30 high school students from across the state took part in OU Gibbs College’s recent annual design camp, led this year by interior design faculty Elizabeth Pober and Chelsea Holcomb. The camp introduces students to OU’s Interior Design and Architecture degree programs and associated professions.
Design camp students with architectural models.
From June 4-9, the students were provided the full college experience, with the opportunity to live in the residence halls, eat in the cafeteria and attend classes. They also participated in teambuilding exercises, learned about the elements and principles of design and developed basic graphic skills.
Design camp students creating digital models.
Throughout the week, the students worked on a project where they designed a small coffee shop kiosk, located on the South Oval of the OU Norman campus. For the project, the students conducted precedent studies, built physical and digital models, and created floor plans, elevations, sections and perspective renderings.
Students on the South Oval.
The students utilized important architectural tools including SketchUp to create digital models and a heliodon to study the impact of daylight on their designs. By the end of the week, the students presented their full-scale design plans to share their ideas and show what they learned.
Testing impacts of daylight with the heliodon.
This year, Gibbs College received a grant from the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education to fund the camp. Gibbs also partnered with OU Precollegiate Programs to provide students with housing, food arrangements and camp counselors. This year’s camp counselors included fellow Gibbs students Joey Barzellone, a third-year Interior Design student, and Ben Jawad, a third-year Architecture student.
Pober would like to thank Chris Elliot, Joseph Tassinari, Cassie Eads and everyone else who made this camp possible. She hopes to receive grant funding again next summer to host her 14th annual design camp.
Associate Professors Lee Fithian, Ph.D., and Elizabeth Pober have published a chapter in the recently released New Perspectives in Indoor Air Quality, published by Elsevier. Their contribution, titled “Chapter 16 – Architecture and the Challenges of Indoor Air Quality,” examines the relationship between architecture and indoor air quality.
Dr. Ladan Mozaffarian, Assistant Professor of Regional and City Planning, has been selected to serve as Co-Chair of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) Planners of Color Interest Group (POCIG) for the 2025–2027 term.
The Gibbs College of Architecture is proud to recognize Tahsin Tabassum, a recent graduate of the college’s Master of Regional and City Planning program and current doctoral student at the University of California, Irvine, for receiving the prestigious 2024–2025 American Planning Association (APA) Outstanding Student Award.
