Perspectives

Spring 2007
With national media attention focused on the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, the Texas victims of Hurricane Rita were often overlooked. Although cities and towns in East Texas did not suffer the same level of damage as New Orleans, many crucial community facilities were damaged beyond cost-effective repair. Such was the case for Magnolia Gardens, a 50-year old Beaumont Housing Authority community. The already aging facility suffered extensive damage from Rita, including trees crashing into the communitys townhouses and widespread roof damage. Realizing the need for extensive renovations, BHA sought funding to completely rebuild the Magnolia Gardens facility to the modern standards outlined in the Department of Housing and Urban Developments Hope VI grant program. To assist with their funding application, the BHA called upon the graduate students in Texas A&M Universitys LAND 621 class to develop revised site plans and suggest building styles. The students 10 highly varied final solutions proposed alternative types of multifamily housing, diverse image concepts, and different site planning approaches. The proposed site plans ranged from centralized courtyards that created clearly defined semi-private areas for residents in the sur-

Newsletter for the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning

MLA students redesign Beaumont public housing site

Cleveland Como, above left, Beaumont Housing Authority planning director, discusses his ideas about the revitalization of the Magnolia Gardens public housing project with LAND 621 students. Below: A perspective view of an ideal residence as conceived and drawn by one of the young residents of the Magnolia Gardens community.

rounding buildings, to New Urbanist-inspired compact solutions, and solutions stressing such sustainable development approaches as use of bioswales landscape elements designed to remove silt and pollution from surface runoff water. The class project presentation, held in n See Beaumont, Page 3

Junior LAUP faculty visit federal funding agencies

Led by Dr. Dennis Wegner, last May faculty from the DeLed by Dr. Dennis Wegner, last May and October faculty from the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning visited several federal agencies in Washington D.C. The two-day trip was department head Forster Ndubisis latest initiative to jumpstart junior faculty research. The eight faculty making the trip were Dr. Eric Dumbaugh, Dr. Cecilia Giusti, Dr. Dawn Jourdan, Dr. Chanam Lee, Dr. Ming-Han Li, Dr. Jesse Saginor, Dr. Kimberly Winson-Geideman, Dr. Shannon Van Zandt. They visited National Science Foundation, NASA, EPA, USDA, Department of Homeland Security, National Park Service and so on. Participants agreed that the trip was inspiring and extremely beneficial to their career development.

LAUP faculty Ming-Han Li, Chanam Lee, Kimberly Winson-Geideman, Dennis Wenger and Shannon Van Zandt pause for a group picture at the National Science Foundation in Washington D.C. in May 06.

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community outreach

Team assesses affordable housing needs

Center for Housing and Urban Development team eyes rural Brazos Valley housing market
A team of researchers from the College of Architectures Center for Housing and Urban Development (CHUD) recently spent several spring Fridays driving around the Brazos Valley countryside, picking the brains of local officials about how and where to build quality, affordable homes for families barely earning a living wage. Hired by the Brazos Valley Affordable Housing Corporation (BVAHC), the team of Drs. Cecilia Giusti, Dawn Jourdan and Shannon Van Zandt, along with June Martin, CHUD assistant director, was charged with assessing need and demand for high-quality, low-cost housing in the rural communities of the seven counties that make up the Brazos Valley. The BVAHC builds 3-bedroom, 2-bath single-family homes using prison and youth labor to keep costs low. The BVAHC can construct these 1250- to 1450-square foot homes for around $85,000, about half of the typical cost of a new home in the area. In addition, the BVAHC offers low-interest loans and down payment assistance to income-qualified buyers, and provides no-interest home rehab loans to existing homeowners. Students from Dr. Van Zandts planning methods course conducted much of the secondary data collection and preliminary analysis, which included forecasts for the number of housing units that will be needed in each of the seven counties over the next 10 years. In addition to analyzing the secondary data, the team solicited community input through focus groups and phone interviews with local residents in each of the seven counties to learn about their preferences for housing types and amenities, as well as locations where they would or would not like to live. While most residents considered $85,000 is a reasonable home price, the cost was too high for many. The project highlighted the differences between providing affordable housing in urban versus rural areas. Among the studys most surprising findings was the lack of diversity in housing type. In most counties, single-family homes make up more than 65 percent of the housing stock, with a high level of manufactured homes up to 30 percent in some counties, and very little multi-family housing available. Very few housing options exist in this

A&M team presents plans, strategies for transforming Key West community in the wake of a destructive hurricane
Texas A&Ms College of Architecture to share the latest thinking for empowering communities in the aftermath of a major hurricane. The LAND 321 students, led by professor Jody Naderi, presented a post-disaster plan for Key West that entailed the speedy transformation of pre-defined relief areas into small and large livable communities with amenities addressing the entire spectrum of post-disaster needs physical, as well as emotional. Their plans call for portable, offthe-grid housing, surge healthcare centers to alleviate potentially overwhelmed or inoperative hospitals, communication and infrastructure hubs, and even shaded pop-up parks, supervised playground facilities and planned activities for children and families components which can be quickly set up and operable in the wake of a devastating event. A poster exhibit showcasing the A&M teams post-disaster solutions Student proposal for temporary relief staging site in Key West. for the Key West community was disPreparing for the inevitable, citizens and community leaders of Key West, Fla., took a progressive look at innovative hurricane preparedness and post-hurricane recovery options developed by faculty and students at Texas A&M University during a special two-day summit held July 20-21 at Key West High School. The city invited a team of architects, landscape architects, urban planners, disaster mitigation specialists and students from

