In Spring 2022, Landscape Architecture students from Gibbs College collaborated with OU Rainbolt College of Education students on the design of an outdoor play and learning environment at the new Institute of Child Development (ICD). The first phase of the project was installed last summer and was recently highlighted in the winter 2023 edition of Sooner Magazine.
The ICD is a nonprofit preschool located on OU’s campus that provides a quality early childhood education experience for children ages 2-5 through self-selected center learning experiences. The school also functions as a laboratory for undergraduate students, a practicum site for graduate students, and provides research opportunities for OU faculty.
A hill slide at the ICD playground. Photo by Travis Caperton.
The students worked together to create a low-cost, eco-friendly, and sustainable outdoor play area, and were directed by Sarah Little, a professor of Landscape Architecture, Becca Waggoner, the Director of ICD, and Kyong-Ah Kwon, the Drusa B. Cable Endowed Chair. The final design features a drive-through tricycle storage shed, “mud kitchens” for play using dirt and sand, gardening beds, and a child-sized bridge.
Read the full article in Sooner Magazine.
Gibbs College is pleased to present the exhibition Vollendorf in Oklahoma: The Architecture of Dean Bryant Vollendorf during the Spring 2025 semester. It will be on display in Gould Hall, on the OU-Norman Campus, from February 16, 2026 - March 13, 2026.
On November 21, 2025, the Mainsite Contemporary Art gallery was transformed into a showcase of innovation and craftsmanship for the University of Oklahoma’s furniture design build studio exhibition, “Purpose in Form.”
Associate Professors Lee Fithian, Ph.D., and Elizabeth Pober have published a chapter in the recently released New Perspectives in Indoor Air Quality, published by Elsevier. Their contribution, titled “Chapter 16 – Architecture and the Challenges of Indoor Air Quality,” examines the relationship between architecture and indoor air quality.
