Office of External Communications

Houston, TX 77204-5017 Fax: 713.743.8199

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 18, 2006

Contact: Marisa Ramirez
713.743.8152 (office)
713.204.9798 (cell)
mrcannon@uh.edu

All in all, it’s more than another wall of brick. Students of the Conceptual Structural Systems class at the University of Houston Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture will be flaunting their masonry skills on Brick Day, an annual tradition in the college since 2000.

The event is planned from 10 a.m. to noon, Thursday, Sept. 21 on the grounds of the College of Architecture.

Twenty teams of graduate and undergraduate students will design and construct brick masonry wall panels
(4 feet by 2 feet) and compete for five awards: platinum, gold, silver, bronze and zinc. A panel of judges made of representatives from the masonry industry and faculty from the college will determine the winners.

“We do have fun at this event, but it’s also intended to give architecture students a chance to design and construct something using actual materials, tools and technology,” Robert Morris, instructor and architect, said.

The activity is sponsored by the Texas Masonry Council, which provides the tools and materials, and the Associated Masonry Contractors of Houston, which provides the volunteer brick mason instructors.

Since the UH College of Architecture began the event in 2000, other Texas architecture schools and colleges have incorporated similar activities into architecture curricula.

For more information on the UH Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture, please visit www.arch.uh.edu/home/index.html.

For more information about UH visit the university’s ‘Newsroom’ at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.