Key West site for proposed Village of Renewal.

played at the summit, and a book highlighting summit proceedings was prepared and distributed to participants after the event. What makes Key West unique, said Rosenblatt Naderi, who is a native of the Florida Keys, is a cultural attitude that favors riding out a storm over evacuating. Research shows that many coastal cultures view hurricanes as both a creative and destructive force. Our post-disaster strategy n See Key West Summit, Page 4

Beaumont
n Continued from Page 1 Beaumont, attracted a large audience including staff, grant writing consultants, city planners, Magnolia Gardens residents and other local stakeholders, and Beaumont Mayor Guy N. Goodson. The students plans were extremely well received and sparked effective discussions among participants about their wants and expectations. The student work will be used as part of a local information program, as well as for preparing grant applications. The Magnolia Gardens Redevelopment project was the first of what is anticipated to be many future projects in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Plannings Partnership for Community Outreach program. Projects like this demonstrate to the public that landscape architecture is about

LAUP faculty Dawn Jourdan, June Martin and Cecilia Giusti, top photo, discuss affordable housing under construction in Navasota with Paul Turney and Ben Fortner of the Brazos Valley Affordable Housing Corporation. The Center for Housing and Urban Development research team found that rural families opt to rent or buy manufactured homes or older homes with lots of structural problems, rather than renting an apartment or buying a smaller home.

area for lower-income families, said Van Zandt. Rather than renting an apartment or buying something smaller, like a townhome, rural families opt to rent or buy manufactured homes or older homes with lots of structural problems. These homes may seem like attractive options with prices in the $30-50,000 range, but unlike higher-quality, stick-built homes, the study concluded, they rarely appreciate

in value, may not be energy efficient and often require extensive cash outlays to maintain. In addition to helping the BVAHC to locate their current product, part of the teams task was to identify alternatives and policy changes that can help the BVAHC expand the available product so the agency it can assist more families in finding their way to homeownership.

MLA student Jin-Young Kims view of a colorful residential courtyard in her redesign of Magnolia Gardens.

a lot more than flowers and pretty places it addresses the quality of life for all people,

said professor Nancy Volkman, who led the class with graduate assistant Jun Hyun Kim.

Perspectives: Spring 2007 Newsletter for the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning

College of Architecture Texas A&M University Perspectives: Spring 2007

community outreach

Ndubisi
n Continued from back page
scholarship was awarded during the 200506 academic year. Similarly, the Texas Chapter of the American Planning Association established two scholarships for students in our urban planning program. The Land Development Industry Council, established last year, has provided a number of scholarships for our MSLD students. This list is not exhaustive. I am particularly pleased to announce that the department has received its first two endowed professorships the Harold Adams 61 Endowed Interdisciplinary Professorship in Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning and the Mitchell Endowed Professorship in Land Development. A third professorship, the Mitchell Endowed Professorship in Residential Design will soon be awarded to a design faculty member with an interest in residential design from either the Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning or Architecture departments. A faculty member from one of the College of Architectures three departments will fill yet another new professorship the Mitchell Master Builder Endowed Chair, endowed at $1 million. Please join me in thanking Tom Regan, dean of the College of Architecture, and Larry Zuber, senior director of development, for working with the department to accomplish these initiatives. I continue to be proud of the LAUP faculty who make us very competitive in advancing the Texas A&M Universitys research and scholarly mission. In 2004, a faculty member received a $4.5 million grant from the National Institute of Health, which will be funded over a five-year period. In 2005,

the faculty received a total of $2,879,500 in funded grants and contracts. As of this writing in 2006, the department has received approximately $1,900,000 in funded research and grants including a $750,000 National Science Foundation grant, an $850,000 five-year National Oceanographic and Atmospheric and Agency grant, and most recently, an $112,000 grant from the National Park Service. We are still awaiting the outcomes of many grants and contracts submitted to funding agencies for approval. The department has been extremely competitive nationally and internationally in attracting competitive funded research. I am pleased to announce that Dr. Lindell was elected by an international committee to be the Editor-In-Chief of the key journal in disaster research the International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Hazards. This makes the fifth journal for which LAUP faculty members serve either editor, coeditor or associate editor. The journals are Landscape and Urban Planning (Dr. Jon Rodiek), Journal of Architectural Planning and Research (Dr. Andrew Siedel), ARRIS--Journal of the Southeastern Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians (co-editor, Professor Nancy Volkman); and Natural Hazards Review (associate editor, Dr. Walt Peacock). These numbers are very impressive. As I noted in the last newsletter, I reemphasize that great universities take immense pride in the quality of their academic programs, curricula, faculty and students, as well as in building effective partnerships with internal and external constituents. As we keep focused on implementing our strategic and curriculum initiatives and priorities, I am confident that we are positioned to move toward a path of sustained excellence for all our programs.

