Love of historical buildings inspires Blinn alumna's architectural career

Blinn College introductory classes piqued Angelia Gerhard’s interest in the field

August 1, 2024

Angelia Gerhard took an interest in historic buildings at an early age. Classes at Blinn College convinced her to make it a career.

A native of the small East Texas town of Kountze, Gerhard discovered a love for historical architecture when she was a child.

“My family had a cabin at Bolivar on the southern coast of Texas. We would spend a lot of summers down there,” she said. “My dad would take me to tour some of the historic homes in Galveston. When I walked into places like that, I was like, ‘OK, this is really neat and it’s something I want to pursue.’ I knew back then that it was something that intrigued me.”

Now an architect with the Brenham-based PlanNorth Architectural firm, Gerhard earned a scholarship to Blinn. She said the college was “a great transition for me” after graduating from a small high school.

“Looking back now, I realize that more people need to choose Blinn,” she said. "Even if you’re not doing your basic courses, you can get some introductory courses that make more economic sense. You're not spending 5,000-plus dollars on something that you want to try out.”

Blinn was launching its Architecture Program when Gerhard arrived on campus, so she decided to take several introductory classes. She was hooked, attending Blinn for three semesters before transferring to Texas A&M University and earning a bachelor’s degree in environmental design.

Gerhard credits Craig Jeffrey, Assistant Academic Dean for the Division of Arts, Kinesiology, and Agriculture and an Architecture Program Professor, with encouraging her.

“He simplified and made architecture fun and not so nerve-wracking,” she said. “We had the freedom to explore things.”

After graduating from Texas A&M, Gerhard worked for a national homebuilder in Fort Worth but decided that wasn’t for her.

“I realized I wanted to do something more than that,” she said.

She and her husband moved to Houston, where she joined a high-end interior design firm.

“He kept telling me that Brenham was a great place for us and it would be cool if I could find someplace there to work,” Gerhard said. “So I did some research and came across PlanNorth’s website.”

She “cold-called” PlanNorth principal architect Katie Burch, a Brenham native who also attended Blinn and Texas A&M. The two quickly connected and Gerhard was hired.

“I’m not doing the historical preservation I thought I’d be doing, but I’ve come to find out it’s better for me to learn on a more practical level doing what we do here,” she said. “I’m seeing firsthand how things are constructed, how things are drawn, how details are formulated. It’s been super insightful.

“I never thought I would like commercial architecture, but it’s really neat because we do a variety of projects. It keeps things interesting, and I’m constantly learning and evolving.”

Gerhard recently worked on a major restoration project at the former Brenham Independent School District building that has been converted into the Brenham School Hotel.

“We did some designs and presented them to the owners (Jake and Meagen Gumm), who had some super-creative ideas,” said Gerhard.

Blinn offers two 60-credit-hour degree options at its Bryan Campus: an Associate of Arts (AA) in Architecture and an Association of Arts in Architecture-Field of Study. Both are designed for transfer to a four-year university, and Blinn has architecture transfer agreements with Texas A&M’s Landscape and Urban Planning Program, the Texas Tech University College of Architecture, Sam Houston State University, and the University of Houston.

For more information, visit www.blinn.edu/architecture.

“I really enjoyed my time at Blinn,” Gerhard said. “It ended up being a great transition for me because I came from such a small town. College Station (home of Texas A&M) was a big city to me. So Blinn was a happy medium.”