Research - Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture

Research

RESEARCH AND CREATIVE ACTIVITY

We imagine a future in which all communities are resilient and empowered to maximize their social, economic and environmental well-being. Our research and creative activity supports this vision for the future and prepares our students to make life-long contributions in their fields.

Centers of Excellence

Institute for Quality Communities

Select Research Centers and Institutes

  • The American School
  • Center for Middle Eastern Architecture and Culture
  • Center for Peace and Development
  • Carceral Studies Consortium
  • Kenneth Robson Center for Constructive Learning BIM + Viz Lab

Entrepreneurship and Community Engagement

We are dedicated to innovation and agency in planning, design, and construction. Our entrepreneurial practice supports community-oriented research by working at the leading edge of ideas, technologies, methods, and processes across disciplines, in areas such as BIM technology, accessible housing, and lean construction and management.

Recent News

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Dr. Tamera McCuen: Developing BIM Talent

Construction Science professor Dr. Tamera McCuen co-authored a book titled Developing BIM Talent: A Guide to the BIM Body of Knowledge with Metrics, KSAs, and Learning Outcomes. The book is an essential resource on BIM metrics.

Learn more about Dr. McCuen’s book on developing BIM talent.

Faculty, Students Design & Construct Mobile Medical Facility for Wichita and Affiliated Tribes

Faculty and students partnered with the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes to develop a mobile medical unit. The project was led by Bryan Bloom, assistant professor of construction science, and supported by assistant professor of architecture Ken Marold.

Learn more about the mobile medical facility.

Featured Faculty

Entrepreneurship and Community Engagement

Marjorie CallahanMarjorie Callahan

Associate Director | Graduate Liaison | Professor
mcallahan@ou.edu

Anthony Cricchio

Associate Professor | Curriculum Coordinator 
anthony.cricchio@ou.edu

Ron Frantz

Coordinator  |  Small Town Studios
rfrantz@ou.edu

Shane Hampton

Director |  Institute for Quality Communities
shanehampton@ou.edu

Mia Kile

Associate Professor
mkile@ou.edu

Ken Marold

Assistant Professor
ken.marold@ou.edu

Deborah RichardsDeborah Richards

Assistant Professor
d.richards@ou.edu

Health and Wellbeing

By exploring intersections between the built environment and community health and wellbeing, we make a difference. Recent projects have looked at how residents understand hope in their communities, building beautiful, accessible housing for people of all ages, and integrating neuroscience into design.

Recent News

Dr. Tiziana Proietti: Exploring Architecture and Neuroscience

The sense|base laboratory, directed by Dr. Tiziana Proietti, is housed at the University of Oklahoma Gibbs College of Architecture. It is an interdisciplinary laboratory that bridges architecture to neuroscience with emphasis on the perception of proportion. Dr. Proietti is part of an emerging center of excellence at Gibbs College exploring the intersections of neuroscience, perception, and the built environment.

Learn more about the sense|base laboratory.

sarah-little

Dr. Sarah Little: Designing Public Spaces for Young People

Landscape architecture professor released her co-edited handbook, The Routledge Handbook for Designing Public Spaces for Young People: Processes, Practices, and Policies for Youth Inclusion.

Learn more about Dr. Little’s handbook.

Resilience and Sustainability

Working at the leading edges of our disciplines, we are helping secure a resilient future for our built environments and communities. Whether engineering timber construction that withstands severe weather, designing new clips for solar panels, or responsive, sustainable facades, our faculty are dedicated to seeking solutions.

Recent News

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Prof. Daniel Butko: Developing a Sound Approach to Concrete

Associate Professor Daniel Butko’s article that focused on acoustic concrete research and prototype fabrication was published in the Technology | Architecture + Design Spring 2021 Issue 5:1.

Learn more about Butko’s acoustical research.

Dr. Shideh Shadravan: Making Buildings More Resilient 

Dr. Shadravan tests the safety of conventional construction methods under harsh conditions. Her structural engineering research looks at simple ways to improve construction methods that have big impacts.

Learn more about Dr. Shadravan’s construction research.

