Originally constructed in 1910 and expanded in 1937, the Altus City Reservoir served as the City’s drinking water supply. The reservoir was never dredged, so sediment accumulated and reduced the storage volume. City leaders now desire to improve the reservoir and develop an adjacent 63 acres into a mixed-use park for recreation.
The students in this Environmental Design Capstone course reviewed historic documents of the original construction, toured the site, met with local leaders, visited the Museum of the Western Prairie, and studied private sector proposals. Not only were the students’ recommendations based on regional materials and design vernacular, but they also drew ideas from similar city parks from throughout Oklahoma. The proposals were sensitive to the mountain view to the east of the reservoir as well as the 2-mile shoreline of hand-laid, vertically-stacked local Creta Stone. Currently, Altus leaders continue to move the project to the next step of implementation.
Project Collaborators: City of Altus: Johnny Barron, Barbara Burleson, Chris Griffith, Chris Riffle; OU College of Architecture, Environmental Design Program: Hope Mander, Ron Frantz; Students of the 2017 Spring Semester Class of Environmental Design Capstone; Environmental Design Students: Nolan Aparicio, Alex Autry, Ian Ruhnke; Planned Program Student: Julie Benyshek
Visit the Institute for Quality Communities website to learn more about the Altus project.
Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture congratulates Thinh "Henry" Duong, a master's student in the Division of Interior Design, for earning first place in the 2026 Robert Bruce Thompson Annual Student Light Fixture Design Competition.
Gibbs College of Architecture Institute for Quality Communities (IQC) Director and Division of Planning, Landscape Architecture, and Design (PLAD) faculty member Amber N. Wiley, Ph.D., recently published a new book, Collective Yearning: Black Women Artists from the Zimmerli Art Museum.
In May, students from the Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture's Architecture, Environmental Design, and Interior Design programs participated in an intensive five-day Studio in Residence at Taliesin West, the iconic winter home and desert laboratory of Frank Lloyd Wright.
