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The Open Design Collective, a nonprofit design and planning firm founded by Vanessa Morrison and Deborah Richards, was recently featured in Architect magazine. Vanessa Morrison, the Associate Director of the University of Oklahoma’s Institute of Quality Communities, is a social-impact planner who lives and works in northeastern Oklahoma City. Deborah Richards, AIA, is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at Gibbs College and a licensed architect in New York, Oklahoma and Massachusetts. Morrison and Richards founded the Open Design Collective to create an Oklahoma City-based design firm that centers community input and engagement as the main driver of the design process.
The article in Architect magazine reports on the Open Design Collective’s first major project, the South of 8th Street Masterplan. The Oklahoma City Redevelopment Authority commissioned the Open Design Collective to create a masterplan for property in northeastern Oklahoma City owned by the Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority (OCURA). The historically Black area was severely impacted by past urban renewal and highway development efforts. The Open Design Collective engaged the community to develop a masterplan for future development in the area, which will be published sometime in the coming months.
To learn more about how the Open Design Collective engaged the community to develop the masterplan, read the Architect article.
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.
Gibbs Construction Science and Architecture students recently traveled to Dublin, Ireland, to compete in the Associated Schools of Construction (ASC) Region 8 Student Competition. The team partnered with Czech Technical University and secured third place in the Design-Build category.
Gibbs College is pleased to present the exhibition Vollendorf in Oklahoma: The Architecture of Dean Bryant Vollendorf during the Spring 2026 semester. It will be on display in Gould Hall, on the OU-Norman Campus, from February 16, 2026 - March 13, 2026.
