OU Urban Design alumni recently teamed up with the Society of Urban Design Students to celebrate International Park(ing) Day. On Sept. 15, they occupied parking spaces in downtown Tulsa to transform on-street parking into urban parklets.
Park(ing) Day is a global participatory project where people across the world temporarily repurpose parking spaces and convert them into public parks and social spaces. The annual event promotes safer, greener and more equitable streets and emphasizes the importance of public spaces in urban environments.
Tulsa Park(ing) Day engaged the local community by inviting visitors to check out each pop-up installation and vote for their favorite activation. The interactive event catalyzed a critical discussion about the creation of public spaces and how the city of Tulsa can improve the quality of downtown streets in the long term.
The event was organized by the Downtown Tulsa Partnership, the City of Tulsa, Tulsa’s Young Professionals and Partner Tulsa. The OU Urban Design activation was sponsored by Coracle Coffee and Scraps Designs.
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.
In May, students from the Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture's Architecture, Environmental Design, and Interior Design programs participated in an intensive five-day Studio in Residence at Taliesin West, the iconic winter home and desert laboratory of Frank Lloyd Wright.