Texas A&M assistant professor, Ahmed Ali, was a keynote speaker at the October 16th event hosted by Austin Technology Incubator, “a University of Texas at Austin initiative that helps startup companies successfully compete in capital markets by linking entrepreneurs with investors and public funding sources.”
Ali and his students are looking for opportunities to maximize the value of resources in what they call a “circular economy.” The student projects reuse “offal” — sheet metal refuse from automotive manufacturing — into a construction material for building exteriors.
College of Architecture faculty, students respond to hurricanes
As tens of thousands of Texans undergo a long, difficult recovery from Hurricane Harvey, research findings, studio and service projects by faculty and students at Texas A&M University are helping individuals and communities learn how to emerge from the damage and how to mitigate the effects of future disasters.
At the university’s Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center, one of the world’s leading natural disaster and technological hazard research units, multidisciplinary studies focus on hazard mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery solutions.
Other research and service units housed in the college, in partnerships with faculty and student researchers from a variety of disciplines, are engaging Harvey-affected neighborhoods to learn how communities can prepare for and recover from disasters.
Helping communities avoid common disaster recovery mistakes
HRRC investigators have received Harvey-related National Science Foundation funding to augment an existing study focusing on how communities develop a post-disaster recovery plan and distribute public and private disaster aid.
“So far, we’ve studied recoveries in Granbury (tornado), West (explosion), Brownsville (hurricane/flooding), Galveston (hurricane), Bastrop (fires and flooding), and Marion-Cass Counties (fire),” said Shannon Van Zandt, project co-principal investigator.
Van Zandt said findings in the study, led by Michelle Meyer, an HRRC faculty fellow at Louisiana State University, will help communities deluged by Harvey avoid common recovery mistakes.
App-based drainage reporting for ‘citizen scientists’
A HRRC study is examining whether Houston residents can collect suitable photographic data of their neighborhood storm water management systems to share with urban planners, infrastructure engineers, and researchers.
Researchers are using a $100,000 National Science Foundation grant to develop and field test a mobile application for collecting the relevant data.
“In this project, we aim to determine whether citizen scientists can gather data on their own that is comparable to that generated by sophisticated technology,” said Shannon Van Zandt, co-principal investigator on the project. “By developing an app that allows residents to photograph and upload images from their neighborhoods, we can get a much more complete picture of the quality and maintenance of storm water management infrastructure, and empower residents with information they can use to lobby for positive changes in their neighborhoods.”
The multidisciplinary project, funded by an NSF NSF Early-Concept Grant for Exploratory Research, includes Philip Berke, professor of urban planning.
Hazard planning vs. execution
Researchers at the HRRC are studying the disconnect between the preparation and implementation of hazard mitigation plans at the municipal level, as well as the effectiveness of federal hazard mitigation policy in a National Science Foundation-funded program.
“Harvey provided a painful reminder that the actions jurisdictions take — or don’t take — can have a big impact on how resilient our communities are,” said Shannon Van Zandt, project co-principal investigator. “We surveyed more than 3000 jurisdictions across the Gulf and Atlantic coasts to determine not just what the jurisdictions had planned to do, but what tools at their disposal they were actually using. Given the damage incurred from both Harvey and Irma, we should be able to examine whether these actions taken have actually reduced damage or hastened recovery.”
With part of the $450,000 grant, project leaders will develop a website and publish a guide outlining best practices for the implementation of mitigation policies at the local level.
Disaster effects on food distribution links
Texas A&M University researchers are collaborating with three other universities in a National Science Foundation initiative aimed at identifying links between the U.S. food distribution system and energy, water and transportation networks that are most likely to be disrupted in a natural disaster.
“Food access and affordability are persistent problems for more than 14% of Americans in normal times, but these problems are greatly exacerbated following disasters,” said Walter Gillis Peacock, director of the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center at Texas A&M’s College of Architecture, who is leading the four-year, $2.5 million research collaboration that includes researchers from the Texas A&M’s Department of Geography.
The research team believes the study will encourage the adoption of policies aimed at maximizing post-disaster food availability by balancing disaster-related vulnerability and resilience planning. The effort, they said, should also identify new planning and training options for a range of disaster scenarios and foster a shared language between disciplines regarding the causes and characterizations of hazards and risks.
