Date
Join Gibbs College on October 3, 2022, at 4:00 p.m. in the Gould Hall Buskuhl Gallery (rm. 130), for a lecture by Dr. Matthew Cohen, AIA, titled, “Visual Training for Designers: The Cultural Dimension.”
This lecture is in collaboration with the seminar titled “Vision Training for Designers,” taught by Dr. Tiziana Proietti at Gibbs College. It is made possible with support from the Bruce Goff Chair for Creative Architecture.
Lecture Description
What are proportional systems, and how have architects of the past used them to add meaning and value to their works? Equally important, how can we be sure that when we study proportional systems of the past, we are engaging actual historical inventions rather than flights of present-day imagination? In this lecture Matthew Cohen will help us sharpen our eyes into incisive tools of critical inquiry, and use them in the direct observation of famous early Renaissance buildings in Florence. These observations will reveal a symbolic component of architecture, written in the geometries and numbers of proportional systems, that is more richly innovative than the textbooks would have us believe.
About Dr. Cohen
Matthew Cohen is an architect, architectural historian, and educator whose research focuses on the acute observation of the physical fabric of architecture to reveal underlying historical principles. Dr. Cohen received his Ph.D from Leiden University in the Netherlands, and his Master in Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He is a Professor of Architecture Emeritus at Washington State University, and has recently returned to architectural practice in Seattle, Washington. His book, Beyond Beauty: Reexamining Proportion through the Basilicas of San Lorenzo and Santo Spirito in Florence, received the James Ackerman Award in the History of Architecture. In 2011 he co-organized an international conference in Leiden on proportional systems in the history of architecture, which resulted in his second book, co-edited with Maarten Delbeke, Proportional Systems in the History of Architecture: A Critical Reconsideration.
Please contact Tiziana Proietti with questions or to request accommodations (tiziana.proietti@ou.edu).
The Gibbs Design in Action Awards (GDAA) program, led by Dr. Wanda Liebermann, has announced its 2026–2027 funded student projects. The initiative supports design and research work that addresses social, cultural, and economic issues in the built environment through collaboration with faculty and community partners.
The OU Institute for Quality Communities (IQC) 2024 collaboration with the Historic Threatt Filling Station has been recognized in the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's newly released Byways Report: The Scenic Route to Rural Prosperity – a story-driven publication exploring how road trip culture and place-based tourism can fuel economic growth in rural communities.
The Gibbs College of Architecture is pleased to announce that Camille Germany, Chief of Staff, has been named the 2026 recipient of the university-wide Jennifer L. Wise Good Stewardship Award.