MUP initiates e-mail list

All former Master of Urban Planning students are encouraged to subscribe to the new MUP e-mail list. The list is meant to strengthen the ties among former students, practitioners, scholars and those involved in the MUP program. The MUP e-mail list may be used to contact long-lost classmates, post news and to keep in touch with activities related to the MUP program, the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning and the College of Architecture. For example, every year the department sponsors several receptions at conferences. These events provide great opportunities to visit with the faculty and students, renew old acquaintances, and make new ones. The list is also used to post job opportunities a service that has proven useful to former students. The list cannot be used for solicitation or spam in any form. To join the e-mail list, send an email to ebright@tamu.edu with your full name, preferred e-mail address, phone number, mailing address and year of graduation.

Urban and Regional Planning Ph.D. students Sudha Arlikatti and Himanshu Grover interview tsunami survivors in an Indian coastal village that was seriously damaged by the disaster as part of the HRRC teams social vunerability mapping project.

Sudha Arlikatti, left, and Carla Prater, far right, discussed tsunami recovery efforts with Abdul Rahoff, center front, police superintendent for Nagapatinam, and K.S. Yegneswaran, a chief government engineer.

HRRC team maps social vulnerability of tsunami-ravaged Indian communities

In the wake of the devastating December 26, 2004 tsunamis that ravaged the coastal communities on the Indian Ocean, research scientists from the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center (HRRC) at Texas A&M Universitys College of Architecture traveled to the hard-hit district of Tamil Nadu, on the southeastern coast of India, to assess regional response to the disaster and develop a social vulnerability profile, or map, that could ultimately assist disaster response initiatives throughout the world. A social vulnerability map utilizes Geographic Information System (GIS) technology to merge geographical and government census data with information gathered through field observation and surveys, to relate the social characteristics of the target built environment, explained urban planning professor Walter Gillis Peacock, director of the HRRC and a member of the tsunami team. What we do, especially in planning, is look at the nature of the social systems that are also operating in those environments and what consequence that has for making communities more sustainable. The tsunami, which killed an estimated 6,665 people in the study area and as many as 229,866 worldwide, presented the HRRC scientists with an opportunity to validate disaster research theories developed in the United States, in a completely different political, economic and social system. n For more details, read the story online:
http://archone.tamu.edu/college/news/newsletters/fall2006/tsunami.html.

Children in Chandrapadi, India encountered by the HRRC research team during their field work in Nagapatinam.

population with its disaster resilience. A lot of what we do here in the college is focused on the broader perspectives of the

Key West Summit

n Continued from previous page
takes advantage of this concept by focusing on community recovery, and even individual healing, as a transformative experience that can be supported by recovery sites designed to encourage this renewal process. Among the problems addressed by Naderis design studio, was developing a strategy to avoid the mishaps that occurred in the aftermath of Wilma a Category 2 hurricane that brushed Key West late last Octo-

ber, causing considerable wind damage and widespread flooding. There were no appropriate community sites then for staging relief efforts, recalled Ty Symroski, then city planner for Key West, just hot and shade-less lines for everything from water to insurance information. The federal recovery support [workers] shuttled everyone through a system designed to give out FEMA information and survival supplies, but [the effort] was not designed to handle our needs with dignity or to consider that our recovery might require places to come together as a community.

Working with Symroski, the Texas A&M landscape architecture students developed plans for directing relief trucks, workers and the initial flood of disaster response personnel to 27 pre-defined staging areas, such as schools, parking lots and municipal buildings, which would be prepared to contend with the many facets of disaster relief. We knew if a hurricane hit, people would all have to live cut off from the mainland for up to a month or longer, said Travis Hawkins, a senior landscape architecture student whose work on the project entailed a great deal of research into the history,

geography and culture of the Florida Keys, which are exclusively attached to the mainland by U.S. Highway 1. That meant food, materials, water and communications all had to be provided for on site or imported via water and air. The project also detailed the possible conversion of the 37-acre Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park into a Village of Renewal, which could be a temporary home for up to 5,000 displaced residents. That plan examined everything from portable housing, to the use of a nuclear submarine to generate energy for the temporary community.

Other Texas A&M faculty working with the students, included Pliny Fisk, an architecture professor and director of the Center for Maximum Building Potential, who focused on portable housing solutions and issues of sustainability; Carla Prater, associate director of Texas A&Ms Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center, who directed disaster planning and mitigation initiatives; and Nancy Volkman, a professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning. Key West community leaders who participated in the summit included the mayor,

city council members, the chamber of commerce, local architects and urban planners, representatives from the local electric and water authorities, and even members of the Key West arts community. If people know what is going on, they will be more likely to participate in the preparation and recovery efforts, said Donna Flowers, an assistant to the mayor and member of the committee that is organizing the summit. We joke about partying during the hurricane because none of us leave, but we also need to understand that no one will help us more than we can help ourselves.