Students gather post-Harvey water samples
Just four days after Harvey’s record-setting deluge, graduate urban planning students gathered soil and floodwater samples in Manchester and Sunnyside, two impoverished Houston neighborhoods affected by flooding that included toxic Houston Ship Channel water.
“We want to learn what petrochemicals and heavy metals from the channel’s refineries, as well as what biological contaminants, were mixed in these neighborhoods’ floodwaters,” said Garrett Sansom, associate director of the Institute for Sustainable Communities, a college research unit.
The communities are partners with a multidisciplinary, small army of researchers and community outreach organizations collaborating in Texas A&M’s Environmental Grand Challenge, a major university project led by Philip Berke, professor of urban planning, that addresses critical environmental challenges affecting human health and well being.
Taking health survey of Harvey-affected neighborhood
The ISC will survey Sunnyside residents about post-Harvey public health issues and Harvey-related concerns at a regularly scheduled community meeting Oct. 5.
“An especially large crowd is expected, since this is Sunnyside’s first post-Harvey meeting,” said Sansom. “The survey we’re using is a standardized method to gauge individuals’ physical and mental health, and its results can be used to compare a community to others throughout the country.”
FEMA funds resiliency scorecard project
In the wake of Harvey, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has provided additional funding for measuring weakness and inconsistencies in communities natural hazard plans that result in a resiliency scorecard. The project is led by Philip Berke, professor of urban planning, and Jaimie Masterson, program manager at Texas A&M’s Texas Target Communities.
The scorecard’s use also generates conversations between planners and policymakers that ultimately improve a community’s natural hazard resilience.
Harvey data informs sculpture design
Using topographical forms suggested by August 25-28 Hurricane Harvey rainfall data, environmental design students created a sculptural wall as part of a studio exercise directed by Mark Clayton, professor of architecture.
Working in four groups, students designed the panels with Autodesk Revit and Rhinoceros, a 3-D modeling application, then fabricated their designs at the college’s Automated Fabrication & Design Lab at the RELLIS Campus.
College volunteers serve post-Harvey burgers in East Houston
Residents in Manchester, a community in east Houston recovering from Harvey flooding, enjoyed a lunch and received donated clothing provided by volunteers from the College of Architecture and the Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services at a Sunday, Sept. 10 outreach event.
“No one has come to help us after Harvey and here is Texas A&M,” said one resident.
The event was the latest chapter in Texas A&M’s ongoing partnership with Manchester, an impoverished, east Houston industrial neighborhood beset by flooding from Sims Bayou and pollution from nearby petrochemical plants.
Disaster research at the Center for Texas Beaches and Shores
In response to Hurricane Harvey, researchers at the Texas A&M University at Galveston’s Center for Texas Beaches and Shores are studying ways to mitigate urban flooding and increase urban flood resilience in a several multidisciplinary research projects funded by national and state agencies.
The center is led by Sam Brody, who has a joint appointment at Texas A&M University at Galveston and the Texas A&M College of Architecture as a professor of urban planning.
Joining Brody in a project examining the economic impact of Harvey flooding in the Houston region is Philip Berke, professor of urban planning and director of the Texas A&M Institute for Sustainable Communities.
Other flood-related studies focused on local compliance with federal floodplain management regulations, and on how citizens differentiate between mandatory and voluntary evacuation orders.
Ongoing flood resilience-related CTBS projects
Eric Bardenhagen, Philip Berke and Galen Newman, faculty members in the Texas A&M Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, are part of a multidisciplinary group of Center for Texas Beaches and Shores researchers engaged in a National Science Foundation-funded study investigating strategies for reducing coastal areas’ vulnerability to flooding.
In other center studies, Brody and fellow researchers are investigating the causes, consequences and mitigation measures of urban flooding in the U.S., modeling the relationship between land use change and floodplain boundaries in Harris County, Texas, and investigating ways to optimize flood risk reduction strategies in the Houston-Galveston region.
Researchers are also developing an online atlas that denotes flood risk along Galveston Bay, studying a proposed coastal barrier system, or “Ike Dike,” that would protect the human life, property, businesses, ecosystem and energy infrastructure of the Houston-Galveston region, and investigating a framework for public land acquisition that would advance environmental protection and flood mitigation.
ACSA Counselor and Architecture Professor earns 2016 Regan Interdisciplinary Prize
For orchestrating transformational educational experiences through innovative design studios and research initiatives that facilitate student collaboration with peers and professionals from other disciplines, Ahmed K. Ali, assistant professor of architecture, was chosen to receive the 2016 J. Thomas Regan Interdisciplinary Prize.
