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The Community Catalyst team, recipients of a 2024–2025 Gibbs Design in Action Award (GDAA), partnered with Sisu Youth Services Inc. to provide architectural services that support the organization’s goal of ending homelessness in the Oklahoma City area. The GDAA is a grant initiative that supports student-led design and research projects that critically engage issues of community, social, and economic concern within the built environment. Through this program, students explore meaningful questions and propose creative design solutions that respond to community needs across Oklahoma.
Site plan showing the pavilion location at Sisu Youth Services in Oklahoma City.
The Community Catalyst team undertook a winding process of learning how to support the design needs of this non-profit. They worked with Sisu Youth Services to create marketing materials for community outreach programming and to reimagine a recently acquired neighboring property, where the organization plans to expand its existing housing. Local architect AHMM had developed a design, but Sisu Youth faced resistance from the surrounding neighborhood. As a trust-building effort, the team helped the organization activate the lot as a public space. Their work culminated in a design-build pavilion that gives young residents a sheltered outdoor space to socialize—its teal blue canopy conferring identity to the center and its community.
Left: Display boards show the students’ “Roots of Recognition” project for Sisu Youth Services. Right: OU architecture students Emma Eitzen, Jordan Hughes, and Gracie Kimbrell stand in front of the completed teal-canopy pavilion.
OU architecture students and community members work together to install posts for the new pavilion at Sisu Youth Services in Oklahoma City.
Walkthrough of the project.
A team of Construction Science and Architecture students from the Gibbs College of Architecture made their mark on the national stage this week, earning third place out of 37 universities competing at the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Student Competition, held during the International Builders' Show in Orlando, February 16-18, 2026.
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has elevated Gary Armbruster, FAIA, ALEP to its prestigious College of Fellows—AIA’s highest membership honor—for his exceptional work and sustained contributions to architecture and society. Fellowship recognizes architects who have achieved a standard of excellence in the profession and made a significant impact at a national level. Members elevated to this distinction carry the FAIA designation after their name.
Students from the Spring 2026 Graduate 4 Architecture Design Studio, led by Professor Amy Leveno, exhibited their work at the School of Visual Arts. The exhibition, titled Reimagining the OU School of Visual Arts, featured drawings, models, and animations developed throughout the semester's studio project. The show was hosted in The Spotlight, a creative gallery space located on the first floor of the Fred Jones Art Center, and ran from January 20–30, 2026.
