Three Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture students spent part of their summer building a playhouse to be sold at the Dallas CASA Parade of Playhouses competition.
The competition raises funds for CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates), a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving abused and neglected children in the area.
“The reason I enrolled in the CASA playhouse course is because it is for a good cause,” said Skye Reid, one of the students in the class. “Also, this was the perfect opportunity for something I really believe is helping me learn in a more hands on environment.”
In just a few weeks, the students designed and built the playhouse, entitled “The Tower of Shadows,” to capture a childlike perspective and sense of wonder. The playhouse uses stacking layers cut to create unique interior spaces.
“This course is a good experience for students who want to gain a better understanding of how things are built in real life,” said Reid.
“Most of our time in the studio is designing in a 3D program, but this class gives you the opportunity to work with different materials and connections to make something come into life at full scale.”
The project is offered as a course at the end of the spring semester, and was taught by Francesco Cianfarani and Garrett Stowe this year. The course name is ARCH 4970: CASA Playhouse Parade 2019 Design and Build Course.
Telesis, a journal produced by students in the University of Oklahoma Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture, has earned first place in the 2026 Douglas Haskell Award for Student Journals for its seventh volume, “Unfold.” This marks the fourth time the publication has earned recognition for excellence in student architectural journalism. It shares the honor with student journals from Columbia University, University of Michigan, and Cal Poly.
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.
