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University of Oklahoma

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OU Gibbs College of Architecture Faculty Receive National Science Foundation Grant

 

A project team of University of Oklahoma researchers and Oklahoma City civic partners are collaborating to create the Legacy Building Toolset, a digital platform that will allow community members to collectively explore identity, the meaning of place, and create and engage with community assets and more easily allow community members to participate in community collaboration projects.

The project recently received a $50,000 award from the National Science Foundation as part of the Civic Innovation Challenge, a multi-agency, federal government research and action competition that aims to fund ready-to-implement, research-based pilot projects that have the potential for scalable, sustainable, and transferable impact on community-identified priorities.

The project team is led by Deborah Richards, Assistant Professor of Architecture, and also includes Vanessa Morrison, the Associate Director of the Institute for Quality Communities, and John Harris, the Director of the Division of Regional and City Planning.

The Legacy Building Toolset is a response to how local residents often experience powerlessness and the exclusion of their voices in the urban planning and policy making process. The toolset will first be developed in the context of Northeastern Oklahoma City but will be applicable to communities across the United States.

Northeastern Oklahoma City is a predominantly Black community currently working to strengthen cultural and economic activities and create a strong sense of place and identity. Today, the racist urban policy and societal norms that shaped the history of the area are being reviewed to identify more equitable urban policies and practices. The Legacy Building Toolset will allow community members to explore their identity and meaning of place in order to create community-driven interpretations of meaning in the built form at a large scale with an overlay of culture and identity. The information from the platform may inform transportation and mobility improvement projects, cultural programming and resources for establishing city recognized commercial districts.

University of Oklahoma

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OU Architecture Faculty Successes Acknowledged at 2023 AIA Oklahoma Awards

 

Five full-time OU Architecture faculty were recognized at the 2023 AIA Honor Awards Celebration, held Sept. 15 at the First National Center in Oklahoma City. The AIA Oklahoma Honor Awards Program recognizes exceptional members for their distinguished leadership and commitment to the quality of life in Oklahoma. The ceremony took place on Sept. 15, 2023, at the First National Center in downtown Oklahoma City.

Ron Frantz – AIA Oklahoma Award for Lifetime Achievement

Frantz received the AIA Oklahoma Award for Lifetime Achievement, which recognizes a lifetime of distinguished leadership and dedication in Architecture and the community. This award is AIA Oklahoma’s highest honor.

Dan Butko – AIA Oklahoma Award for Outstanding Educational Contributions

Butko received the AIA Oklahoma Award for Outstanding Educational Contributions, which recognizes architectural educators who have positively influenced a wide range of students and have maintained relevance by directing students toward the future while drawing on the past.

Deborah Richards – AIA Oklahoma Award for Community Service

Richards received the AIA Oklahoma Award for Community Service, which recognizes an extended commitment to community service or significant contribution evidenced in a positive impact on urban, environmental or neighborhood issues.

OFFICIAL, Amy and Mark Leveno – AIA Oklahoma Honor Awards for Interior Architecture

OFFICIAL received two Honor Awards in the Interior Architecture category for their work on Civitas Capitol Group and Houndstooth Coffee MLK. The Honor Award is the AIA’s highest level of award and recognizes projects with distinctive character and outstanding merit.

Butzer Architects and Urbanism, Hans Butzer – AIA Oklahoma Merit Awards and AIA Central States Citation Awards

Butzer Architects and Urbanism, an award-winning firm led by Hans E. Butzer, dean of Gibbs College, and his partner Torrey Butzer, won two Merit Awards, which recognize projects that clearly demonstrate a level of design that exemplifies superior achievements. The firm also received three Citation Awards, which are given to projects of notable accomplishment with excellent design qualities.

University of Oklahoma

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OU Launches Online Sustainable Architecture Graduate Program

 

In collaboration with OU Online, the Division of Architecture is excited to announce a new Sustainable Architecture graduate program. This master’s program is 100% online and consists of 15 courses that can be completed in just 15 months.

Earning a Master of Science in Sustainable Architecture can prepare students to accelerate their career in a high-growth field. The program’s experienced and interdisciplinary faculty will teach relevant skills centered around industry trends and employer needs.

Stephanie Pilat, director of the Division of Architecture, explained, “Our new online masters in Sustainable Architecture reflects our commitment to teaching evidence-based design. This degree provides a means for those working in the design and construction professions to learn about the latest tools and research in sustainable building technology.”

She continued, “Here at OU, we want to do our part to help raise the level of expertise in our field broadly so that built environment professionals are better equipped to design and build sustainably. We designed this degree program to provide architects, engineers, facilities managers and others with the means to develop expertise in the latest practices and technology related to sustainable design.”

Lee Fithian, associate professor of Architecture and program director of the Master of Science in Sustainable Architecture program, expressed her excitement for the new course. “This is a fantastic opportunity for me to expand and share my passions for Sustainable Architecture using cutting edge, evidence-based design and performative practice to meet climate change head on.”

Applications for this program are now being accepted. Learn more and apply at https://architectureonline.ou.edu/ms-in-sustainable-architecture/.

University of Oklahoma

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OU Interdisciplinary Team Receives Funding from National Science Foundation

 

An interdisciplinary team of OU researchers recently won a Major Research Instrumentation award from the National Science Foundation and received a $589,262 grant. This project is jointly funded by the NSF’s Major Research Instrumentation Program, Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, and Engineering for Civil Infrastructure Program in the division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation.

The CMMI division supports the integration of research and education and funds potentially transformative research projects. The CMMI works to advance the future of manufacturing, the design of innovative materials and building technologies, infrastructure resilience and sustainability and systems for decision-making robotics and controls.

