Building blocks

Gerald Hines donates $1 million to UH after its college kid architects stand toe to toe with best in world

While several hundred students, faculty and friends of the University of Houston Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture had gathered to get a look at the international award-winning project "Risky Habit(at)," dean Patricia Oliver had a surprise in store.

Gerald Hines, for whom the architecture college is named, has committed $1 million for the college's international programs. In announcing the gift, Oliver noted, "He was so impressed by the work of the students that he wanted to insure that students in the College of Architecture would have that (international) opportunity into the future."

Hines and UH System chancellor and president Renu Khator were among notables who had joined the college in Italy last June when their entry in the Venice Biennale won the prestigious Global Arts Affairs Foundation Prize. The UH students bested entries from 100 architects representing 40 countries and two Pritzker Prize winners.

"This project has proved to everybody that our students can stand shoulder to shoulder with the best architects in the world."

"This was a journey that was really special for the college because it got us to an international platform," noted professor Peter Zweig, who led the effort with professor Tom Colbert. "And I think by winning the first award in the world with Pritzker Prize winners and over 100 architects internationally, it really put the college on the map."

“Risky Habit(at]): Dynamic Living on Buffalo Bayou,” presents an overview of Buffalo Bayou and its relationship to the city, presenting solutions to the challenges faced by both the city and its waterways. In addition to models and story boards, the exhibition includes videos from the bow of a cargo ship as it traverses the Houston Ship Channel both day and night.

In her remarks to the gathering, Oliver said, "This project has proved to everybody that our students can stand shoulder to shoulder with the best architects in the world."

The attention the winning project has brought to the college has also led to the creation of a center for sustainability resilience, beginning in June, and it has opened the door for a future program in urban systems.

"There is a lot of building that has happened because of this project," Oliver said.

University of Houston College of Architecture professor Peter Zweig, left, and dean Patricia Oliver celebrate the "Risky Habitat" success.

News, UH College of Architecture, Venice Biennale reception, March 2015, Pete Zweig, Patricia Oliver

Photo by Shelby Hodge

University of Houston College of Architecture professor Peter Zweig, left, and dean Patricia Oliver celebrate the "Risky Habitat" success.

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Jobs report

Texas clocks in as No. 7 best state to find a job, new report says

Photo by The Jopwell Collection on Unsplash

It's easier to find a job in Texas than in nearly any other state.

If you’re hunting for a job in Texas amid a tough employment market, you stand a better chance of landing it here than you might in other states.

A new ranking by personal finance website WalletHub of the best states for jobs puts Texas at No. 7. The Lone Star State lands at No. 2 in the economic environment category and No. 18 in the job market category.

Massachusetts tops the list, and West Virginia appears at the bottom.

To determine the most attractive states for employment, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 34 key indicators of economic health and job market strength. Ranking factors included employment growth, median annual income, and average commute time.

“Living in one of the best states for jobs can provide stable conditions for the long term, helping you ride out the fluctuations that the economy will experience in the future,” WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo says.

In September, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Texas led the U.S. in job creation with the addition of 195,600 jobs over the past 12 months.

While Abbott proclaimed Texas is “America’s jobs leader,” the state’s level of job creation has recently slowed. In June, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas noted that the state’s year-to-date job growth rate had dipped to 1.8 percent, and that even slower job growth was expected in the second half of this year.

The August unemployment rate in Texas stood at 4.1 percent, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. Throughout 2025, the monthly rate in Texas has been either four percent or 4.1 percent.

By comparison, the U.S. unemployment rate in August was 4.3 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2025, the monthly rate for the U.S. has ranged from 4 percent to 4.3 percent.

Here’s a rundown of the August unemployment rates in Texas’ four biggest metro areas:

Austin — 3.9 percent
Dallas-Fort Worth — 4.4 percent
San Antonio — 4.4 percent
Houston — 5 percent

Unemployment rates have remained steady this year despite layoffs and hiring freezes driven by economic uncertainty. However, the number of U.S. workers who’ve been without a job for at least 27 weeks has risen by 385,000 this year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in August. That month, long-term unemployed workers accounted for about one-fourth of all unemployed workers.

An August survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York showed a record-low 44.9 percent of Americans were confident about finding a job if they lost their current one.

This story originally was published on our sister site, InnovationMap.

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