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Design/Build Studios

The Graduate Design/Build Studio designs and constructs for regional non-profit organizations site specific solutions to climate-influenced building problems.

Master of Architecture students are offered the opportunity to see their ideas evolve from initial conception to completed construction. The studio demonstrates the full-scale implications of the students’ aspirations and measures the quality of their design thinking against the rigorous standard of built reality.

Each project creates an opportunity for close and direct interaction with a client group, resulting in a more personal and immediate view of the architect’s impact on creating local community.


Mission of the Graduate Design-Build Studios

The UH Graduate Design-Build Studio designs and constructs for area non-profit organizations site-specific solutions to climate-influenced building problems. By offering Master of Architecture students the opportunity to see their ideas evolve from initial conception to completed construction, the studio demonstrates at full scale the implications of the students’ aspirations and measures the quality of their thinking against the rigorous standard of built reality.


Experiences of Key Individuals

Patrick Peters received a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Cincinnati in 1984 and a Masters of Architecture from Rice University in 1989. In 1990, he established, with Rafael Longoria, Longoria/Peters and subsequently earned numerous publications and design awards, among which is inclusion in the Progressive Architecture Young Architects issue of 1993. Also in 1993, the firm won the ACSA National Award for Design Excellence and, in 1997, the second place in El Portal: Los Dos Laredos, an international urban design competition. The same year the Graduate Design-Build Studio was awarded the ACSA National Award for the Integration of Technology for the design and construction of the Poe Elementary Mechanical Shade Tree.

Greg Bruegger earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston with a special focus on environmental sculpture. After graduation, Mr. Bruegger established a Houston sculpture and fabrication studio gaining a wide range of experience creating large-scale public sculptures in steel, stainless and other metals, including a number of commissioned public environmental art pieces. Mr. Bruegger’s work is held in the University of Houston public art collection at its Agnes Arnold Hall. He has also completed collaborations with other artists on public art installations such as with Tim Glover on the exterior tower and interior leaves at the UH Wellness Center, and with Paul Kittleson on the Buffalo Bayou Markers at I-45 downtown. In addition to his practice as a sculptor, over the last decade Mr. Bruegger earned experience working as a steel fabricator for clients and for architects, a practice that has made him an invaluable asset in his 8 years of working with Patrick Peters teaching steel fabrication to the first year graduate students of the UH Graduate Design-Build Studio. In his role as an adjunct faculty, he is an essential team member of the Graduate Design-Build Studio.

Tommy Joe has 38 years of fabrication experience from wood frame to heavy steel. His professional experiences range from restoration to new construction in both commercial and residential applications as both an individual craftsman and as a construction supervisor. With the opening of the Burdette Keeland, Jr. Design Exploration Center in 2007 he now supervises new initiatives in digital fabrication, taking advantage of his degree in Information Technology.