The research team includes Professors of Architecture Andres Cavieres as co-principal investigator and Dan Butko as senior personnel. Joining Cavieres and Butko is Principal Investigator P. Scott Harvey, Co-Principal Investigators Yingtao Liu, Shreya Vemuganti and Jeffrey Volz, and Senior Personnel Amy Cerato, Royce Floyd and Jonathan Hils.

This grant will enable the team to acquire a real-time hybrid simulation testing system for cyber-physical research that replicates realistic loading conditions. This new technology will support the development of resilient infrastructure by improving researchers’ understanding of the complex behavior of building materials and structural components when affected by natural hazards.

According to Harvey, “The new instrument will transform the way the multidisciplinary MRI team conducts research, and the structural materials and components validated using the instrument will help to mitigate economic, property and human losses caused by natural hazards, improving the well-being of individuals in society.”

Learn more about this project and the NSF research grant at https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2320379.

Penn State

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Architecture students focus on concrete 3D printing to help revitalize Oil City

 

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The federally designated Oil Region National Heritage Area in the northwestern portion of Pennsylvania is where the modern petroleum age began in the 1800s. Oil City, Pennsylvania, is included in this area; however, the oil companies that supported the town’s economy and infrastructure in its early days have since moved away, leaving the town in search of a new identity.

“The smaller towns [in the areas surrounding Oil City] have been in steady decline since then,” said Selina Pedi-Smith, a community developer in the region. “I felt a responsibility to fix it.”

In her quest to help bring vitality back to the area, Pedi-Smith and her husband, Don Smith, reached out to José Duarte, Stuckeman Chair in Design Innovation and director of the Stuckeman Center for Design Computing in the Stuckeman School at Penn State, through a connection at X-HAB 3D, a concrete 3D-printing company. Duarte, who is co-leading Penn State’s efforts to use concrete to 3D print sustainable, affordable housing, seemed to be an obvious partner to help the couple explore how this technology may be applied to help revitalize the Oil City area.

Smith and Pedi-Smith identified a plot of land in Oil City to use as a case study and sponsored an upper-level architecture studio course taught by Duarte this semester to help visualize how the town’s community and economy could be bolstered by designing an urban community setting that features 3D-printed concrete homes.

The main challenge the students faced was designing a 62-acre area that features different housing options for residents that can be 3D printed using concrete, as well as public attractions and community amenities to complete their urban design projects.

Early in the semester, students met with Pedi-Smith and Smith to learn about the Oil City area, including the neighboring towns of Franklin and Emlenton, and split into teams to develop different design options for the site.

Pedi-Smith hopes that revitalizing Oil City will help people realize the importance of small communities by attracting tourists and workers to the town’s natural resources, such as bike trails and environmental scenery, with activities that will draw them to the area.

“[Pedi-Smith and Smith] were so open to us playing and letting our imaginations run wild, which was heartwarming,” said Grescia Aguilar, a fifth-year architecture student in the course. “This is being started by a couple who really wants to bring back the beauty of their town.”

“Bringing in this concrete printing will popularize the city and encourage people to move there,” she added.

The students presented their initial group designs to Pedi-Smith and Smith at their mid-term review on Oct. 26.

“I think [Smith and Pedi-Smith] were impressed by the variety of solutions that the students came up with and said that they wish they could use all of them,” Duarte said after the review. “It shows that each student can develop a design that is different from the others but equally interesting.”

Each group kept the town’s different demographics in mind with their designs, focusing on community engagement and tourism. Some groups included amenities that encourage community gatherings, such as libraries, gyms, playgrounds, museums, athletic fields and courts, community pools, museums and art studios.

Fifth-year student Cara Trettel and her group looked at the demographic they felt would want to live in concrete 3D-printed houses.

“We focused on ‘digital nomads,’ or remote workers, and took the approach of making a community for them that also has an agrihood component to it, which is a residential area centered around community farming,” she said.

The students aimed to revitalize the city by bringing out its best features and demonstrating an appreciation for the area’s natural beauty, while adding the futuristic appeal of 3D-printed housing.

“Resilient housing is very important, especially in a housing crisis that is continuously getting worse. We always need more houses,” fifth-year architecture student Trevor Klatt said. “Concrete 3D printing might not be the only solution, but it’s definitely a way of creating neighborhoods that can be very quickly and easily built.”

Students used concrete to 3D print certain elements of their housing designs and created small-scale models to demonstrate the layout of a housing area. They presented their final site designs on Dec. 7 to a jury of reviewers including Pedi-Smith and Smith; Andre Chaszar, architecture lecturer; Mike Fisk, technical fellow at the Marshall Space Flight Center from NASA; Frank Jacobus, professor and head of architecture; Dan Pawluczyk, architectural designer at SHRADERGROUP and a 2022 Penn State architecture alumnus; and Ute Poerschke, professor and associate department head for architecture graduate education.

Smith and Pedi-Smith said they will take bits and pieces of each project that was presented as they continue their efforts to revitalize Oil City.

“As these projects take shape and become a reality over the next few years or so, I hope we can show how you can marry quality of life, economic revitalization and environmental revitalization and have a healthy, equitable, resilient community,” Pedi-Smith said.

Co-instructors for the course were College of Engineering faculty members Sven Bilén, director of the doctor of engineering program; Nathan Brown, assistant professor of architectural engineering; Ali Memari, professor of civil engineering; and Aleksandra Radlinska, associate professor of civil engineering. Naveen Muthumanickam, a research engineer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory who graduated from Penn State with a doctorate in architecture in 2021, and Negar Ashrafi, also a 2021 architecture doctoral graduate, assisted with the course. Nusrat Tabassum, third-year doctoral candidate in architecture, and Gonçalo Duarte, fifth-year doctoral candidate in architectural engineering, served as teaching assistants.

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