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Urban Design students, Roshita Taylor, Soujanya Malla, and Jeremy Banes, shared their designs for Sweeney Switch in downtown Harrah, Oklahoma during the town’s St. Patrick Day celebration.
Sweeney Switch is a community design project between the City of Harrah, the Association of Central Oklahoma Governments (ACOG), the Institute for Quality Communities (IQC), and the OU Urban Design Studio. Graduate students in Urban Design are working with Shawn Schaefer and Urban Design Fellow David Boeck to develop an urban design vision for downtown Harrah, Oklahoma.
On St. Patrick’s Day, the City of Harrah, the Lumber Shack (a new restaurant and entertainment venue in Sweeney Switch), and volunteers from the community garden shut down Tim Holt Drive and a portion of Harrah’s Main Street in order to create a plaza using tactical urbanism techniques that included bringing in picnic tables, food trucks, and a portable stage.
Shawn Schaefer writes, “The temporary intervention was a proof of concept for a permanent public place that our students are currently designing. We learned a lot from the simulation.”
Conceptual Designs of the Sweeney Switch area
The students are focusing on several different aspects of development in their plan, including an entrance gateway to the Sweeney Switch district, a plaza with a fountain and a creek view, a pedestrian bridge, streetscaping and parking along Church and Main Street, and flood management.
The students will incorporate feedback and observations from the St. Patrick’s day event into their final designs for Sweeney Switch.
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.
