Interior Design students and faculty were recently invited to tour the newly opened NOUN Hotel in Norman’s historic Campus Corner area. The field trip was a collaboration with the Oklahoma Interior Designers Coalition (OIDC) chapter board, the International Interior Design Association (IIDA) Oklahoma City Chapter board, and GH2, an Oklahoma based architecture and design firm. The OIDC, IIDA, and GH2 hosted the entire Interior Design program, including undergraduate students and faculty.
Interior Design students tour the hotel.
Megan Chinowth and Christina Harris, the lead designers of the NOUN Hotel project, are both alumni of the Gibbs Interior Design program as well as current Interior Design Professional Advisory Board Members. Megan and Christina gave the Interior Design students and faculty tours of the newly opened NOUN Hotel, sharing their experiences working on the project. Students were able to observe and ask questions about the design of the rooms, common areas, bar, and restaurant at the NOUN.
Interior Design students view the hotel bar.
Other local design professionals and OIDC and IIDA board members, including Aaron Pilat with GH2, attended the event allowing students to meet and interact with many interior design professionals.
Interior Design students view the NOUN hotel lobby.
Thank you to Megan Chinowth and Christina Harris for facilitating this tour of the new NOUN hotel for our Interior Design students. Additional thanks to OIDC, OIDC President Sara GReen, OIDC President-Elect Mackenzie Matray, the IIDA TX OK chapter, and IIDA TX OK President-Elect Melissa Park for also hosting this wonderful event.
The University of Oklahoma College of Architecture is proud to announce that Model Schools in the Model City, authored by Director of the Institute for Quality Communities, Amber N. Wiley, Ph.D., has been named one of ten finalists for the 2026 ASALH Book Prize for Best New Book in African American History and Culture.
This semester, students in the LA 5535 Studio: Ecological Planning and Design, led by Prof. Afsana Sharmin, took on an ambitious hypothetical project to redesign key parts of the OU campus. Their mission: to tackle the critical real-world challenge of stormwater management through innovative green design.
Petya Stefanoff, Chair of the Educational Committee with the American Planning Association, Oklahoma Chapter (APA-OK) and Gibbs College PhD candidate, has developed a new training program for local government officials. The program, focused on land use, zoning principles, and land development, recently certified its first graduates with Certified Citizen Planner status.