Perspectives: Spring 2007 Newsletter for the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning

College of Architecture Texas A&M University Perspectives: Spring 2007

people

Former students earn multiple Texas ASLA awards

Texas A&M Universitys landscape architecture program was in the limelight at the March 2006 Texas State ALSA Conference, with many former students receiving awards for their professional work. The Kay Tiller Chapter Service Award went to the ASLA Chapter Web Site Committee comprised of Aggies Brent Baker, Randy Phillips and Janna Tidwell, along with four other committee members. TBG Partners, represented by former student Mark Meyer, received a Merit Award for Cisco Systems Richardson Development Center in Richardson,Texas. Also, former student Shane Garthof represented the firm when it received an award for the Dallas Design District. A Merit Awards was presented to the Office of James Burnett, represented by former student Michelle McCluskey, for its design of a 9-11 Reflection Garden in Houston, Texas. HNTB, represented by Aggie David Beyer, received a Merit Award for its work on the San Antonio River Basin Plan for NatureBased Park Resources. Another Merit Award went to HNTB, rep-

Russel Thommon, recipient of the two-year Samuel E. Garrett Jr. Endowed Memorial Scholarship, with Jon Rodiek, left, and Forster Ndubisi.

Anna Baldassare, center, recipient of the Michael D. Murphy Endowed Scholarship, with George W. Seagraves, the scholarship donor, left, and Michael D. Murphy.

Michelle Audenaert, center, recipient of the Dr. Katherine F. Turnbull Scholarship, with Elise Bright, left, and Dr. Katherine F. Turnbull.

The recipients of the Department Head Prize, from the left, Jason Hayes, Forster Ndubisi, Kevin Gifford, Himanshu Grover, Valerie Brandon, and Kitipat Supasirisin.

Annual awards program recognizes outstanding students

Scholarships and other awards valued at more than $10,000 were presented last April at the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Plannings annual awards banquet. BLA and MLA Scholarships Gene Schrickel Jr. 50 Endowed Scholarship in Landscape Architecture } Anthony Forshage } Sheena Arora } Russell Thomman } Jonathan West Dr. Katherine F. Turnbull Scholarship } Michelle Audenaert MSLD Scholarships MSLD Gibson Scholarship } David Guiness URSC Scholarships Wolfgang Roeseler Scholarship in Urban and Regional Science } Sarah Bernhardt Jesus Hinojosa Endowed Scholarship } Miriam Olivares The Honor Roll Award } Lindsay Landers BLA } Gail Kutac BLA } Bethany Hopkins BLA } Travis Peiffer MLA } Bret Elder MLA } Amrit Singh MSLD } Hohyun Jang MSLD } Tony Topping MUP } Kristina Harpst - MUP } Yang Zhang URSC } Zhenghong Tang URSC } Miriam Olivarez - URSC The Honorable Mention Award } Ryan Petree BLA Third-Pary Awards The Park People Annual Award } Bo Yang Park People is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the importance of parks and green space and to providing advocacy and services for the preservation, enhancement, and expansion of parks in our community. U.S. EPA Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Fellowship } Wes Highfield First place: Texas A&M Student Research Week 2005 and the Texas A&M University Systems Pathways to the Doctorate Symposium } Miriam Olivares } Praveen Maghelal The project dealt with developing risk management strategies for sex-related crimes also received local and national recognition. Doug Wunnerburger was their advisor in the project. Faculty Achievements Association of Former Students Distinguished Achievement Award in Teaching } Jon Rodiek This award recognizes, encourages, and rewards superior classroom teachers individuals whose command of their respective discipline, teaching methodologies, pervasive caring and communication skills and commitment to the learning process exemplify the meaning of teacher/mentor in its highest sense. Tenure } Sam Brody, associate professor Elected president-elect of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) } Chris Ellis Elected Regional Director of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture CELA and to the TAMU Faculty Senate. } Nancy Volkman

LAUP department head Forster Ndubisi, left, welcomes ASLA conference attendees to the Texas A&M alumni reception.

resented by former student Ryan Bricker, for its Accelerate I-465 Design Guidelines in Indianapolis, Ind. Heather Venhouse accompanied by Mark Simmons of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center also received a Merit Award for Solutions for Sustainable Revegetation: Repairing Disturbed Sites Without Ecological Risk. Other awards for projects with heavy Aggie involvement included the Honor

Award given tothe SWA Group Houston, which was represented by Pei-Wen Yu. The award honored the firms Luohu Landport and Train Station in Shenzhen, China. Aggie Mark Meyer received the Award of Excellence for TBG Partners Dallas for its Heartland Trails project in Crandall, Texas. An award was also received by SWA Group Houston, represented by former student Erin Cannon, for its plan of Cyfair College in Cypress, Texas.

