Join us in congratulating Firas Chamas, an OU architecture student, for winning a competition held by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Participants were asked to transform an open space in Tyre, Lebanon, into a child-friendly recreational area that would improve the living conditions for refugees of the area.
“I entered the competition because I believe that to help a city evolve, we must give priority to mending the demographical barriers,” said Chamas. ” [My] aim was to resemble the existing conditions of Tyre, where Palestinian and Lebanese people live together in harmony with no visible divisions.” Chamas’ design has since been implemented by the UNDP!
Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture professor and Institute for Quality Communities Director Dr. Amber N. Wiley’s book, Model Schools in the Model City: Race, Planning, and Education in the Nation’s Capital, has received two major honors from the Urban History Association.
Research initiated by Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture alumna Naila Hasan during her master’s studies at the University of Oklahoma has continued through faculty collaboration and resulted in a peer-reviewed publication in HERD: Health Environments Research & Design Journal.
Gibbs College of Architecture is pleased to announce Esther Thorp, Tyler Boydstun and Chukwuma Nwokoye as the winners of the 2026 Construction Innovation Translation Hub (CIThub) Student Ideas Competition.
