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OU Construction Science Professor Bryan Bloom received the Provost’s Award for Outstanding Engaged Teaching. This award recognizes faculty that utilize innovative teaching techniques that promote community collaboration and high-quality, engaged learning. According to Ben Bigelow, “Professor Bloom’s passion is community engagement as a vehicle for giving students an unmatched learning experience. He has sustained his work for five years and, despite the additional time and pressure created by these projects, he persists.”
Since Professor Bloom joined as an OU faculty member, he has continued to develop Gibbs College’s “Design + Build” program. This program gives students hands-on experiences and real-world applications of their classroom knowledge. Over the past five years, his students have participated in a wide range of community projects, including an off-grid greenhouse for a school in Oklahoma City, and a mobile medical unit for the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes.
Dean Butzer praised Professor Bloom for his work: “[He] models transdisciplinary leadership and reciprocity, while also teaching construction best practices to our students. To accomplish this, he brings together key partners, including community members to inform project planning, architects or design faculty to conceptualize the designs, investors and philanthropists to fund the projects, and students to construct the projects.”
Congratulations to Professor Bloom for this well-deserved recognition!
Featured Image: Pictured from left to right, Jerry Puckett, Bryan Bloom and Ken Marold in front of a mobile medical unit, a previous Design+Build Project.
Robert L. Wesley, a pioneering architect and beloved mentor, has died at age 88. A graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Wesley joined Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) in 1964 and became the firm's first Black partner in 1984. Throughout his career, he contributed to significant architectural projects while maintaining a strong commitment to civic engagement and professional mentorship.
The Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture is proud to celebrate a series of recent accomplishments by Dr. Jim Collard, Professor of Practice in the Division of Planning, Landscape Architecture, and Design, whose work continues to shape conversations around Indigenous economic development nationally and internationally.
University of Oklahoma Gibbs College of Architecture Dean Hans E. [PA1.1]Butzer returned to one of his most significant works on December 15, joining survivors and past and present board members for the groundbreaking of a $15.8 million expansion of the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum.
