OU Urban Design alumni recently teamed up with the Society of Urban Design Students to celebrate International Park(ing) Day. On Sept. 15, they occupied parking spaces in downtown Tulsa to transform on-street parking into urban parklets.
Park(ing) Day is a global participatory project where people across the world temporarily repurpose parking spaces and convert them into public parks and social spaces. The annual event promotes safer, greener and more equitable streets and emphasizes the importance of public spaces in urban environments.
Tulsa Park(ing) Day engaged the local community by inviting visitors to check out each pop-up installation and vote for their favorite activation. The interactive event catalyzed a critical discussion about the creation of public spaces and how the city of Tulsa can improve the quality of downtown streets in the long term.
The event was organized by the Downtown Tulsa Partnership, the City of Tulsa, Tulsa’s Young Professionals and Partner Tulsa. The OU Urban Design activation was sponsored by Coracle Coffee and Scraps Designs.
Associate Professors Lee Fithian, Ph.D., and Elizabeth Pober have published a chapter in the recently released New Perspectives in Indoor Air Quality, published by Elsevier. Their contribution, titled “Chapter 16 – Architecture and the Challenges of Indoor Air Quality,” examines the relationship between architecture and indoor air quality.
Dr. Ladan Mozaffarian, Assistant Professor of Regional and City Planning, has been selected to serve as Co-Chair of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) Planners of Color Interest Group (POCIG) for the 2025–2027 term.
The Gibbs College of Architecture is proud to recognize Tahsin Tabassum, a recent graduate of the college’s Master of Regional and City Planning program and current doctoral student at the University of California, Irvine, for receiving the prestigious 2024–2025 American Planning Association (APA) Outstanding Student Award.