Samuel E. Garrett Jr. Endowed Departmental and College Scholarships and Awards Memorial Scholarship } Russell Thomman Colonel James E. Ray 63 Endowed Scholarship Robert F. & Florence H. White } Bret Elder Endowed Scholarship in Landscape Architecture R. Joseph Reeves Endowed } Jason Hayes Memorial Scholarship Antonio F. Sarabando Jr. Spirit of Place Award } Gail Kutac } Bethany Hopkins Michael D. Murphy Endowed Scholarship } Anna Baldassare TBG/Robert E. Castro Memorial Scholarship } Jason Hayes ASLA Texas Chapter Maurice Phillips Scholarship } Lindsey Landers MUP Scholarships David Pugh Scholarship } Catherine Martin } Shan Gao Center of Heritage Conservation Fellows Scholarship } Michelle Audenaert Department Head Awards recognizing outstanding undergraduate and graduate students for academic excellence and exemplary leadership qualities: } Rebecca Krug BLA } Jason Hayes BLA } Valerie Brandon - MLA } Himanshu Grover MUP } Kevin Gifford MUP } Kitipat Supasirisin MSLD

Accreditation team visits, reviews MUP program

The Master of Urban Planning program at Texas A&M University was fully accredited for next five years at the November 2006 meeting of the Planning Accreditation Board (PBA). In March 2006 the program had hosted three distinguished PBA site visitors: Carol Rhea, a well-known planner from the southeastern United States, Paul Zwick, professor and chair in the University of Floridas planning program, and Carl Goldschmidt, FAICP, the founder of the accreditation process for planning schools. Based upon their findings during a whirlwind visit to the department, college and university, summary recommendations were made to the board, which then officially acted upon them. The board congratulated the department and Dr. Elise Bright, the program coordinator, on a very successful reaccreditation.

Department initiates report card

Department Head Forster Ndubisi has initiated an annual departmental report card that is intended to identify the concrete achievements made during an academic year in working toward seven strategic directions identified for the department: Offer the best learning experience Strengthen academic program quality and delivery Lead in the creation and dissemination of knowledge Lead in the integration and application of knowledge Reward productivity and achievements Provide a supportive climate through communication and shared governance Build and sustain partnerships During the 2005-2006 academic year major accomplishments occurred in all of these areas. Here are a few highlights: The Ph.D. program in urban and regional science revised their core course requirements and submitted them to the university for approval. The MLA program revised its critical summer course offerings and produced new promotional materials including brochure. The MSLD program, now with new faculty members, enhanced its curriculum with new course offerings and also recruited five adjunct faculty from the land development industry. The MUP program successfully prepared for its March accreditation visit and completed a comprehensive curriculum review. Department-wide, new faculty have been added, work continues on a new Bachelor of Science in Urban and Regional Science program, a required student computer program was introduced, and the Partnership for Community Outreach has completed its first project, the redesign and planning of a public housing site in Beaumont (see related article on page one). Research continues to be an vital aspect of departmental operations. For 2006, more than $1.7 million in grants were awarded to faculty and in 2005 almost $3 million was awarded. Grant applications for $9 million are currently pending. Much of both the funded and pending research is related to hazard mitigation and the creation of healthy, walkable cities.

Perspectives: Spring 2007 Newsletter for the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning

College of Architecture Texas A&M University Perspectives: Spring 2007

faculty publish research results

n Retail Land Use, Neighborhood Satisfaction, and the Urban Forest: An investigation into the moderating and mediating effects of trees
by Christopher C. Ellis, S. Lee, and Byoung-Suk Kweon. Published in Landscape and Urban Planning, 2006 The authors studied the relationship between retail land use and neighborhood satisfaction along with the moderating and mediating effects of trees and shrubs. Neighborhood satisfaction has been related to a number of environmental factors including land uses; however, no other research has reported the potential moderating and mediating effects of trees on these relationships. This study included residents living in single-family housing located in typical suburban-type subdivisions with adjacent
Residences with few trees.

Residences with many trees.

commercial strip development. Mail-in survey responses were geo-referenced to land parcel centroids in a GIS-based analysis, and compared to the amount of retail land use

and tree and shrub cover existing within 1500 feet. Results indicated that the amount of tree and shrub cover within a 1500 foot radius of single-family households significantly moderates and mediates the negative relationship between the amount of nearby retail land use and neighborhood satisfaction. These results have important implications for urban planners and landscape architects. Specifically, the findings suggest that communities should increase provisions for protecting and establishing trees and shrubs in neighborhoods near retail land uses.

n Planning the City Without Plans

by Michael Neuman Published in Agora, 2005 In Texas, many towns and one large city, Houston, do not have general plans or comprehensive zoning. Many other Texas municipalities have only recently adopted plans and zoning. Yet Texas is full of wonderful older towns and cities, many of them county seats that were laid out and developed without a statutory comprehensive plan. After spending time enjoying Houston, preparing plans for several Texas localities, and studying others, the author asked the provocative questiondoes planning really need the plan? This is an important contemporary question, given the amount of time and money devoted to developing city plans. Smart growth, new urbanism, privatization, partnerships, conflict resolution, and other growth management approaches are attracting interest from American and overseas experts. In the past, these experts may have focused on New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. Today, they are looking to Houston, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and even Las Vegas as harbingers of the future. In England, where national planning is closely linked to local planning, the Blair administration is currently undertaking to re-

