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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2026 jobs forecast

Houston's health care sector will drive job growth in 2026, report predicts

Photo by simonkr/Getty Images

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Buoyed by the growing health care sector, the Houston metro area will add 30,900 jobs in 2026, according to a new forecast from the Greater Houston Partnership.

The report predicts the Houston area’s health care sector will tack on 14,000 jobs next year, which would make it the No. 1 industry for local job growth. The 14,000 health care jobs would represent 45 percent of the projected 30,900 new jobs. In the job-creation column, the health care industry is followed by:

Construction: addition of 6,100 jobs in 2026
Public education: Addition of 5,800 jobs
Public administration: Addition of 5,000 jobs

At the opposite end of the regional workforce, the administrative support services sector is expected to lose 7,500 jobs in 2026, preceded by:

Manufacturing: Loss of 3,400 jobs
Oil-and-gas extraction: Loss of 3,200 jobs
Retail: Loss of 1,800 jobs

“While current employment growth has moderated, the outlook remains robust and Houston’s broader economic foundation remains strong,” GHP president and CEO Steve Kean said in the report.

“Global companies are choosing to invest in Houston — Eli Lilly, Foxconn, Inventec, and others — because they believe in our workforce and our long-term trajectory,” Kean added. “These commitments reinforce that Houston is a place where companies can scale and where our economy continues to demonstrate its resilience as a major engine for growth and opportunity. These commitments and current prospects we are working on give us confidence in the future growth of our economy.”

The Greater Houston Partnership says that while the 30,900-job forecast falls short of the region’s recent average of roughly 50,000 new jobs per year, it’s “broadly in line with the muted national outlook” for employment gains anticipated in 2026.

“Even so, Houston’s young, skilled workforce and strong pipeline of major new projects should help offset energy sector pressures and keep regional growth on pace with the nation,” the report adds.

The report says that even though the health care sector faces rising insurance costs, which might cause some people to delay or skip medical appointments, and federal changes in Medicare and Medicaid, strong demographic trends in the region will ensure health care remains “a key pillar of Houston’s economy.”

As for the local oil-and-gas extraction industry, the report says fluctuations and uncertainty in the global oil-and-gas market will weigh on the Houston sector in 2026. Furthermore, oil-and-gas layoffs partly “reflect a longer-term trend as companies in the sector move toward greater efficiency using fewer workers to produce similar volumes,” according to the report.

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