Featured Faculty

Resilience and Sustainability

Ben BigelowPortrait of Ben Bigelow

Director | Associate Professor
bigelow@ou.edu

Daniel Butko

Associate Director | Associate Professor
butko@ou.edu

Wenwen Cheng

Assistant Professor
wcheng@ou.edu

Lee Fithian

Associate Professor
leefithian@ou.edu

Somik GhoshSomik Ghosh

Associate Professor | Graduate Liaison
sghosh@ou.edu

Amy Leveno

Assistant Professor
amyleveno@ou.edu

Negar Matin

Assistant Professor
negar.matin@ou.edu

Esin Pektas

Robert Wesley Teaching Fellow
Esin.Pektas@ou.edu

Angela Person

Assistant Professor
a@ou.edu

Image of Elizabeth Pober, croppedElizabeth Pober

Director  |  Associate Professor
epober@ou.edu

Shideh Shadravan

Associate Professor
shideh@ou.edu

Placemaking and Belonging

We care deeply about constantly re-imagining great cities that support opportunity, access, and that advance the principles of universal design. To accomplish this, our faculty explore important issues like rural food systems, disparities in homeownership, neighborhood and Main Street revitalization, historic preservation and greater access to natural environments in urban areas for people of all generations and backgrounds. Gibbs College is also home to the “Gibbs Design Activism Awards,” which allows students to propose a student-led project that critically engages topics of community, social and economic concern within the built environment.

Recent News

Prof. Dave Boeck: Designing Accessible Homes 

Homes that make life easier for people with mobility limitations are now under construction at Ideal Homes & Neighborhoods communities. These homes were originally the brainchild of David Boeck, associate professor of architecture.

Learn more about Ideal Homes accessible homes.

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Dr. C. Aujean Lee: COVID-19 Case Study of Chicago

Regional + City Planning assistant professor C. Aujean Lee co-authored an article titled “Exploring the nexus between social vulnerability, built environment, and the prevalence of COVID-19: A case study of Chicago.”

Learn more about Dr. Lee’s case study.

Featured Faculty

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

Dave Boeck

Associate Professor
dlb@ou.edu

John Harris

Director & Graduate Liaison
johncharris@ou.edu

C. Aujean Lee

Assistant Professor
aujean@ou.edu

Vanessa Morrison

Associate Director | Institute for Quality Communities
vanessa@ou.edu

Matthew Reyes

Associate Professor
mdreyes@ou.edu

Yeji Yi

Adjunct Faculty
yeji.yi@ou.edu

Institute for Quality Communities

The Institute for Quality Communities (IQC) is a community engagement program in the University of Oklahoma Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture. IQC partners with Oklahoma communities to address local challenges, and brings best practices to Oklahomans through the biennial Placemaking Conference.

Recent News

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IQC and Interior Design Students Design Farmer’s Market for Afton, Oklahoma

The Afton area has been designated a food desert by the Oklahoma State Department of Health. Leaders of Afton, OK reached out to the IQC for assistance in designing a farmer’s market in the former Afton City Hall building.

Learn more about the Afton farmer’s market.

IQC and OU Students Develop Pathways for Growth with Tullahassee, Oklahoma

The IQC and Environmental Design students collaborated with the community leaders of Tullahassee, OK to develop a plan for revitalization and growth. Tullahassee is considered to be Oklahoma’s oldest surviving Black township.

Learn more about the IQC’s pathways to hope.

Herb Greene's Prairie House

Prairie House. Herb Greene.
Photo: Julius Shulman

The American School

The American School Project strives to document and share the development and impacts of the school of design and practice that developed at the University of Oklahoma in the 1950s and ’60s.

More Info

Center for Middle Eastern Architecture and Culture

Center for Middle Eastern
Architecture and Culture

CMEAC seeks to advance knowledge of the Middle Eastern built environment and culture for its intellectual and academic values.

More Info

Center for
Peace and Development

The CPD builds upon a legacy of collaborative partnerships between OU faulty and students and communities affected by conflict in northern Uganda.

More Info

Dr. Damien Sojoyner (left) and Dr. Sabina Vaught (right) during "Contested Archives: Black Communal Strategies Against the Carceral State," held at the University of Oklahoma on Nov. 5, 2019.

