We would like to extend special thanks to Gibbs College Interior Design alumni, design professionals, student volunteers, and event organizers who participated in IIDA ZeroLandfill Oklahoma City 2022!
The International Interior Design Association (IIDA) Texas-Oklahoma chapter recently hosted their 2022 ZeroLandfill OKC event. For the annual event, the organization partnered with Oklahoma City interior designers and architects, encouraging them to clean out their discontinued or un-used finish materials from their libraries. They then donated these materials that would normally be thrown away to IIDA ZeroLandfill. These materials include carpet tiles, laminate chips, tile samples, wood flooring, fabric swatches, metal chips, wall coverings, etc. During the event, which took place September 30th at Scott Rice in Oklahoma City, teachers, artists, and the general public could come pick up materials to upcycle for their own use.
Since 2014, the IIDA ZeroLandfill OKC project team has partnered with the architectural and interior design community to collect expired or un-used sample material for re-purposing back into the community. IIDA ZeroLandfill OKC is an annual up-cycling program that supports the supply needs of local artists and educators, while reducing pressure on local landfill capacity. Since the program began, it has diverted over 55 tons from local landfills.
This year, a total of 9,000 pounds of materials were diverted from the landfills, out of which 282 pounds were donated by the OU Interior Design Materials Library!
The University of Oklahoma College of Architecture is proud to announce that Model Schools in the Model City, authored by Director of the Institute for Quality Communities, Amber N. Wiley, Ph.D., has been named one of ten finalists for the 2026 ASALH Book Prize for Best New Book in African American History and Culture.
This semester, students in the LA 5535 Studio: Ecological Planning and Design, led by Prof. Afsana Sharmin, took on an ambitious hypothetical project to redesign key parts of the OU campus. Their mission: to tackle the critical real-world challenge of stormwater management through innovative green design.
Petya Stefanoff, Chair of the Educational Committee with the American Planning Association, Oklahoma Chapter (APA-OK) and Gibbs College PhD candidate, has developed a new training program for local government officials. The program, focused on land use, zoning principles, and land development, recently certified its first graduates with Certified Citizen Planner status.