Established by the College of Architecture’s Dean’s Advisory Council to honor Regan, former dean of the college and champion of interdisciplinary education in the built environment disciplines, the prize is awarded annually to a faculty member selected by a faculty committee from a pool of nominees. Regan died in 2015.
In a spring 2016 studio, Ali’s students collaborated with construction science students, Gessner Engineering, the Coulter and Lily Rush Hoppess Foundation and the city of Bryan to design and build a prototype structure for vendors at the Brazos Valley Farmers Market.
The studio immersed students “in an in-depth and hands-on learning experience in the design, engineering, fabrication, and construction of the structure,” said Weiling He, associate professor of architecture, in a letter supporting Ali’s nomination.
That same studio also engaged graduate landscape architecture students, who created master plans for an historic city block in Bryan that incorporated the farmers market structures, spaces for a new visitor center building, courtyards for outdoor activities and a community garden.
“His students appreciate his direction, enthusiasm and skills in leading such complex projects,” said George Mann, professor of architecture, in a letter supporting Ali’s nomination. “His enthusiasm for teaching by doing is inspiring and I believe he is becoming one of the emerging leaders of the college.”
In fall 2016 studio, Ali’s students collaborated with Zahner Metals, General Motors and the U.S. Business Council for Sustainable Development to design building envelopes skins, and roofing systems from auto manufacturing byproducts.
“Ali is an internationally recognized academic advocating resource reuse in the construction industry,” said He. “His design innovations that employ reused materials have been published and presented in journals and conferences worldwide,” said He.
Ali, who joined the Texas A&M faculty in 2015, earned three graduate degrees at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University — a Ph.D. in 2012, a Master of Science in Architecture in 2012 and a Master of Architecture in 2004 — as well as a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Architecture degree at Alexandria University in Egypt in 1997.
A multi-PI team at TAMU, Drs. Xuemei Zhu (Department of Architecture), Chanam Lee (Department of Landscape and Urban Planning), and Marcia Ory (School of Public Health), recently received a NIH grant of $2,684,000 to develop a longitudinal study on the health impacts of an activity-friendly community, Mueller in Austin, TX, on residents’ physical activity and health. This project is based on the team’s pilot project in the community supported by grants from AIA and Johns Hopkins University.
This project addresses the growing problem of obesity in the US, exploring innovative environmental/policy approaches to reduce major risk factors such as physical inactivity at the population level. Within a 5-year study period, it will examine how an activity friendly community can increase residents’ levels of physical activity and influence when and where they are physically active. It will also provide insights into why environmental and psychosocial factors influence physical activity, and how place impacts lifestyle behaviors related to the burden of obesity.
Assistant Professor of Architecture Negar Kalantar has been awarded an NSF EAGER grant for a study entitled “Interaction of Smart Materials for Transparent, Self-regulating Building Skins.” Kalantar is a Co-PI on the two-year, $239,596.00 grant, collaborating with Dr. Zofia Rybkowski of the Department of Construction Science, Dr. Eugen Akleman of the Department of Visualization and the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and Dr. Tahir Cagin and Dr. Terry Creasy of the Department of Material Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University. The objective of this EArly-concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) is to harness the inherent properties of smart materials and explore their interaction and potential for use in active and multifunctional building skins. As an extension of previous studios Kalantar has offered on Transformable Building Skins, she will lead two semester-long inter-disciplinary design/research studios that will investigate, fabricate, and test the interactions of smart materials used in innovative building skins. A team of material scientists, engineers, and architects will assist Kalantar in this endeavor.
Kalantar joined the Department of Architecture at Texas A&M University in Fall 2014. Her research and practice lies at the intersection of architecture, science, and engineering. In her Master’s and doctoral studies, she conducted design research to develop adaptable fenestration systems using optimized scalar and geometric forms to mitigate and/or influence light, heat, and/or sight. She has collaborated with firms in Dubai, Chicago, and New York, including SOM and Gensler.The results of her decade of experience developing transformable and adaptive designs have been presented at Technical University in Vienna and Berlin, the University of Maryland, Tehran University, Virginia Tech, and the New York 3Dprint SHOW.Her design research projects in Prototyping in Architectural Robotics for Technology-enriched Education qualified Kalantar to receive the 2011 XCaliber Award at Virginia Tech “for excellence as a group involved in technology-assisted teaching.” Kalantar teaches an advanced design/research/fabrication studio focused on interrogating digital platforms and additive manufacturing within the context of innovative building envelopes that are adaptable and demonstrate real-time morphological changes in the environment.
