milwaukee.

Miguel Botello ’00 BED and ’02 MARCH has joined C.T. Hsu + Associates as a project manager. Botello is a registered architect who joined his new firm after five years in project management at Michael Brady, Inc.’s Knoxville, Tenn. and Lake Mary, Fla. offices. Botello graduated magna cum laude from Texas A&M, is the recipient of the university’s Alpha Rho Chi graduate award and the College of Architecture’s Edward J. Romieniec senior award and sophomore faculty award.

Corey Harper ‘00 BED was promoted to associate principal at Neoscape, an architecture-visualization company in Boston

CLASS OF 2001

Aditya Dafre ’01 MARCH has moved to Dallas from Colorado; he earned his license and his firm AGI became a part of Callison. Now he is an employee of Callison, a retail architecture firm based out of Seattle. On a personal note, this is his fourth address in the last year. His past 12 months have seen constant change after a relatively calm six years in Colorado.

Lorraine Newgard ’01 BED received her MARCH and a graduate certificate in historic preservation from the University of Colorado-Denver in May 2007. She was married in October.

Zachary Taylor ’01 BED works as an associate designer for Bollar Cruz Architects in Colorado Springs. He received his MARCH in May 2006 from the University of Colorado at Denver. Zachary has completed his Intern Development Program and is in the process of taking his Architect Registration Examination.

CLASS OF 2002

Brooke Beane ’02 BED and ’07 MSVIZ recently moved to California. She is the lighting technical director for Rhythm and Hues Studios in Los Angeles.

David Conlon ’02 BED works for Sony Pictures Imageworks as a              technical director. He recently worked on “Surf’s Up” and Robert Zemeckis’ “Beowulf”.

Michael Goetz ’02 BED graduated from the University of Pennsylvania In May 2007 with a dual master’s degree in city and regional planning, and landscape architecture.

Jonathan Howard ‘02 BED entered graduate school in 2004 at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and received his MARCH degree in spring 2007. Jonathan had interned with Holabird and Root, where he was able to participate in numerous projects, including an international competition.

J. Mikey Lynch ’02 MUP has been promoted to Transportation Planner II for the Martin Metropolitan Planning Organization in southeast Florida. He is the new webmaster for the Treasure Coast Section of the Florida Chapter of the American Planning Association APA and is in discussions to assist with the newsletter for the Gays And Lesbians in Planning Division of the APA.

Kristin Pickar ’02 BED is a designer with Lighting Design Alliance. After graduation she realized that she did not want to be an architect but still wanted to work with architecture. Kristin credits her chosen career path to Jill Mulholland, who recommended her to Chip Israel, president of Lighting Design Alliance. Mulholland is a visiting assistant professor at the College of Architecture. Chip took a chance on a design student and taught Kristin how to be an architectural lighting designer. She manages projects from conceptual design to construction by developing photometric calculations and developing and detailing architectural lighting designs for architectural and landscape features. She said architectural lighting design is an exciting profession that allows her to work closely with architects, interior designers and landscape architects to create environments that invite, energize, soothe, and facilitate.

Glenn Roberts ‘02 BDCR reports that he has recently been mission-qualified for his job as an electronics warfare officer. He has been on two deployments to Japan and recently purchased a house in Bellevue, Nebraska. Glenn says that he’s been able to use of many of the things he learned at Texas A&M while fixing up his house.

Jamie Schmeets ‘02 BED is working for Piperzink Architecture. The firm focuses primarily on renovations, custom residential projects, and smaller commercial projects. She lives in Castle Rock, Colorado.

Spencer Somerville, ’02 BED has retired from architecture to teach and coach football at Colleyville Heritage High School.

James Tate ‘02 BED is enrolled at Yale University and expected to graduate in spring 2007 with a Master of Architecture degree. He was also student-teaching at Yale.

Bethany Weigl ‘02 BED is an architectural intern with Sixth River Architects in Austin. She says there are five other Aggies in her office and they are all big Texas A&M supporters!

Gary Whittle ’02 COSC recently completed a project with Frisco ISD and began work on renovations to the Hilton Anatole in Dallas. He was married in December ‘07. Gary became a LEED-accredited professional and is a member of the U.S Green Building Council’s North Texas Chapter.

CLASS OF 2003

Sarah Adam ’03 BED works with CTA Architects Engineers, a comprehensive design firm with offices in the western United States. She enjoys her role as the lead CA representative for the Austin office and has overseen the construction of 6 Gold’s Gym projects in the Central Texas area.

