Architecture faculty Stephanie Pilat and Angela Person recently published a chapter in the book, Histories of Architecture Education in the United States, edited By Peter L. Laurence (Routledge, 2023). This book is an edited collection that focuses on the professional evolution, experimental and enduring pedagogical approaches and leading institutions of American architecture education.
Pilat and Person’s chapter, Radical Empathy in the Teaching of Bruce Goff and the ‘American School’ of Architects, highlights the University of Oklahoma’s unique and radical approaches to architectural education. As the authors explain in their chapter, “Oklahoma student work is dramatic, otherworldly, and, at times, bizarre. There are no boxes to be found.”
Specifically, the chapter focuses on the unique design curriculum implemented by architect and OU alumni Bruce Goff. Hired by OU in 1947, Goff brought an incredibly unique perspective to the school of Architecture. His teaching style encouraged students to test the limits of traditional design by creating work that looked like no other. As explained by the authors, “Oklahoma student work was not born of mass production and efficiency; it was a product of wild imagination and creative visioning made possible by the boundary-pushing encouragement of OU faculty.”
These exemplary teaching methods led to the development of Gibbs College’s American School, a school of design and practice that developed under the guidance of Goff, Herb Greene and others at the University of Oklahoma in the 1950s and ’60s.
Robert L. Wesley, a pioneering architect and beloved mentor, has died at age 88. A graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Wesley joined Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) in 1964 and became the firm's first Black partner in 1984. Throughout his career, he contributed to significant architectural projects while maintaining a strong commitment to civic engagement and professional mentorship.
The Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture is proud to celebrate a series of recent accomplishments by Dr. Jim Collard, Professor of Practice in the Division of Planning, Landscape Architecture, and Design, whose work continues to shape conversations around Indigenous economic development nationally and internationally.
University of Oklahoma Gibbs College of Architecture Dean Hans E. [PA1.1]Butzer returned to one of his most significant works on December 15, joining survivors and past and present board members for the groundbreaking of a $15.8 million expansion of the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum.
