A book edited by Stephanie Pilat, an OU Professor of Architecture, and Kay Bea Jones received praise in a recent review for the European Architectural History Network. The book, “Routledge Companion to Italian Fascist Architecture,” considers the reception and legacy of fascist architecture and urbanism in Italy. It investigates how these historic sites have been transformed and what constitutes the meaning of these buildings and cities today.
The essays include a rich array of new arguments by both senior and early career scholars from Italy and beyond. Francesco Cianfarani, assistant professor of Architecture, authored three of these essays and served as a section editor. The essays examine the reception of fascist architecture through studies of destruction and adaptation, debates over reuse, artistic interventions and routine daily practices.
The review was conducted by Laura Moure Cecchini, a professor at the University of Padua in Italy. According to Moure Cecchini, the book “unpacks the afterlives of fascist architecture on the Italian peninsula and in Italy’s former colonies in the Mediterranean and in the Horn of Africa.” In her review, she argues that the book is sure to be a “touchstone for those interested in the fate of buildings once the violent regime that sponsored them no longer exist, and in the diverse strategies used to both preserve and resignify them.”
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.