Chad Bartling ’03 BDCR is the vice president and co-owner of Electrical Management Group in Haltom City, Texas. He opened the company in 2003 with a partner. They provide electrical project management service to the retail industry for store upgrades and remodels. The company serves a nationwide market for clients such as Circuit City, Golf Galaxy and Carmax. He and his wife Darsey have been married for almost five years and they had their first child, Luke, on March 30, 2007. They were baptized about three years ago and belong to a small church in Fort Worth.

Barry A. Espinosa ’03 MARCH is an architectural intern for Jackson & Ryan Architects in Houston. He worked as a professor of architectural design and computer-aided design at Universidad Anahuac del Sur and UNITEC in Mexico City.

Todd A. Gibson ’03 BED is in graduate school at the University of Colorado for a Master of Architectural Engineering – Building Systems.

Laura (Langford) Gupton ‘03 BED has been working as an intern at CHAS Architects doing high-end residential work, along with fellow alumni Cynthia Rosas and Kevin Sidora. She just celebrated her one-year wedding anniversary and lives in Austin.

Christy R. (Corbett) Koether ’03 MARCH is a stay at home mom. She took a year off for maternity leave, and now works for Heights Venture Architects from the comfort of her home. In her spare time she serves on her church building team where she helped to design a 32,000 square-foot community worship center.

Yvette Maldonado ‘03 BED has just moved to Dallas from McAllen, Texas to continue interning for her architect’s license at Aguirre Corporation. She wants to send out a hearty “Gig ‘em” to her fellow Aggies.

Jason A. Rodriguez ’03 BED is in the thesis phase of his Master of Science in Architecture at the University of Texas-San Antonio.  He taught at a private high school in San Antonio from 2003-07.

Maj. Patrick C. Suermann ’03 MSCM taught in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the U.S. Air Force Academy from 2003-06. In spring 2006, Patrick received the Outstanding Academy Educator Award, the highest possible honor for teaching excellence. He also passed his Professional Engineer test with a focus on civil engineering and transportation. Patrick was selected by the academy to receive an Air Force fellowship to pursue his Ph.D. at the University of Florida’s College of Design, Construction, and Planning at the M.E. Rinker Senior School of Building Construction, and plans to eventually return to teaching at the academy.

He was also honored to receive the first-ever “Rinker Scholar” fellowship, created in order to foster research in academic construction programs. The fellowship will provide an additional $30,000 over three years to further his research in Building Information Modeling. He contributed three sections to the soon to be published National Building Information Model Standard and served as testing team leader for the National Institute of Building Sciences Facility Information Council NBIMS executive committee. 

Dhave Setabutr ’03 BED is in his third year as a medical student at Texas Tech Health Sciences Center-Amarillo.

Carol Slawson ’03 BED is pursuing a Master of Regional Planning degree at Cornell University and is writing her thesis for her Master in Architecture degree. She lives in Rome.

Antonio Valdivia ’03 MARCH moved to Jacksonville, Fla. in fall 2003 to start working for Haskell at the Mexico City office as associate AIA and licensed architect in the architectural design studio. He was married in October 2007 to Julie Stites in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. After being an active part of Jacksonville's community and chamber of commerce, he comes back every year to try to recruit as many Aggies as possible to increase the Aggie population in Jacksonville.

Ho Joon (Josh) Yang ’03 MSCOMG is a scheduling engineer with M.A. Mortenson Company in Minneapolis, Minn. He is involved in the cutting edge of 3D/4D modeling including and his current responsibility scheduling for the Federal Contracting Group of M. A. Mortenson Company in the construction industry. He is an active member of Building Information Modeling at Mortenson.

CLASS OF 2004

Andrew Blouet ’04 MSLD is a land acquirer for the city of San Antonio with the Linear Greenway project along Leon, Salado Creek and the Medina River.  Andrew says he is “really putting his degree, historic preservation certificate and interest in sustainability to work!  Thank you College of Architecture!” 

Alan Harmon ’04 BED is a project manager for WestEast Design Group in San Antonio. He received his MARCH from the University of Texas in May 2006.

Bryan B. Kaminski ’04 COSC is a full-time MBA student in Austin, Tx.

Shawn M. Lang ’04 BDCR works for Perry Homes in Houston as an assistant project manager. He and his wife Chrissy recently had their first child – a girl. Shawn says work is good, but life is better.

Robert McClelland ’04 BDCR is stationed in Germany with the U.S. Army. He is serving as a platoon leader with the 1st armored division.

Candace Romero-Axen ’04 BED was married June 16, 2007 in Fort Worth. She and her husband Blake ‘03 now live in Las Colinas in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.