n Learning from Streambank Failures at Bridge Crossings: A Biotechnical Streambank Stabilization Project in Warm Regions
By Ming-Han Li Published in Landscape and Urban Planning, 2006 In a biotechnical streambank stabilization project, Dr. Ming-Han Li visited and assessed 22 bridge and stream crossings in the east half of Texas. Numerous streambank failures were observed and documented. A primary problem noted was the treatment of the edge between the built and natural environments. Failure sites almost always have rigid treatments such as concrete armor on the boundary between the bridge structure and the stream. Such a fixed, ridge treatment could not allow for any self-adjustment of stream dimension or profile, which in turn resulted in failures on the bridge structures, including piers and abutments. Biotechnical engineering offers an alternative to treat the edge between built and natural environments and provides a buffer to absorb erosive forces from the flow onto built structures. While these techniques are often used in the cooler areas of the United States, there are significant challenges to the application of this technology in warm regions, specifically in the Plant Hardiness

Streambank stabilization project at Hutchins, Texas designed by Ming-Han Li.

vamp the entire system. According to Robert Upton, Secretary General of the Royal Town Planning Institute and advisor to the cabinet, Houstons approach is of interest to the British as they seek a proper role for government in urban development. Seen from the air or from the street, Houston seems like any other large North American city, ringed by successive beltways, with a dense high-rise center dominated by offices and an outlying low-rise residential area. If Houstons city pattern is not so different from that of other U.S. cities, can we say that it matters whether a large city has a plan, or whether it controls land use by means of an overall zoning code? Even to ask these questions is to suggest that Houston may be the nations most important bellwether of American urbanism and governance. Neuman examined these and other challenging planning questions. As Houston gets bigger, more complex, more diverse, more polluted, and more congested, can it solve its problems and create a better city by relying on its current tools? Or will it need a plan, maybe with comprehensive zoning? Or will it continue to blaze a new trail, one studded with planning innovations that reverberate worldwide? If Houston is a planning pioneer, how can it help us forge the new urban form?

n Learning from Lao Tzu: Daoism and Sustainability

by Nancy J. Volkman Published in Landscape Review, 2005 Many scholars and practitioners have observed that the concept of sustainability, as a process of human interaction with the natural world, requires a radical paradigmatic change in worldview. This is particularly true in so called Western thought, which has historically had a mechanistic, tayloristic view of the relationship between people and their world, be it cultural or natural. This paper proposed that we must look beyond traditional European philosophies to search for a paradigm sufficiently revolutionary to allow the achievement of real sustainability. Such a dramatic change is necessary as it is largely these European philosophies that have produced the problem solving, expediency-based, and short-term economicgain outlooks that make sustainability, in the holistic sense, impossible in the modern world. The essay takes the position that one philosophical system that offers a high possibility of providing the needed shift in thought necessary can be found in the philosophy of Daoism (Taoism). Daoism has ancient origins in the animistic religions of China, but this essay focused upon its formal origins in the 6th century B. C. E., when the philosopher Lao Tzu recorded his observations in the Tao Te Ching. Daoism offers a theory of human/environment interaction that is itself nature- and natural process-based. Daoist philosophy also offers other benefits in the discussion about sustainable goals and outcomes. Since it starts with natural process, or natural law, as the basis for its aphorisms, there is a direct link to ecological sustainability. It looks upon people and their cultural systems as part of the environmental whole, which is also necessary to achieve true sustainable development.

n Social Vulnerability Mapping and GIS in Tsunami Impact Analysis

by Carla Prater, Walter G. Peacock, Michael K. Lindell, Raghavan Srinivasan, Robert T. Snelgrove, Himanshu Grover and Sudha Arlikatti Published in Earthquake Specta The Hazard Reduction & Recovery Center and the Spatial Sciences Laboratory at Texas A&M University conducted interviews with local government officials and others in southern India to assess community capacity and emergency response to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The results of the teams field research shows that the district government did have an emergency plan in place, but it was modeled on a neighboring districts plan, which focused almost exclusively on floods and drought relief, rather than earthquake-related events. The local governmental actual response, therefore, was dominated by skilled improvisation, assisted by state, union and private-sector resources. In addition, non

Brushlayers, above, became well vegetated one year after construction, right.

Rubble remains in the tsunamis aftermath in the coastal town of Chennai in southeast India.

Zones 8, 9 and 10, as defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This is primarily because short dormant periods in warm regions restrict the construction periods for implementing the live cutting technique, an important method in biotechnical engineering. This paper describes a streambank stabilization project implemented in Texas,

where Dr. Li assessed and analyzed streambank failure causes at bridge crossings in warm regions, and addressed warm region construction issues encountered during the project. The paper further discusses the design process, implemented result, and monitoring of the built biotechnical streambank stabilization project.

governmental organization response was massive, and an attempt was made by the local government to organize and structure this voluntary response. Surveys of 1000 households were also distributed and when the results of this survey are analyzed they will be used to discover patterns in the ways social and economic factors contributed to variations in disaster impacts within the community.

