James E. Carrillo ’85

James E. Carrillo, Class of 1985, is a graduate of Texas A&M’s School of Architecture with a Bachelor of Science degree in Landscape Architecture. Early in his career, James was drawn to citywide planning, and that became the focus of an almost four-decade long career.

As a consulting planner and urban design practitioner, he has led city and regional planning and placemaking efforts for many cities throughout Texas and neighboring states. His work as a citywide master planner and visionary for the future has benefitted countless residents of these communities and regions, and will continue to positively impact their lives for decades to come as the seeds planted by those plans evolve and are implemented.

His efforts introduced a broad and comprehensive “designer’s” perspective to park and open space planning, special area planning and active transportation planning. His master plans often set new standards for detail and comprehensiveness, in many cases more so than the client community’s formal comprehensive plan. His plans for urban trail systems across entire communities were frequently well ahead of their time, and paved the way for trail corridors and bicycle infrastructure that are now commonplace and beloved by their communities.

He also brought first class citywide planning efforts to many communities along the Texas / New Mexico / Mexico Border, where plans he led were often for smaller border communities that had never before benefited from highly professional long range planning efforts.

In acknowledgement of his pioneering impact, his planning and design efforts have been recognized more than 45 times by multiple professional organizations, and he was inducted as a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners in 2012, the highest honor bestowed on planners across the United States. He is currently a vice president with Halff Associates Inc. where he has worked for more than 35 years.