building a better texas

Buildings may one day “breathe,” and be able to function in their own environment with the help of a type of “smart skin” developed by a team of Texas A&M University researchers.

Sophomore construction science student Jordan Maywald won $50,000 and first place on the national ABC-TV show “The Great Christmas Light Fight” on Dec. 9 for a beautiful, massive light display constructed at his family’s Austin home.

Tom Owens, ‘73, senior managing director - chief risk officer of Hines, a global powerhouse in real estate investment, development and management, headed a team of company executives who discussed the multibillion-dollar firm’s operations.

The Master of Urban Planning program at Texas A&M has vaulted into the upper echelon of programs of its kind in new rankings published by Planetizen, an independent, online platform that reports urban planning news and resources.

For her impassioned work to protect Texas’ endangered, historic African-American communities, Andrea Roberts, Texas A&M assistant professor of urban planning, received a $50,000 grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

More than 50 tech industry experts, community leaders and Texas A&M scholars gathered in College Station May 14, 2019 for the ENDEAVR Tech Summit, an event exploring the anticipated future of education as realized through “smart” cities.

Merging waste metal from the automotive industry, native plants and the ingenuity of design students and professors, a new “Living Wall” adorns the side of Langford B, adding beautification and reducing heat gain effects on the wall and surrounding area.

Two small Texas towns recovering from Hurricane Harvey are getting help from Texas A&M urban planning graduate students.

Hurricane Harvey’s widespread damage forced cities throughout the U.S. to take a more critical look at their infrastructure and hazard mitigation plans, said Galen Newman, Texas A&M associate professor of urban planning.

Urban planners in shrinking cities grappling with a growing number of vacant lots could get help from a new planning tool developed by Galen Newman, associate professor of urban planning, and a team of university researchers.

Using high-tech tools including photogrammetry, laser scanning and 3-D modeling, Texas A&M architecture students created historic documentation and restoration plans for a beloved 105-year-old Deanville, Texas-based train depot.

For his work enhancing healthcare design standards, Kirk Hamilton, professor of architecture at Texas A&M, was elevated to fellowship in the American College of Critical Care Medicine. He is only the second architect to be inducted into this elite national society.

Future initiatives to ensure the preservation of plant and animal habitats in a suburban Houston public recreation area will be aided by land use maps and master plans created last spring by Texas A&M graduate landscape architecture students.

In the future, structures will be created onsite by 3-D printers, and the construction and manufacturing industries will have much more in common, according to a multidisciplinary Texas A&M faculty team envisioning how technology will change building.

To prepare for a future in which structures are built with material from large-scale, 3-D printers, College of Architecture faculty are developing and testing environmentally responsible printing methods in a two-year study funded by a $500,000 X-Grant.