Regional and City Planning faculty John Harris and Charlie Warnken are part of an interdisciplinary team led by the OU Institute for Resilient Environment and Energy Systems. The team was recently awarded a $599,000 Climate Pollution Reduction Grant from the Environmental Protection Agency. As a part of the Inflation Reduction Act and the Justice40 Initiative, these grants from the EPA support the development and implementation of plans to reduce harmful air pollution.
With this funding, the OU team will support the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality to prepare a climate action plan that will reduce emissions in communities across the state. Climate action plans are comprised of three main parts: an inventory of emission sources, a catalogue of current and future experiences of climate impacts in communities and a series of proposals to mitigate these emissions and climate impacts.
The team is led by Principal Investigator Tim Filley, who is assisted by Co-Principal Investigators Lauren Mullenbach, Scott Greene, Charlie Warnken, John Harris, Chenghao Wang, Ming Xue, Xiaoming Hu, Royce Floyd, Brad Illston, David Ebert, Binbin Weng, Otavio Costa Acevedo, Petra Klein and Xiangming Xiao. They are currently developing various project proposals in the following categories:
Harris and Warnken’s portion of the project focuses on engaging low-income and disadvantaged communities. The RCPL faculty are also working with graduate students from OU’s Planning, Landscape Architecture and Design division. As a part of their community planning studio, the students are conducting workshops throughout the state to gain a better understanding of climate impacts on local communities and how to address these issues accordingly.
The students began these community workshops in November and will continue into February. The students will then compile a series of reports about these communities for submission to the DEQ.
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.
