OU Gibbs College of Architecture is pleased to announce that Lawrence Scarpa, principal of Brooks + Scarpa, has been appointed as the Goff Chair of Creative Architecture for 2024. As Goff Chair, Scarpa is invited to give a public lecture open to all Gibbs students, faculty and staff.
Why do we remember buildings, locations and experiences? Even a place visited in our childhood can conjure emotions that make an impact on us through the memories they create. Lawrence Scarpa, FAIA, will explain the creative process that aspires to make a lasting impression out of even a brief encounter. The lecture will be approximately 45 minutes long, followed by 15 minutes of Q&A. The lecture will take place on Wednesday, September 4 at 3:45 p.m. in Meacham Auditorium in the Oklahoma Memorial Union.
Scarpa is considered a pioneer and leader in the field of sustainable design. In 2022, Scarpa received the National AIA Gold Medal, the institute’s most prestigious honor. He is also the recipient of the ACSA Tau Sigma Delta Gold Medal and has received more than 200 major design awards including twenty-nine National AIA Awards, Architect Magazine’s Progressive Architecture and R+D awards, the HIVE 50 Innovator Award, National AIA Collaborative Achievement Award, AIA Los Angeles Chapter Gold Medal, Architect Magazine’s Top 50 Architecture Firms (ranked 2nd, 4th and 9th respectively), AIA California Council Lifetime Achievement Award, Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt National Design Award, Record Houses, Record Interiors, Rudy Bruner Prize, six AIA COTE “Top Ten Green Building” Awards and was a finalist for the World Habitat Award, one of ten firms selected worldwide.
His work has been exhibited internationally including the National Building Museum in Washington, DC, MOCA Los Angeles, A+D Museum and the Smithsonian Museum. He has been featured in NEWSWEEK and he has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show with Leonardo Di Caprio. In addition, Interior Design Magazine honored him with their Lifetime Achievement Award. His firm Brooks + Scarpa was awarded the National and State of California Architecture Firm Award from the American Institute of Architects.
He in currently on the faculty at the University of Southern California and has taught and lectured at the university level for more than two decades. Some of those institutions include Harvard University, UCLA, SCI-arc, Washington University in St. Louis, University of Florida, University of Michigan, University of Southern California and the University of California at Berkeley. He is a co-founder of the A+D Museum, Los Angeles, Affordable Housing Design Leadership Institute and Livable Places, Inc.; a nonprofit development and public policy organization dedicated to building mixed-use housing and to help develop more sustainable and livable communities.
Petya Stefanoff, Chair of the Educational Committee with the American Planning Association, Oklahoma Chapter (APA-OK) and Gibbs College PhD candidate, has developed a new training program for local government officials. The program, focused on land use, zoning principles, and land development, recently certified its first graduates with Certified Citizen Planner status.
Gibbs Construction Science and Architecture students recently traveled to Dublin, Ireland, to compete in the Associated Schools of Construction (ASC) Region 8 Student Competition. The team partnered with Czech Technical University and secured third place in the Design-Build category.
Gibbs College is pleased to present the exhibition Vollendorf in Oklahoma: The Architecture of Dean Bryant Vollendorf during the Spring 2026 semester. It will be on display in Gould Hall, on the OU-Norman Campus, from February 16, 2026 - March 13, 2026.
