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OU Construction Science Professor Bryan Bloom received the Provost’s Award for Outstanding Engaged Teaching. This award recognizes faculty that utilize innovative teaching techniques that promote community collaboration and high-quality, engaged learning. According to Ben Bigelow, “Professor Bloom’s passion is community engagement as a vehicle for giving students an unmatched learning experience. He has sustained his work for five years and, despite the additional time and pressure created by these projects, he persists.”
Since Professor Bloom joined as an OU faculty member, he has continued to develop Gibbs College’s “Design + Build” program. This program gives students hands-on experiences and real-world applications of their classroom knowledge. Over the past five years, his students have participated in a wide range of community projects, including an off-grid greenhouse for a school in Oklahoma City, and a mobile medical unit for the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes.
Dean Butzer praised Professor Bloom for his work: “[He] models transdisciplinary leadership and reciprocity, while also teaching construction best practices to our students. To accomplish this, he brings together key partners, including community members to inform project planning, architects or design faculty to conceptualize the designs, investors and philanthropists to fund the projects, and students to construct the projects.”
Congratulations to Professor Bloom for this well-deserved recognition!
Featured Image: Pictured from left to right, Jerry Puckett, Bryan Bloom and Ken Marold in front of a mobile medical unit, a previous Design+Build Project.
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).