Professor Shelley Holliday has been appointed by the Department Head, Professor Ward Wells, as the Associate Department Head for Undergraduate Programs in the Department of Architecture, Texas A&M University. Professor Holliday is currently a senior lecturer and has been on faculty since spring 2000. Her areas of interest include structural steel, structural and material detailing, bridging the architecture/engineering gap, and interdisciplinary design. Professor Holliday has been honored to receive many teaching awards, the latest most distinguished award being the Distinguished Achievement Award for excellent teaching Spring 2013.
Dr. Valerian Miranda, head of the College of Architecture’s CRS Center for Leadership & Management in the Design & Construction Industry, architecture and environmental design students conducted a programming effort for the design of the new Veterinary Medicine Education Complex at Texas A&M University. The project’s architectural program includes the general direction the design of a building should take by first learning what the client’s goals and needs are.The new Veterinary Medicine Education Complex will be of 300,000 square-feet and cost $120 million USD.“Now we will have a building that truly matches the excellence of our faculty and students,” said Eleanor Green, dean of veterinary medicine, during the April 29, 2014 groundbreaking at the site of the Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences Education Complex, which is scheduled for completion in 2016.
Professors Xuemei Zhu, Kevin Glowacki, Gabriel Esquival, and Sarah Deyong, have been promoted to Associate Professors with Tenure at A&M University.
Dr. Xuemei Zhu teaches in the Department of Architecture. She is a Faculty Fellow in the Center for Health Systems & Design at Texas A&M University. Her scholarship investigates the impacts of built environment on public health, environmental sustainability, and social equity, with a specific focus on healthy community and healthcare design. She received 13 competitive research grants ($1,006,285 in total) as a PI or Co-PI, from organizations such as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the American Institute of Architects (AIA), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She also produced 19 journal articles, two book chapters, six conference papers, and 25 conference presentations. Her teaching centers on the theme of environment-behavior relationships, and strengthens the link between environment-behavior research and design practice.
Dr. Kevin Glowacki teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in art and architectural history. He received his Ph.D in Classical and Near Eastern archaeology from Bryn Mawr College in 1991. His research investigates domestic architecture, household activities, and urban development on the island of Crete. His publications include STEGA: The Archaeology of Houses and Households in Ancient Crete (American School of Classical Studies at Athens: Princeton 2011) and Kavousi IIB: The Late Minoan IIIC Settlement at Vronda. The Buildings on the Periphery (INSTAP Academic Press: Philadelphia 2012). He is currently a member of an international team excavating the ancient Minoan city of Gournia in eastern Crete. At Texas A&M, Dr. Glowacki is also a Faculty Fellow of the Center for Heritage Conservation. He is the recipient of the Award of Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching from the Archaeological Institute of America.
Professor Esquivel Gabriel joined Texas A&M University in 2008. He investigates the benefits and vehicles of a heterogeneous model that integrates both design technology and architecture’s proprietary devices. Specifically, Professor Esquivel examines digital geometry and the emergence of new material logics. He also examines the integration of digital techniques and analogue conventions to exchange architectural information. His research oscillates between fabrication techniques, performance and parametric investigations directly linked to the fabricated pieces, as well as the theoretical background behind these fabricated objects. These projects have been discussed on papers from SMI and Acadia from the parametric point of view as well as theory-based publications like Thresholds from MIT. He is a promoter of new ideas in architecture. has produced and organized conferences in Mexico City, such as Azul Rey, Elegantech, Ab Intra and Blurring Limits.
Dr. Sarah Deyong joined Texas A&M University in 2007 and received her doctorate at Princeton University in 2008. She teaches history & theory and design studio, and her research focuses on postwar and contemporary theories and practices. Her papers on topics such as Sigfried Giedion, Team X, High Tech, Colin Rowe and Urban Think-Tank have been published in the JAE, the JSAH, Praxis, Flip Your Field (ACSA), Theory By Design (University of Antwerp), the Journal of Architecture, A Critical History of Contemporary Architecture and The Changing of the Avant-Garde (MoMA). She was awarded a grant from the Graham Foundation and a fellowship from the Glasscock Center of Humanities Research. Her current book project is titled The Reinvention of Modern Architecture at Mid-Century.
