Over the past year, Dr. Bryce Lowery, associate professor of Regional + City Planning, has been working with a team of University of Oklahoma researchers to study how to best use the $36 million granted to the state of Oklahoma by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to support unhoused and housing-insecure Oklahomans. The team’s plan was recently approved by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, starting the process of allocating the $36 million in resources to the state of Oklahoma.
Dr. Lowery’s team conducted several surveys, meetings, and interviews to better understand the landscape of housing insecurity in Oklahoma, as the data collected on unhoused individuals often does not reflect reality.
The University of Oklahoma research team suggested that 50 percent of the federal funds be set aside for rural communities as the major population centers – Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Lawton – in the state were given supplemental funding that rural counties did not receive. The team also proposed that the majority of the funding be spent on the construction of new housing for low-income residents. The plan for funding allocation was approved by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and will be posted on the HUD Community Planning and Development Allocation Plans website.
Another part of Dr. Lowery’s team’s work was the creation of a map of resources available to unhoused and housing insecure Oklahomans. The first draft of this map and other information about the project can be found on the project website.
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.