Perspectives: Spring 2007 Newsletter for the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning

College of Architecture Texas A&M University Perspectives: Spring 2007

Honors, news and special events

A&M Master of Urban Planning program celebrates 40 years

About 50 students, faculty, former students and friends of the Master of Urban Planning program gathered at the Texas Chapter American Planning Association conference in Corpus Christi last November to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the MUP program at Texas A&M University. Attendees signed a sheet of birthday paper, sang Happy Birthday, and enjoyed birthday cake and balloons. The MUP program at Texas A&M, one of the oldest such programs in the United States, was founded by Professor Joe McGraw and led by such memorable professors as Don Sweeney, Chuy Hinojosa, Wolf Roeseler and David Pugh. The program played a leading role in the development of the Texas Chapter of the APA and the evolution of a planning ethic and profession in Texas. There are now more than 500 former students from the MUP program, and more than a dozen current faculty.

A tree falls at Santa Chiara

Study centers beloved Cedar of Lebanon dies of thrist; students redesign courtyard
There is sad news to report to those who have participated in the semester-away program at the Santa Chiara Study Center in Italy. The great Cedar of Lebanon that dominated the centers courtyard died during the summer of 2005. This magnificent tree, under which lots of socializing took place for many groups of Texas A&M students, apparently lost its major water source when the cistern beneath it cracked and no longer held water. Paulo and Sharon Barucchieri reported that the tree died very quickly after the cistern problem was discovered far too quickly for the cistern to be repaired before damage to the cedar was irreparable. Although the tree was in a difficult situation it, achieved a height of about 50 feet in the 50 or so years that it grew. A local man with expertise in working in tight spaces like the courtyard cut the tree down. Its segments were so large and the space so tight that it had to be removed by a large crane set on the street below the study center. Watching the large pieces of trunk being removed proved fascinating, professor Nancy Volkman observed, because of the skill required to maneuver them around the building and courtyard walls. The wood is going to be used in furniture making, so visitors to Castiglion Fiorentino might soon be able to buy a chair made from Santa Chiara wood. With the tree gone, the courtyard is a very different place, said Volkman. On the bright side, Paulo pointed out, the view to the valley below, once obscured by the tree, has been improved. Most, though, seem to miss the tree which made the courtyard. In response to this dramatic development, the study center sponsored a multi-school competition to redesign the courtyard without the cedar. The results varied from very traditional solutions, to those that included works of art, such as a faux tree executed in metal. Landscape architecture students later advanced the project, developing courtyard redesigns inspired by famous works of art. To date, due to limited funds, no additional changes have been made to the space; however, donations for courtyard renovations would be appreciated.

Assistant professor Ming-Han Li, center, accepts the Montague-CTE Scholarship from William Perry, Texas A&M vice provost, left, and David Prior, Texas A&M provost.

Landscape Architecture professor earns Montague-CTE scholarship

The Center for Teaching Excellence at Texas A&M University recently selected Ming-Han Li, assistant professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning and an assistant research engineer at the Texas Transportation Institute, as a 200607 Montague-CTE Scholar. The Montague-CTE Scholar program, named for founding donor Kenneth Montague 37, honors early-career excellence in undergraduate teaching at Texas A&M. The intent of the program is to recognize a tenure-track assistant professor in each college who has already demonstrated a commitment to, and potential for, excellence in undergraduate teaching. The program was initiated in 1991 to provide resources and services to faculty in order to contribute to the enhancement of teaching and learning at Texas A&M University. Each scholar receives a $5,000 grant to develop and conduct research about innovative teaching techniques, with results made available for use in the CTE faculty development programs. Li received a B.S. in Agricultural Engineering from the National Taiwan University, an M.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, and both MLA and Ph.D. degrees from Texas A&M University. He teaches major landscape architectural construction and design studios, as well as design and planning for stormwater management. His research focuses on soil erosion control, stormwater management, roadside vegetation management and landscape construction and technology. Li sees himself as a role model for students, a role in which responsibility and respect, both to himself and his students, is crucial. I believe that teaching and learning are two parts of a whole; both influence and help the other, said Li. Four dynamics enthusiasm, consideration, support, and responsibility are necessary to keep teaching and learning active, he continued. An effective design studio teacher must possess strong interpersonal skills to approach different students and lead them beyond their comfort zone where they can become unique and independent designers. Li said the joy of teaching is his biggest reward and that fun is a major component in his classrooms and studios. He plans to use the scholarship to enhance studio teaching and learning.

Sudha Arlikatti (above, left), a Ph.D. candidate, represented the Master of Urban Planning program at the Lone Star Diversity Fair. The MUP booth featured a variety of student projects from the past few years. Lisa Weston, visiting professor in Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, also handed out program materials and spoke to students from across Texas.

