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Skydance Bridge in Oklahoma City (pictured above) was conceived by Hans and Torrey Butzer. It was completed as part of the collaborative team of SXL. Professor Emeritus Chris Ramseyer from the OU Gallogly College of Engineering was a structural engineer on the project.
Dean Butzer and his partner Torrey A. Butzer are the design team behind iconic architectural designs including the Oklahoma City National Memorial and the Skydance Bridge over I-40 in downtown Oklahoma City.
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture Dean Hans Butzer and his partner, Torrey A. Butzer, recently received the Mayor’s Award for Distinguished Service from OKC Beautiful, recognizing the Butzers’ visionary architectural designs that have influenced many of Oklahoma City’s buildings and landmarks.
The Butzers received the award from Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt, who congratulated them on social media and said that without the Butzers’ contributions, Oklahoma City would not be recognizable today.
“My ‘homes’ of the City of Oklahoma City and the University of Oklahoma have provided fertile ground on which we could build and root our family, and the armature for my teaching and practice,” Dean Butzer said. “It’s truly special to receive this recognition, even though it is truly of, by, and for the people and future generations of this community.”
“Many people are not aware that it was our OU architecture students, as part of a watercolor class Torrey and I taught in summer 2001, who helped cast the vision of what is today the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Rowing site and its numerous boathouses on the Oklahoma River in OKC,” he added.
“Being recognized, together with my partner Torrey A. Butzer, with the OKC Beautiful Mayor’s Award is truly humbling,” he continued. “Since developing our competition-winning design for the Oklahoma City National Memorial in 1997, we have actively pursued and created opportunities to cast a future vision for our central Oklahoma community that helps celebrate who we are and wish to be. That visioning was carried out by our OKC-based architectural practice and our countless professional collaborators, and through my teaching at the OU Gibbs College of Architecture.
“Along with the memorial, our architectural practice conceived what we all now know as the Oklahoma City Skydance Bridge and the architecture of Scissortail Park, among some of our local projects. Even our design on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for the National Native American Veterans Memorial, conceived by Guthrie-based Cheyenne Chief Harvey Pratt and Gina Pratt, celebrates in many ways the beauty of our Native lands and people of Oklahoma.
The award was announced during the Distinguished Service Awards Luncheon honoring businesses, organizations and individuals that have helped improve the beauty and environmental health of Oklahoma City.
OKC Beautiful aims to lead Oklahoma City’s beautification and environmental stewardship through collaboration, education and advocacy.
Butzer received a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Texas and a master’s from Harvard University. He and Torrey are partners in their firm Butzer Architects and Urbanism.
Butzer joined the University of Oklahoma in 2000 as a professor of architecture before being named director of the Division of Architecture in 2013. He became dean of Gibbs College in 2017.
About the University of Oklahoma
Founded in 1890, the University of Oklahoma is a public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. As the state’s flagship university, OU serves the educational, cultural, economic and health care needs of the state, region and nation. OU was named the state’s highest-ranking university in U.S. News & World Report’s most recent Best Colleges list. For more information about the university, visit ou.edu.
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