In Spring 2022, Landscape Architecture students from Gibbs College collaborated with OU Rainbolt College of Education students on the design of an outdoor play and learning environment at the new Institute of Child Development (ICD). The first phase of the project was installed last summer and was recently highlighted in the winter 2023 edition of Sooner Magazine.
The ICD is a nonprofit preschool located on OU’s campus that provides a quality early childhood education experience for children ages 2-5 through self-selected center learning experiences. The school also functions as a laboratory for undergraduate students, a practicum site for graduate students, and provides research opportunities for OU faculty.
A hill slide at the ICD playground. Photo by Travis Caperton.
The students worked together to create a low-cost, eco-friendly, and sustainable outdoor play area, and were directed by Sarah Little, a professor of Landscape Architecture, Becca Waggoner, the Director of ICD, and Kyong-Ah Kwon, the Drusa B. Cable Endowed Chair. The final design features a drive-through tricycle storage shed, “mud kitchens” for play using dirt and sand, gardening beds, and a child-sized bridge.
Read the full article in Sooner Magazine.
Telesis, a journal produced by students in the University of Oklahoma Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture, has earned first place in the 2026 Douglas Haskell Award for Student Journals for its seventh volume, “Unfold.” This marks the fourth time the publication has earned recognition for excellence in student architectural journalism. It shares the honor with student journals from Columbia University, University of Michigan, and Cal Poly.
Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture congratulates Thinh "Henry" Duong, a master's student in the Division of Interior Design, for earning first place in the 2026 Robert Bruce Thompson Annual Student Light Fixture Design Competition.
Gibbs College of Architecture Institute for Quality Communities (IQC) Director and Division of Planning, Landscape Architecture, and Design (PLAD) faculty member Amber N. Wiley, Ph.D., recently published a new book, Collective Yearning: Black Women Artists from the Zimmerli Art Museum.
