Deborah Richards, Associate Professor of Architecture at OU, was recently featured in a PBS News Hour story on “How art is retelling powerful stories of Tulsa massacre, capturing community’s hopes.” The video was created for the 100-year anniversary of the massacre and highlights how art and history keep the memories of victims alive in the Tulsa community.
Along with artist Alexander Tamahn, Richards aims to connect the past to contemporary Black entrepreneurial spaces. They design and 3D-print large, terra-cotta blocks, a nod to Tulsa’s art deco tradition, to enhance today’s business spaces. Richards states, “The history of Greenwood is one of resilience and also building and rebuilding over time, because of what happened. And so we thought, how can we kind of build a workflow for this project for Tulsa that is about rebuilding and building and this ceramics history?”
The Greenwood Ceramic Storytelling Project has been featured in front of three businesses in Tulsa since May 25th, 2021.
For more information on the project, visit www.greenwoodartproject.org/, and to watch the PBS feature, visit www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-art-is-retelling-powerful-stories-of-tulsa-massacre-capturing-communitys-hopes.
Examples of the 3d-printed terracotta blocks in Greenwood.
A project designed by Gibbs College of Architecture faculty member Austin Lightle has been selected for BuildFest 2026, a national art and architecture festival held at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in New York, on the historic grounds of the 1969 Woodstock Music Festival.
Two Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture alumni are helping shape recommendations that could influence affordable housing design and construction across Oklahoma.
The University of Oklahoma Libraries recently welcomed Carl Siegel as an Architecture Librarian and Archivist and Assistant Professor. In his role, Siegel supports students, faculty and staff across the Gibbs College of Architecture while also serving as archivist for the American School of Architecture Archives.
