Former HUD Sec. Cisneros To Join Texas A&M Architecture 50th Anniversary Celebration

The Texas A&M College of Architecture’s lineup of 50th anniversary festivities includes “Celebration of Learning: Reimagining the Future,” a daylong event Friday, Nov. 15 featuring presentations by beloved current and retired college faculty that cover the past, present and future of the college’s disciplines.

The event will also feature a keynote address by Distinguished Alumnus Henry Cisneros, who earned a Master of Urban Planning from Texas A&M  in 1968 and went on to serve as the mayor of San Antonio from 1981-1989 and as U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 1993-1997.

The Celebration of Learning follows a Nov. 14 banquet honoring this year’s group of Outstanding Alumni and precedes a Nov. 16 tailgate three hours before the Texas A&M vs. South Carolina game at Kyle Field.

The Nov. 15 Celebration of Learning’s 12:45 p.m. keynote will feature Cisneros, who is the founding chairman of CityView, an organization that works to revitalize inner-city neighborhoods in major metropolitan areas, and chairman of American Triple I, an infrastructure investment firm.

A past member of the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents and a past president of Univision Communications, Cisneros received the Outstanding Alumnus Award from the College of Architecture. As a student, he was combined commander of the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band.

In addition to Cisneros’ keynote, the college’s disciplines will be featured in concurrent “Master Teacher” morning sessions led by some of the college’s leading faculty past and present, including professors Rodney Hill and George Mann, professors emeritus Michael Murphy, Bob Segner, David Woodcock, and longtime former visualization faculty member Donald House.

In the afternoon, college faculty will discuss critical and emerging topics in panel sessions about sustainability, historic preservation, transportation, natural hazards and resiliency, 3-D printing, robots/drones and more.

The day will conclude with a 5-6:30 p.m. reception.