Designing a Better City After Harvey

UH Architecture Students Resiliency Project on Display April 24

As communities across Houston continue to recover from Hurricane Harvey, students in the University of Houston Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design are developing innovative ways to help the city rebuild.

Their designs and models, which include storm shelters and information hubs, will be on display from 5-7 p.m., Tuesday, April 24 in an exhibit called “S M L XL XXL: A Scaled Approach to Transformation”. This semester, design studio students focused on exploring multiple scales of transformation across three parameters – preparing for, reacting to and recovering from a disaster.

Students gathered data, visited neighborhoods hit hard by Harvey and met with city leaders to discuss possible future mitigation and resiliency scenarios.  

“It’s been really great to see students so engaged with their community and wanting to know more about how the city works, how disaster recovery works and wanting to help others,” said Donna Kacmar, an architecture professor who is co-teaching the studio with Susan Rogers, director of the UH Community Design Resource Center.

WHAT: “S M L XL XXL: A Scaled Approach to Transformation”

WHO: UH Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design

WHEN: 5-7 p.m., Tuesday, April 24

WHERE: Mashburn Gallery at the UH Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design, 4200 Elgin St., Houston, TX 77204 Click here for map.