MUP program well-represented at the Lone Star Diversity Fair

The Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Plannings Master of Urban Planning program was well represented in the inaugural Lone Star Graduate Diversity Colloquium held at Texas A&M University. The objective of the program was to help students from minority populations that are typically under-represented in Texas higher education learn more about graduate school and graduate programs available to them in Texas. The event also featured faculty workshops focused on recruiting and retaining students from diverse backgrounds. Student participants attended workshops on a variety of topics, such as funding graduate school and identifying and comparing graduate programs. Faculty workshops included How Faculty Can Recruit Outstanding Graduate Students and Improving Retention of Minority Graduate Students. During the event, scholarships totaling more than $21,000 were randomly presented in $1,000 increments to 21 students attending the event.

The Cedar of Lebanon that once graced the courtyard of the Santa Chiara Study Center.

Florence White, wife of departments founder, laid to rest last October

Aggie landscape architects were saddened to learn of the death of Florence White, the wife of the Department of Landscape Architectures first department head, Robert F. White. Florence died on October 16, and a memorial service was held in Bryan later that month. Florence is fondly remembered by former students for her many contributions to the 1969 founding of Texas first independent landscape architecture department, and for her personal attention to students in the program. Florence was born in Pittsburgh in 1914. She and Bob married in 1939 and came to Texas after the World War II. Since Bobs death in 2003, Florence had resided in a

local extended care facility in Bryan and was frequently visited by faculty, former faculty and her survivors, son Hans Ross of Richardson, two grandchildren, as well as nieces and nephews. Until her health began to decline, she was a regular attendee at the departments spring awards banquet, where she handed out the annual Robert F. and Florence H. White Endowed Scholarship in Landscape Architecture. Former department head Don Austin remembered her as one of the most gracious women I have ever had the privilege of knowing and loving. She has been for almost 60 years a mom and grandmom to my children, quiet mentor and fabulous friend.

From the days of her caring for landscape architecture students (class of 52) to times when she and Bob shared Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family, our lives have been blessed and enriched. In recent years, Austin continued, Maria and I helped her adjust to retirement and finally nursing home living. Times were difficult but she never complained and always sought to cheer those around her. Florence did manage to keep up with life in this world and with those dear to her even commanded e-mail up until age 90. She is the last of an era. She is sorely missed.

10 Perspectives: Spring 2007 Newsletter for the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning

College of Architecture Texas A&M University Perspectives: Spring 2007 11

Whats inside

Page 1 MLA students redesign hurricane damaged public housing site

Page 2 CHUD team assesses affordable housing needs in Brazos Valley

Page 3 A&M team leads Key West post-hurricane preparedness summit

Page 5 Research team maps social vulnerability of tsunami-hit Indian coast

Page 10 Landscape professor, Li, recognized for excellence in teaching

Perspectives Newsletter
Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning
College of Architecture: http://archone.tamu.edu 979-845-1221 Dean: Thomas Regan 979-845-1222 reganjt@archone.tamu.edu Department Head: Forster Ndubisi 979-845-1019 fndubisi@archone.tamu.edu Dept. of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning 979-845-1019 LAUP Web site http://archweb.tamu.edu/laup/ Editor: Nancy Volkman 979-845-5041 nvolkman@archone.tamu.edu Co-Editor: Ming-Han Li 979-845-7571 minghan@tamu.edu Layout: Phillip Rollfing 979-458-0442 prollfing@archone.tamu.edu
Perspectives is an official publication of the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning in the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University. Correspondence should be directed to the editor.

Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning College of Architecture Texas A&M University 3137 TAMU College Station, TX 77843-3137 ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED

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LAUP gains endowed scholarships, professorships

It is my pleasure to welcome you to the new academic year. In the past issues of Perspectives, I addressed our teaching, service and outreach programs, as well as our strategic planning initiatives. In this issue, I will update you on those initiatives and elaborate on our research and creative scholarship programs. Fall 2006 we had approximately 310 full-time students in the department, representing a 10 percent increase from last years enrollment. We reached our enrollment cap for the Bachelor of Landscape Architecture program for the first time, with an undergraduate enrollment of 150, comprised of increasingly talented students. Many students graduated in the spring and summer semesters including nine students in our Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Science program. A significant majority of our professional program graduates were recruited by reputable private firms and public sector agencies in Texas and across the United States. We now have both strategic and cur-

Establishing endowed scholarships and professorships to attract and retain the best students and faculty is one of LAUPs major priorities.
Forster Ndubisi
Department Head

riculum plans for most of the departmental programs. The strategic plans establish each programs priorities and drive resource allocation. The curricula plans articulate a clearly defined mission and a strengthened curriculum for each program positioning us to effectively educate leaders who can make a difference in shaping the evolution of neighborhoods, cities and regions. In many instances, our efforts led to major curriculum changes, such as in the URSC program, which has not had a major curriculum revision since the 1980s. I thank students, faculty, and our Professional Ad-

visory Board members who participated in our strategic and curriculum initiatives. Please visit our new departmental Web site at http://archone.tamu.edu/laup/ for the latest changes. Establishing endowed scholarships and professorships to attract and retain the best students and faculty is one of LAUPs major priorities. Last year, the Texas Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects established an endowed student scholarship in landscape architecture. The first n See Ndubisi, Page 4

http://archone.tamu.edu/laup