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A project team of University of Oklahoma researchers and Oklahoma City civic partners are collaborating to create the Legacy Building Toolset, a digital platform that will allow community members to collectively explore identity, the meaning of place, and create and engage with community assets and more easily allow community members to participate in community collaboration projects.
The project recently received a $50,000 award from the National Science Foundation as part of the Civic Innovation Challenge, a multi-agency, federal government research and action competition that aims to fund ready-to-implement, research-based pilot projects that have the potential for scalable, sustainable, and transferable impact on community-identified priorities.
The project team is led by Deborah Richards, Assistant Professor of Architecture, and also includes Vanessa Morrison, the Associate Director of the Institute for Quality Communities, and John Harris, the Director of the Division of Regional and City Planning.
The Legacy Building Toolset is a response to how local residents often experience powerlessness and the exclusion of their voices in the urban planning and policy making process. The toolset will first be developed in the context of Northeastern Oklahoma City but will be applicable to communities across the United States.
Northeastern Oklahoma City is a predominantly Black community currently working to strengthen cultural and economic activities and create a strong sense of place and identity. Today, the racist urban policy and societal norms that shaped the history of the area are being reviewed to identify more equitable urban policies and practices. The Legacy Building Toolset will allow community members to explore their identity and meaning of place in order to create community-driven interpretations of meaning in the built form at a large scale with an overlay of culture and identity. The information from the platform may inform transportation and mobility improvement projects, cultural programming and resources for establishing city recognized commercial districts.
To learn more about the Legacy Building Toolset and the other projects that received a 2022 Civic Innovation Challenge grant, click here.
Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture assistant professor Amy Leveno and Mark Leveno, co-founders of OFFICIAL Design, have received a 2026 AIA Central States Region Design Award for the firm’s Granger Annex Community Center project in Garland, Texas.
Construction Industry Speaker Series welcomed Stephen Evans from the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum to give a lecture on better conversations and relationship building.
The University of Oklahoma Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture Hall of Fame recognizes a select number of high-character individuals who have made a significant and lasting positive impact on Gibbs College, its students, staff, faculty, alumni and/or to communities across the globe. The impact may have been, or continues to be, in the form of service and mentorship, sustained professional excellence, and/or advancement and financial support. Joseph Edgar Smay is part of the 2025 Hall of Fame class.
