Date
In the spring of 2020, the town of Okemah, Oklahoma requested design assistance from the Institute for Quality Communities (IQC) through the Oklahoma Municipal League. In fall of 2020, twenty-five undergraduate students and nine graduate students enrolled in three sections of the OU College of Architecture’s Historic Preservation Planning course completed a downtown historic building survey for Okemah.
Because the course was taught completely remotely, the students, guided by Ronald Frantz, conducted the survey entirely digitally. Eleven teams of three students each surveyed blocks of Okemah’s historic downtown commercial district. They looked at their blocks over a sixteen-year period (1914-1930) and compared it to the buildings present today.
Students used three sets of historic Sanborn Fire Insurance maps (from 1914, 1923, and 1930) as well as two sets of historic photographs to determine what Okemah’s downtown looked like during the early twentieth century. They used present day site pictures as well as Google street view to remotely see the present state of the district. They were then able to determine what historic buildings are still present.
Sample of sources for survey.
Remote learning presented new challenges to both students and faculty, especially with projects such as this one in which understanding the site of interest is incredibly important. This team of OU students was able to overcome these challenges and still produce amazing and useful work despite never seeing their team, sources, or site in person. The town of Okemah now has a comprehensive digital survey of their historic downtown area that they can use to inform future development.
View the PDF below for a small excerpt of the students' work.
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.
