UH Projects Earn Honors for Keeping Houston Beautiful

Academic, Institutional Initiatives Spotlighted by Mayor’s Proud Partner Awards

Created by UH students, Re/Cycle Hub earned the Outstanding Proud Partner Innovation Award.

Recently, the city of Houston celebrated the movers and shakers who do their part to make the metropolitan area a beautiful place to live and work. Among those leading the charge to beautify the Bayou City are members of the Cougar community.

The Mayor’s Proud Partner Awards – presented by Keep Houston Beautiful – were presented on Monday, and a number of University of Houston projects were recognized for enhancing the city’s landscape.

The University’s Design Build Collaborative (a partnership between UH’s Graphic Design program and the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture) received the Outstanding Proud Partner Innovation Award for Re/Cycle Hub. The project – led by architecture professor Patrick Peters and graphic design professor Cheryl Beckett – utilizes four adult-sized tricycles that transform into an activity center promoting practices (recycling, bicycling) that can help save our planet. It has been accessible to the public through local events such as the CounterCurrent Festival and Houston’s Earth Day Festival.

UH’s Facilities Services Department earned a Proud Partner Award for its Repurposing Program. The program finds new uses for University items that might be considered unusable. For example, the program found a new home for a vintage 1963 refrigerator that was no longer operational. Instead of being sent to the landfill, it is now part of the prop shop at UH’s School of Theatre & Dance. Likewise, the program contributed scrap paint to different arts programs including the School of Theatre & Dance (125 gallons) and the School of Art (268 gallons). The School of Art also received broken shelving unites and old floor gates to be used for sculptures. All of these items also would have found their way into local landfills instead of being put to use.

UH’s Graduate Design Build Studio (an initiative of the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture) received an Honorable Mention for TWOFOLD. The project is still under construction but will provide a steel shade pavilion at Houston’s Lockhart Elementary School. Ultimately, it will be used by students and members of the neighboring community.

The Mayor’s Proud Partner Awards are presented annually by Keep Houston Beautiful (KHB). Each year, UH projects have consistently been recognized for preserving the city’s beauty. In recent years, UH initiatives such as the Campus Community Garden, Bike Abatement Program and projects from UH’s Graduate Design Build Studio (including the Paul Revere Education Portal) have been honored by KHB.

For more details on Keep Houston Beautiful and the Mayor’s Proud Partner Awards, visit its website.