Texas A&M environmental design students presented five design concepts for two state-of-the-art hospitals proposed as part of a giant medical complex to be located in an underserved region of Nigeria at an April 28 event attended by Nigerian investors and dignitaries at Legacy Hall in the Jon L. Hagler Center.
The architecture-for-health studio project, including designs for a an 800-bed adult specialty hospital and a 400-bed mother/child hospital, was undertaken during the spring 2014 semester in collaboration with HKS Inc., the Dallas-based international architecture firm that is working with Thompson & Grace Investments of Nigeria to develop a world-class 100-acre medical service and research complex to be known as the Thompson & Grace Medical City.
The five dual-hospital concepts unveiled at the April 28 gathering were designed by five, four-student teams in a studio directed by George J. Mann, the Ronald L. Skaggs, FAIA Endowed Professor of Health Facilities Design.
A master plan for the multi-use development, created in fall 2013 by three Texas A&M landscape architecture students directed by Chanam Lee, associate professor of landscape architecture and presented to investors last February, also includes a medical school and research institute, conference center, buildings for office and residential use, an elementary school and an artisan village.
In 2014,Texas A&M’s “The Big Event” went worldwide. Numerous public spaces in Europe received “facelifts” from College of Architecture students in three study abroad venues as a “thank you” to their host communities — mirroring the annual Big Event tradition in Bryan/College Station in which students perform volunteer community-beautifying tasks including cleaning, planting, painting and yardwork.
A total of 122 students in Barcelona, Spain; Bonn, Germany; and Castiglion Fiorentino, Italy muddied their boots, turned earth and wielded hammer, nails and other tools. “We are very proud of our College of Architecture students studying abroad this term who have transported the Aggie “Big Event” tradition around the world,” said Elton Abbott, assistant dean for international programs & initiatives. “It’s a great way to show the Aggie spirit to our global partners.”
“Planning for a new pediatric or neonatal ICU is daunting for most clinicians,” said Bob White, director of the Regional Newborn Program at Memorial Hospital in South Bend, Ind. “Few have prior experience, and the skills needed are far different from those they use on a regular basis,” Shepley’s book, he said, “fills this void in remarkable fashion.”
The Department of Architecture at Texas A&M University held the 3rd annual Celebration of Excellence on May 9, 2014 at the College Station Hilton. This event, a sequence of presentations and selections from the completing Master’s thesis projects, culminated as a whole-day jury with five student finalists presenting their thesis projects to the entire school. Awards were presented to top students and faculty of the year during the event.
Jeff Potter ‘78, former president, American Institute of Architects, member of the American Institute of Architects’ College of Fellows, and
Bijan Youssefzadeh, director of the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Arlington.
“These awards recognize not only our most promising students and their individual accomplishments, but also represent the level of excellence of all our students,” said Ward Wells, head of the Department of Architecture. “The recognition of students and faculty is truly a cause for a celebration of excellence.”
The event is a project of the department’s Council of Excellence, an elite group of department friends and former students committed to supporting and enhancing architecture program excellence, building relationships with students and bridging gaps between the academic and professional worlds.
Rodney Hill, a professor of architecture who has emphasized the importance of creativity, exploration and self discovery to his students since joining Texas A&M’s faculty 43 years ago, has been elevated to the American Institute of Architects’ College of Fellows, one of the highest honors the AIA bestows on its members.
Hill will be invested during a ceremony in May at the 2012 AIA convention in Washington, D.C. He’s an award-winning architect, an expert in environmental psychology and a futurist whose lessons prompt students to connect the dots and draw their own conclusions from emerging global conditions, innovations and imagined possibilities.
Throughout his career, Hill has garnered a universe of awards from state and national organizations as well as nearly every major teaching honor awarded by Texas A&M. His recent honors include a designation as one of the “25 Most Admired Educators” by the Design Futures Council (2012), the Texas A&M Presidential Professor for Teaching Excellence Award (2010), the Texas Society of Architects Award for Outstanding Educational Contributions in Honor of Edward J. Romieniec (2000), Texas A&M’s Eppright Professorship in Undergraduate Teaching Excellence (2005) and the David Tanner Champion of Creativity Award (2006) from the American Creativity Association.
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