5th Year Architecture Students recently installed an exhibition titled “Reconstructing Incarceration” at MAINSITE Contemporary Art Gallery. The exhibition presented the students’ work from the special topics studio taught by Prof. Marjorie Callahan and Dr. Keith Gaddie. Explore the virtual tour of the exhibition below.
The exhibition and the students’ work “aims to create design solutions to the defects we found in the current jail system we have today in America.” Using the Oklahoma County Jail as a case study, the student redesigned every aspect of the jail focusing on the themes of “autonomy among detainees, a building modeled after mixed-use development, and community involvement.”
The exhibit was split into five main parts: Master Plan, Cottage Design, Exterior Spaces, Gathering, and Jail Tech. Visitors to the exhibit could explore the students’ designs, and in many portions, they were able to interact with the exhibit in order to understand the principles of incarceration that the students chose to focus on, including deterrence, incapacitation, retribution, and rehabilitation. The students previously traveled to Washington DC earlier this semester to present their project to the State Department.
Learn more about the Reconstructing Incarceration project at the OU Daily, NPR StateImpact Oklahoma, and News9.
View photos from the exhibition in the gallery below.
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.
