Archive

Former students are invited to submit items for the Class Acts section, which highlights professional achievements, as well as news briefs about marriages, births, retirements and whatever else former students care to share with the college community. News and photos may be e-mailed directly to the editor.

After investigating home building practices common in Texas colonias, impoverished areas near the Mexico border, a Texas A&M architecture Ph.D. student is working to share affordable, energy efficient construction techniques and home designs with colonias residents.

More than $12,000 was raised for Bryan/College Station’s Habitat for Humanity by Texas A&M construction science students and industry sponsors during an April 11 golf tournament at Briarcrest Country Club in Bryan.

Six former students from Texas A&M’s College of Architecture who have risen to the top of their professional field while making significant public service contributions will be honored this fall as outstanding alumni.

A New Jersey residence designed by Frank Lloyd Wright could soon be moved to Fiasole, Italy with help from Paolo Bulletti, adjunct professor of architecture at Texas A&M’s study abroad venue in Castiglion Fiorentino, Italy.

The difference in energy consumption between two homes in Qatar — one built to a strict energy efficiency standard and the other using conventional construction — is being evaluated in a Texas A&M College of Architecture study.

Recently appointed to the editorial board of the Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, Kunhee Choi, assistant professor of construction science at Texas A&M University, will review scholarly papers about construction project scheduling and cost estimating.

The Texas A&M Department of Architecture is hosting a reception for former students and friends 6:30 p.m. Friday, June 21 at the Embassy Suites Hotel, 1420 Stout St. during the AIA national convention in Denver.

Strategies for incorporating art and design in science and technical education and vice versa will be discussed at a May 16 Washington D.C. conference organized by the network for Sciences, Engineering, Arts and Design (SEAD).

Emergency management planners could reduce losses and strengthen community resilience by mapping socially vulnerable areas and focusing hazard mitigation efforts where they are most needed, said Shannon Van Zandt, a Texas A&M urban planning professor.

Immigration reform is essential to “level the playing field” for construction companies who pay living wages and abide by the law, said Stan Marek, CEO of Marek Brothers Systems Inc., in a recent NPR story about the construction industry in Texas.

Funeral services for Thomas McKittrick ’91, who became an architecture educator at Texas A&M University in 1990 after a stellar 28-year career as a professional architect, is scheduled at 11 a.m. Saturday, April 27, 2013 at the Rice Chapel in Rice University’s student center.

Texans enjoyed lower home electric bills and cleaner air after state legislators in 2001 adopted new energy and construction codes for single-family residences, according to a report from scientists from the Texas A&M Energy Systems Laboratory.

A building energy use "tune-up" procedure developed by researchers at the Texas A&M Energy Systems Lab has so far yielded more than $100 million in energy savings from little more than 300 client buildings, said Charles Culp, professor of architecture and ESL associate director.

Decades of leadership in the construction industry and support of education at Texas A&M have netted James R. Thompson ’68 the Distinguished Alumnus Award, the highest honor granted by The Association of Former Students.