Felipe Flores, a PhD Student in Planning, Design, and Construction under the advisement of Dr. Angela Person, was recently awarded the Architectural Research Centers Consortium’s (ARCC) 2022 King Medal for the University of Oklahoma. The King Medal, named in honor of the late Jonathan King, is awarded to one student per ARCC member institution. Recipients are selected at the discretion of member institutions based on criteria that acknowledges innovation, integrity, and scholarship in architectural and/or environmental design research.
Felipe, an Ecuadorian architect, is currently conducting research involving Indigenous communities in the Amazon. He is particularly interested in exploring how design can alternatively engage with issues related to encroachment on Indigenous territories, resource extraction, and contemporary narratives of what a possible post-development landscape in the Andean Amazon could hopefully look like.
Felipe recently presented a poster with the early stages of his research at 34th Annual National Conference on Race & Ethnicity in American Higher Education (NCORE 2022) held in Portland, Oregon. He used the conference presentation to determine receptiveness of the audience towards the topic and gather important feedback.
Felipe also co-organized the Resilient Futures Symposium and contributed to the Muscogee Futurity exhibition, which both took place in the Spring of 2022. As part of his role as a graduate fellow with the Center for Peace and Development, Felipe co-organized the Youth Perspectives on Climate Change symposium. He also was a student editor for the most recent volume of the student journal Telesis.
The Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture announces John Harris as Associate Dean for Research ad interim, effective Aug. 25, 2026, until the permanent position is filled.
Gibbs College is pleased to announce the 2026 Gibbs College Faculty & Staff Awards recipients. These individuals were recognized by Dean Butzer during the Gibbs College Back to School Meeting and will be honored during the Celebration Banquet in October. They were nominated by their colleagues via an open nomination process.
Telesis, the Gibbs College of Architecture’s student journal, has been awarded a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts to support its next two issues, “Pause” (Volume IX) and “React” (Volume X).