LAUP News & Events

New Hires
Dr. Cecilia Giusti obtained bachelors and professional degrees in economics from the Catholic University in Lima, Peru. She worked for several years as a researcher at the Economic Research Division at the Central Bank in Lima before pursuing an M.A. in Community and Regional Planning from the Institute of Social Studies in The Netherlands. Later, she obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin with a dissertation, “Urban Restructuring in Latin America: the Cases of Lima and Mexico City,” which examined links between models of economic development and the evolution of these mega-cities.

When Dr. Giusti came to A&M in 2002, she participated in research and community outreach projects at the Center for Housing and Urban Development. There she applied and successfully obtained a post-doctoral grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to conduct research on the contribution of micro-businesses to sustainable community development in colonias along the Texas border. She has been hired as an assistant professor and will teach courses in the planning and land development programs. Her areas of interest are economic development and planning, international development and land and tenure issues.

Dr. Shannon Van Zandt joined the LAUP faculty in fall 2005 as an assistant professor. She comes to Texas A&M from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was a senior research associate at the Center for Urban and Regional Studies, and adjunct professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning. She completed a doctorate at Chapel Hill in 2003 and also holds urban planning and environmental design degrees from Texas A&M.

Van Zandt’s research focuses on issues of housing and community development, particularly for disadvantaged populations. Her dissertation research, examining the impacts of homeownership on low-income households, received awards from both the Fannie Mae Foundation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Dr. Van Zandt’s recently funded research has examined efforts to revitalize severely distressed public housing, as well as the neighborhood characteristics of first-time, low-income homebuyers. Dr. Van Zandt has also consulted for the Research Institute for Housing America, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, and the Millennial Housing Commission’s Public Housing Task Force.

Mr. Pliny Fisk, hired as part of Texas A&M’s faculty reinvestment plan, joins the College of Architecture as a joint faculty member between the departments of Architecture and Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning.

As a co-director of the Center for Maximum Potential Building Fisk Systems in Austin, Mr. Fisk and the center have received national and international awards, including the American Solar Energy Society’s 2000 Passive Solar Pioneer Award and the U.S. Green Building Council’s first Sacred Tree Award, presented in 2002 for “significant contributions to the advancement and transformation of green buildings in the public sector.” Additionally, the center’s work was recognized in the Presidential Team Award for contributing to the plan for moving towns relocated by the Mississippi Flood. Also, the center worked with the city of Austin’s Green Building Program, providing initial conceptual work and framework development. The project earned the center an Exemplary Public Environmental Initiative Award at the1992 United Nations Earth Summit; the only award received at the event by a U.S. organization.

Mr. Fisk served as the Bruce Goff Chair for Creative Architecture at the University of Oklahoma, and was the Herrin Distinguished Fellow in the Department of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Planning at Mississippi State University. He has had research contracts totaling $2.5 million with corporations, private foundations, local, state and federal agencies including the departments of Energy and Housing and Urban Development, and the Environmental Protection Agency

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Harlow Landphair retires after 31 years at Texas A&M

Getting a taste of his approaching retirement after 31 years at Texas A&M, last April Harlow Landphair enjoys fishing with granddaughter, Kelsie. This spring there is a large blank spot on the floor of the Langford Building — the place where Harlow Landphair’s shadow was once cast. Harlow has retired from the Texas A&M University to “take his boat to the coast, and do some serious fishing.”

“I suppose it was inevitable, but no one believed that he would really do it,” said Michael Murphy, associate professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning and Harlow’s longtime colleague. “Or for that matter, that he could tear himself away from work long enough to enter into any long-term project that did not entail getting up and going to work at A&M every morning.”

For the past 31 years Harlow has spent his professional life changing the way landscape architecture is practiced. In 1974, Murphy recalled, Harlow “blew in like a strong north wind and never let up.” He came to A&M as an assistant professor with the intention of earning a doctorate in the process. At that time, the College of Architecture had one of the few doctoral programs in architecture. It was a professional degree, the doctor of environmental design, and Harlow was one of, if not the, first in landscape architecture to earn one. He used his studies to focus on the technical aspects of design practice and his textbook, “Landscape Architecture Construction,” was the outcome.

Harlow and the late Fred Klatt collaborated on the textbook, which combined Fred’s many years of practice experience with Harlow’s detailed research into construction theory. The text was an immediate success when it went into print in 1979. It has now gone through three revisions, the last one in 1999, and remains a standard text in both the United States and abroad. Over the last quarter century, every graduate of Texas A&M’s Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning has learned construction from Harlow’s textbook.

“As a consequence,” Murphy said, “our graduates have gained a reputation for having a strong background in construction technology. Since employers held the justifiable expectation that even recent graduates could get their ideas built, this has made for a relatively easy entry into the profession.”

Harlow’s infusion of strong construction technology into the curriculum has been one of the cornerstones of Texas A&M’s landscape architecture program. Technology was phased into the curriculum to provide students with the skill and theory to address the increasingly complex design requirements at successive stages throughout the design studio sequence.

“Over the years,” Murphy noted, “Harlow’s continued explorations in construction technology resulted in curriculum growth and expansion far beyond his early beginnings, making professional preparation at A&M one of the strongest in the nation in the area of
construction expertise.”

A few years after the initial publication of his textbook, Harlow began looking around for other challenges and, for a time, led the College of Architecture’s Center for Housing and Urban Development. Later he was named head of the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, shortly after 1991 when the two former departments were united into a single department. Most recently, he has served as senior research scientist and program manager at the Texas Transportation Institute, also located on the A&M campus.

“We may be able to fill Harlow’s shadow after he leaves, particularly since we have had so much practice standing in it,” Murphy said. “But we will never be able to fill his shoes. Many generations of Aggie landscape architects have benefited, even if sometimes reluctantly, from Harlow’s unwavering dedication to the highest standards of education and professional preparation. And, ”he continued, “the profession in Texas and beyond has benefited from his tireless contributions to the advancement of knowledge. Thanks for everything Harlow. Best wishes for your life off the campus. I hope the fishing is good.”

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Professor Jody Rosenblatt Naderi received the Association of Former Students’ Distinguished Achievement Award last November in recognition of her ability, personality and methods which have resulted in outstanding teaching.

Dr. Jon Rodiek was recognized for receiving highest teaching evaluations from undergraduate classes.