The HCOA is committed to the themes of urban and community design, advanced fabrication
techniques, historic preservation, and healthcare. We connect our surroundings to
an increasingly globalized world and seek challenges where architecture can play a
role in the health and wellbeing of diverse populations.
We seek to define research and creative output as broadly as necessary to embrace
the entire field of architecture and wants to foster a presence in this region to
sharpen critical acumen, expand career prospects, and value the resources of West
Texas to support, leverage, and cultivate situated local knowledge within a matrix
of the land, culture, and history.
Architecture Design & Research Center
The Architecture Research & Design Center (ARDC) facilitates and coordinates research and design activities within the HCOA – follow
the link for further information.
The HCOA at El Paso maintains a research initiative POST (Project for Operative Spatial Technologies). In addition, the HCOA ARDC provides a venue for faculty initiatives and ongoing
research.
Urban Tech
An extension of our architecture program, Urban Tech is a place for students to think,
draw, design, model and create; a product of ideas and information in public exhibition
in the form of drawings and models and transportable information via digital media;
and a process of civic engagement and exploration. Urban Tech uses its downtown Lubbock
location for community outreach, raising awareness of the ways in which architecture
can address civic issues such as sustainability, resiliency, preservation, and revitalization
in the public realm.
Past initiatives include High Cotton, a homeless shelter facility; the Guadalupe-Parkway
Sommerville Centers playground; and downtown redevelopment project.
