Ten student design proposals for an A&M-themed float for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade were unveiled Monday.
The project is the brainchild of architecture professor George Mann, holder of the Ronald L. Skaggs, FAIA Endowed Professor in Health Facilities Design. Mann said the project has been on his mind for 10 to 15 years, and while there are no current plans for an A&M-themed float to be in the parade, he believes the goal is achievable.
Student designers included Rebecca Diaz, Tabitha Paige Gibson, Angelica Hernandez, Norma Jean Montoya, Christopher Pilotte, Raul Ramirez Jr., Christian Cruz Rodriguez, Jennifer Romero, Brisedia Hernandez and Jessica Sovereen. The students said if A&M ever had a float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, their designs would be used as references.
The concept of the project was to design a float that represents A&M not only in Texas but across the country, said Brisedia Hernandez, environmental design senior.
“This float is made to be transported throughout the nation and specifically the way we designed it was for us to create a modular type of design,” Hernandez said. “A lot of us pretty much focused on some of the symbolism we have at A&M and one of the main things is of course the Century Tree, the Aggie Ring, and how that translates over to the world.”
Rodriguez, environmental design senior, said one of the main focuses of his design was to hook the audience.
“We focused on how to display Texas A&M and grab the interest of the audience and the public of the past present and future that we are a united institution.”
Sovereen, environmental design senior, said the first step into this project was a group brainstorm.
“We started with brainstorming concepts of what we wanted to portray on our floats,” Sovereen said. “A lot of the words that came out were modular, futuristic, maroon and white, so when we were designing that is what we were thinking about.”
Pilotte, environmental design senior, said what makes some of the floats unique is the ability for the institution to reuse them every year and change them to reflect the growth of the university.
“I think that cost would be a big part in trying to push the idea on so I wanted to go modular… A&M can pick its own size and lengths based off of the module and from there those can be disassembled and put into an 18 wheeler,” Pilotte said. “All of it can be disassembled so no construction time is wasted for the next year… The concept for my float is based off of the top five performing colleges at that time. So these props can be everchanging to show the progress and future that A&M has.”