Tiffany Robinson ’04 BED, MARCH ’06, has obtained her LEED certification and is taking her ARE exams with an anticipated licensure in December 2008. She is associate director of the AIA component in San Antonio and is an interiors representative for the healthcare studio at her firm, Marmon Mok Architecture.

Sophia Renee Razzaque ’04 BED has been offered a job with architect Zaha Hadid’s London office. Her work has been exhibited in New York and Florence, Italy, and been published in Surface Magazine.

CLASS OF 2005

Anna Castiglioni ’05 LAND works for Teshima Design Group in San Diego as a project manager/designer.  She and her husband are renovating their home in San Diego.  They love living in San Diego and think the people there are wonderful. Work is busy in the commercial sector for them.

Ryan M. Elkins ’05 BDCR was deployed in April 2007, with the United States’ South American Counter Narcotics Operations.

Tyler Hardy ‘05 BDCR is a loan officer for Excellent Mortgage Company in Waco. He had previously worked for Hensel Phelps Construction in Round Rock and Whiting Turner Contracting in Waco. Tyler would like to be on the homebuilding side of the industry some day.

Eberhard Laepple ’05 Ph.D. ARCH works for HOK in Houston and travels extensively to London, Toronto and Saudi Arabia. He is the senior project manager for interface and is working on a new university in the Middle East. Eberhard is responsible for the interface between HOK and the Saudi engineering and design firms. He and his wife Jessi have a daughter and had a new baby boy in October.

Al Morales ’05 BED has been working for a residential and commercial firm in San Antonio since graduation. He intends on enrolling in a graduate program in the area.

Truitt Raun ’05 BED is attending the University of Cincinnati and plans to graduate with a Master of Architecture degree in June 2008. While attending UC he worked for SOM in Chicago during the winter and summer of 2006. During his time there he designed islands for the new master plan of the Kingdom of Bahrain, which will be constructed by 2011. In summer 2006 he worked on the design of the new North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters in Brussels, Belgium and his last assignment was a top-secret project. During the spring and summer of 2007 he worked for GlaserWorks in Cincinnati.

Amrit Singh ’05 BLA and ’06 MSLD lives in The Woodlands, Texas and is looking to work in real estate development.

Aaron M. Vorwerk ‘05 MARCH is an architect intern with Hahnfeld Hoffer Stanford in Fort Worth. He is exposed to a broad range of project work, especially in the religious and higher education sectors. Aaron has been tasked with leading the firm’s transition to BIM.  He and his wife Amanda celebrated their second wedding anniversary in June.

CLASS OF 2006

Lindsey Bayer ‘06 BDCR is working as a builder for History Maker Homes in Fort Worth. 

Aanad Desai ’06 MSCOMG is married and works for Jacobs Engineering in Houston.

John Esler ‘06 COSC works as a project manager for Western Builders in Amarillo.

Fernando Hernandez ‘06 MSCOMG started as a project controls engineer with Bechtel in Houston in February 2007, 

Bin Kang ’06 Ph.D. ARCH thanks everyone who helped him gain his knowledge, analysis methods, and working methods in the College of Architecture. Bin is one of the design principals in the firm where he works. He says everybody in his office knows about Texas A&M University. Bin resides in China.

Jennifer Leyh ’06 MSCOMG is the account executive for Imagecraft Exhibits in Austin. She is also the education coordinator for the Balcones Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council.

Logan A. Harper ’06 BDCR works for TD Industries in Fort Worth as an assistant project manager. TD Industries is a large commercial plumbing and mechanical subcontractor. He is working on two large projects including a new seven-story office building in downtown Fort Worth.

Nichole Schroeder ’06 BED was recently married and entered graduate school in the fall of 2007 at the University of Texas.

David V. Morris ’06 BED spent the summer and fall of 2006 in Barcelona, Spain working in Miguel Roldan’s office. He hoped to finish his master’s degree in Visualization Sciences by December 2007.

Rolf Scheffler ’06 COSC is working as an assistant project manager for KinghamDaltonWilson in Houston. He is actively involved in the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo as a member of the equipment acquisition committee. During the fall of 2004, Rolf completed an internship with D.E. Harvey Builders in Houston. While on his internship, Rolf performed quantity takeoffs, reviewed construction documents, and worked with other employees to put together numerous proposals. After graduation, Rolf moved to Houston, got married, and began his career in the construction industry.

CLASS OF 2007

Emily Crockett ‘07 BED has begun her graduate degree in architecture at the University of Texas-San Antonio. She and Luke Rogers ’06 have set May 24, 2008 as their wedding date.

Rubabah Mammad Ismayilova ’07 Ph.D. moved to Toronto in May 2007, and was looking for work in bioenergy/environmental economics.



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