The Design-Build Institute of America’s Southwest Region (DBIA-SW) recently awarded support to Ethan Watson, a Construction Science student, and Dr. Tamera McCuen, Professor of Construction Science. These awards were the first of their kind to be awarded by the DBIA-SW.
The Design-Build Institute of America is comprised of architectural, engineering, and construction professionals, as well as academics, students, and project owners. DBIA’s mission is to promote the value of design-build project delivery and teaches the effective integration of design and construction services to ensure success for owners and design and construction practitioners. DBIA is the preeminent resource for leadership, education, objective expertise and best practices for the successful integrated delivery of capital projects. The DBIA’s Southwest Region includes five states — Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.
Ethan Watson, who received the DBIA-SW’s undergraduate scholarship, is an incoming senior in the the Haskell and Irene Lemon Division of Construction Science here at the University of Oklahoma. He is also minoring in business. According to the DBIA-SW, the panel was impressed by his passion for the field as reflected in his detailed recounting of the 2021 DBIA competition. By following the process, which emphasizes our field’s key tenets of communication and collaboration, he proved to the DBIA-SW scholarship panel that he is ready to be a leader in the construction science industry.
Dr. Tamera McCuen, a Professor of Construction Science at the University of Oklahoma, received the DBIA-SW’s faculty grant. The DBIA-SW panel stated that Dr. McCuen is a passionate design-build practitioner and educator. The grant Dr. McCuen received will fund an interactive event she is hosting outside of the traditional classroom and across traditionally independent fields. This interdisciplinary event will set a blueprint for other professors, practitioners, and owners across the country.
Watson and Dr. McCuen will be recognized at the DBIA-SW’s conference in Spring 2023.
Robert L. Wesley, a pioneering architect and beloved mentor, has died at age 88. A graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Wesley joined Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) in 1964 and became the firm's first Black partner in 1984. Throughout his career, he contributed to significant architectural projects while maintaining a strong commitment to civic engagement and professional mentorship.
The Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture is proud to celebrate a series of recent accomplishments by Dr. Jim Collard, Professor of Practice in the Division of Planning, Landscape Architecture, and Design, whose work continues to shape conversations around Indigenous economic development nationally and internationally.
University of Oklahoma Gibbs College of Architecture Dean Hans E. [PA1.1]Butzer returned to one of his most significant works on December 15, joining survivors and past and present board members for the groundbreaking of a $15.8 million expansion of the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum.
