The OU Eco-Sooners received an award at the final competition of the 2023 Solar Decathlon Design Challenge. The team of Gibbs students won the Best Name of the Year award for their well-selected team name. According to the judges, the name strongly reflected the team’s design ideas and innovative strategies.
The Eco-Sooners' Best Name of the Year award certificate.
As first-time participants, the Eco-Sooners received wonderful feedback on their design. The judges highlighted their excellent integration of net-zero strategies into a preserved building, as well as their water harvest system and resilience ideas in the event of a tornado.
According to Dr. Negar Matin, a professor of Interior Design and faculty leader of the Eco-Sooners, “We moved one step closer to our mission of providing true net-zero affordable housing for Oklahoma City residents. Our journey has just begun.”
Congratulations to the OU Eco-Sooners for winning this well-deserved award!
View the video below to learn more about the Eco-Sooners' design.
The Gibbs Design in Action Awards (GDAA) program, led by Dr. Wanda Liebermann, has announced its 2026–2027 funded student projects. The initiative supports design and research work that addresses social, cultural, and economic issues in the built environment through collaboration with faculty and community partners.
The OU Institute for Quality Communities (IQC) 2024 collaboration with the Historic Threatt Filling Station has been recognized in the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City's newly released Byways Report: The Scenic Route to Rural Prosperity – a story-driven publication exploring how road trip culture and place-based tourism can fuel economic growth in rural communities.
The Gibbs College of Architecture is pleased to announce that Camille Germany, Chief of Staff, has been named the 2026 recipient of the university-wide Jennifer L. Wise Good Stewardship Award.
