Dr. Wanda Liebermann, an assistant professor of Architecture, was recently awarded funding as a part of the Gibb’s College of Architecture’s Program for Research Enhancement. Each year, this merit-based program grants funds to Gibb’s faculty members in order to increase their research and creative activities.
Dr. Liebermann received the grant to fund the completion of her book manuscript, Architecture’s Disability Problem, in contract with Routledge. The book analyzes architectural documents and built form, and utilizes public media, interviews, and direct professional experience to address the persistence of exclusionary architectural designs.
Dr. Liebermann analyzes design education, code and policy, and projects that challenge code-compliance to understand how architects produce and share knowledge about atypical human bodies. Her book fights for more creative engagement with concepts like accommodation and interdependence with a goal of reconceptualizing relationships between the built environment and the human body.
Gibbs College of Architecture is proud to recognize Petya Stefanoff, who is pursuing her doctorate in the Planning, Design & Construction (PDC) program, has been appointed the new role of Director of Community Development for the City of Shawnee, Oklahoma. She joined the city in 2024.
Gibbs College of Architecture is pleased to announce that Amber N. Wiley, Ph.D., associate professor in the Division of Planning, Landscape Architecture and Design and director of the Institute for Quality Communities, has received national recognition for her book Model Schools in the Model City. The book has been named a finalist for the 2026 the PROSE Awards.
Gibbs College of Architecture Regional + City Planning Professor of Practice Vanessa Morrison and Associate Professor of Architecture Deborah Richards’ Open Design Collective received top honors at the inaugural BlackSpace Urbanist Collective Studio KIN Pitch Night Competition, held last month in Brooklyn, New York City.
