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In the Fall of 2020, the Institute for Quality Communities (IQC) hosted their first Quality Communities Retreat, sponsored by Mayors’ Institute on City Design and Oklahoma Municipal League.
This retreat was broken into two sessions, each attended by four community delegations who had the opportunity to get project-specific advice from a panel of professionals as well as from other community teams. The panels included Shawn Schaefer, the director of OU-Tulsa’s Urban Design Studio, and Bret Betnar, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Division of Landscape Architecture. The eight communities who participated included Davis, Midwest City, Langston, Okemah, the Asian District of OKC, Edmond, Eufaula, and Sand Springs. Each session was a one-day retreat, the first hosted on a hybrid format and the second hosted fully virtually due to COVID-19 concerns.
Before the retreat, the IQC team of OU Graduate Assistants did site visits to the eight participating communities in order to develop a case study and discussion questions for each community’s project site. This information, including site photos, were compiled into a session briefing book. The IQC team would also lead the preparation and facilitation of the two retreat sessions.
The Quality Communities Retreat held guided sessions for each community where other community leaders and members of the resource panel could offer advice and guidance. Each community team was able to go back to their cities with a better understanding of their project and paths forward.
OU Graduate Assistants on the IQC Team:
Alice Calmon, Landscape Architecture
Bethany Grissom, Landscape Architecture
Mumuchhu Gurung, Regional & City Planning
Matthew Kessler, Landscape Architecture
Naoki Tsuruta, Regional & City Planning
Read more about the retreat and the community collaborators by clicking the link below.
Quality Communities Retreats | The Institute for Quality Communities
Gibbs College of Architecture is proud to recognize Petya Stefanoff, who is pursuing her doctorate in the Planning, Design & Construction (PDC) program, has been appointed the new role of Director of Community Development for the City of Shawnee, Oklahoma. She joined the city in 2024.
Gibbs College of Architecture is pleased to announce that Amber N. Wiley, Ph.D., associate professor in the Division of Planning, Landscape Architecture and Design and director of the Institute for Quality Communities, has received national recognition for her book Model Schools in the Model City. The book has been named a finalist for the 2026 the PROSE Awards.
Gibbs College of Architecture Regional + City Planning Professor of Practice Vanessa Morrison and Associate Professor of Architecture Deborah Richards’ Open Design Collective received top honors at the inaugural BlackSpace Urbanist Collective Studio KIN Pitch Night Competition, held last month in Brooklyn, New York City.
