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.
Gibbs College faculty Ken Marold[PA1.1] and Bryan Bloom were recognized at the 2026 ACSA Architectural Education Awards during the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) 114th Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois, held March 26–28, 2026.
Gibbs College of Architecture is pleased to announce that Dr. Suchismita (Suchi) Bhattacharjee, Associate Dean of Academics and College Administration and Associate Professor of Interior Design, has received the campus-wide Graduate Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring of Graduate Students.
Gibbs College of Architecture is proud to announce that Dr. Wanda Katja Liebermann, associate professor of Architecture, has been awarded the University of Oklahoma Vice President for Research and Partnerships Award for Excellence in Research, Design, and Creative Expression in the Humanities and Fine Arts for her scholarly monograph, Architecture’s Disability Problem.
