The Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture is pleased to announce that Dr. Tamar Zinguer, Associate Professor of Architecture, has been selected to participate in the prestigious 2026 Summer Residency at the National Humanities Center (NHC).
The competitively awarded residency will take place from June 1 through June 26, 2026, at the Center’s campus in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. The National Humanities Center is one of the nation’s leading institutes for advanced study in the humanities, providing scholars with dedicated time, resources, and a vibrant intellectual community to support major research projects.
During her residency, Zinguer will write a full chapter of her forthcoming book manuscript, Sandbox: An Architectural History of Play. The chapter, titled “Play Mountains (c. 1960),” examines significant playground designs in New York City during the 1960s. It considers visionary but unrealized proposals—such as Isamu Noguchi and Louis Kahn’s lunar landscape design for Riverside Park—alongside experimental sand-art techniques occasionally used in public spaces, including Costantino Nivola’s bas-relief murals. The chapter also analyzes innovative designs that became influential models for other cities, including the Jacob Riis Housing Project Playground by Paul Friedberg and the Adventure Playground in Central Park by Richard Dattner. In addition, Zinguer traces the legal and public debates surrounding sandboxes during the decade, culminating in New York City’s ban on sandboxes in the early 1970s amid growing concerns about sanitation.
Zinguer’s participation in the NHC Summer Residency is made possible with support from the OU Arts & Humanities Forum. As an institutional sponsor of the National Humanities Center, OU conducts an internal competition to nominate faculty members for national consideration, making this selection both a campus and national distinction.
A project by University of Oklahoma Architecture lecturer René Peralta, developed through Generica Architecture with co-director Monica Fragoso and collaborators Andrew Stone and Ty Brown-Field, is now on view in Gould Hall as a focused installation drawn from the recent exhibition Is Housing Still Housing? Houston’s Single-Family House.
Gibbs College of Architecture is proud to recognize Petya Stefanoff, who is pursuing her doctorate in the Planning, Design & Construction (PDC) program, has been appointed the new role of Director of Community Development for the City of Shawnee, Oklahoma. She joined the city in 2024.
Gibbs College of Architecture is pleased to announce that Amber N. Wiley, Ph.D., associate professor in the Division of Planning, Landscape Architecture and Design and director of the Institute for Quality Communities, has received national recognition for her book Model Schools in the Model City. The book has been named a finalist for the 2026 the PROSE Awards.