Carceral Studies Consortium

The Carceral Studies Consortium brings together faculty, staff and students across colleges at the University of Oklahoma to cultivate rigorous scholarship and community engagement toward social transformation in the broad area of Carceral Studies.

More Info

Team Review

BIM + Viz Lab

The BIM + VIZ Lab space is designed for teams of researchers and designers to interact in an immersive virtual reality environment to support interdisciplinary teams as they interface with technology in the analysis of spatial, data, and temporal aspects of a facility or infrastructure model.

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2020 Schools of Thought Webinar Series

In the Summer of 2020, the Gibbs College of Architecture hosted a series of webinar conversations that built on conversations about the future of design pedagogy that were started during the “Schools of Thought” conference. The Summer Schools of Thought Series featured sessions that sought to answer the question: How can we use the platforms we have to help in some way? For more information and to view the session recordings, click here.

2020 Schools of Thought Conference

In the Spring of 2020, the University of Oklahoma hosted a Creating_Making Forum event “Schools of Thought: Rethinking Architectural Pedagogy,” a conference designed to bring together scholars, architects, and designers to explore questions about how we teach design.  The symposium coincided with the exhibition Renegades: Bruce Goff and the American School of Architecture at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art. Keynote speakers at the Schools of Thought conference were Joan Ockman and Dr. Sarah Sutton. For further information, visit the Schools of Thought website. To view the conference proceedings, click here.

2014 Creating_Making Forum

The 2014 Creating/Making Forum featured peer-reviewed paper sessions titled: Do the Tools Matter; Lessons From Home; Fabricating Political Capital; Working Within Others’ Walls; Defining the Dash; Mid-Century Modern and the Landscape; Sourcing Creativity; and Towards a New Studio Environment, as well as a juried poster session. Keynote speakers at the 2010 Forum were Hans ButzerRobert Fishman, Andrew Freear, E.B. Min, and Kirsten Murray, and Min and Murray led a student workshop as part of the 2014 Forum. To view the full conference proceedings, click here.

2010 Creating_Making Forum

The 2010 Creating/Making Forum was held in conjunction with the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art’s “Bruce Goff: A Creative Mind” exhibition and featured peer-reviewed paper sessions titled: Design Education and Tacit Knowledge; Digital Creating and Making; Community Engagement; The Found Object; Innovation, Interdisciplinarity and the Environment; Interpreting Architecture; and History Reframed, as well as a juried poster session. Keynote speakers at the 2010 Forum were Sheila Kennedy, Craig Borum, and Marlon Blackwell. To view the conference proceedings, click here.

Recent Publications

2021

Butko, D. J. (2021). “A sound decision for concrete: translating spatial analysis and aerated/porous concrete research into an effective trifecta of acoustical reflection, diffusion, and absorption.” TAD Technology | Architecture + Design, 32. Abstract.

Chen, S., Kwak, Y., Zhang, L., Mosey, G., & Deal, B.* (2021). “Tightly Coupling Input Output Economics with Spatio-Temporal Land Use in a Dynamic Planning Support System Framework.” Land, 10(1), 78. Abstract.

Chen, S., Yan, X., Pan, H., & Deal, B. (2021). “Using big data for last mile performance evaluation: An accessibility-based approach.” Travel Behaviour and Society, 25, 153-163. Abstract.

Evans, J. & Gåddie, K. (2021). “A Systems Approach to Understanding Community Power in the Debate Over Confederate Monuments Using Georgia as a Case Study.”  Social Science Quarterly, 102.  Abstract.

Heidari Matin, N., Eydgahi, A., (2021). “A Data-driven Optimized Daylight Pattern for Responsive Facades Design.” Intelligent Buildings International. DOI: 10.1080/17508975.2021.1872478. Abstract.

Johnson, V., Klockow-McClain, K., Peppler, R., Person, A. (2021.) “Tornado Climatology and Risk Perception in Central Oklahoma.” Weather, Climate and Society. Published May 6, 2021 online. Abstract.

Lee, C. A. (2021). “Evolving Activism in an Anti-Immigrant Administration: Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Nonprofit Experiences after the 2016 Elections.” Amerasia Journal. doi: 10.1080/00447471.2021.1920292. Abstract.

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