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Five full-time OU Architecture faculty were recognized at the 2023 AIA Honor Awards Celebration, held Sept. 15 at the First National Center in Oklahoma City. The AIA Oklahoma Honor Awards Program recognizes exceptional members for their distinguished leadership and commitment to the quality of life in Oklahoma. The ceremony took place on Sept. 15, 2023, at the First National Center in downtown Oklahoma City. Read on to see the full list of award-winning Gibbs faculty.
Ron Frantz.
Frantz received the AIA Oklahoma Award for Lifetime Achievement, which recognizes a lifetime of distinguished leadership and dedication in Architecture and the community. This award is AIA Oklahoma’s highest honor.
Frantz has dedicated his career to revitalizing Oklahoma’s historic downtowns and equipping its residents with preservation training and tools. He has worked to protect architectural treasures across the state for the benefit of current and future generations by guiding preservation efforts in the design profession.
Daniel Butko.
Butko received the AIA Oklahoma Award for Outstanding Educational Contributions, which recognizes architectural educators who have positively influenced a wide range of students and have maintained relevance by directing students toward the future while drawing on the past.
Butko has worked in the Architecture industry for more than 30 years and has gained a variety of academic and professional experiences with design, client management, construction administration and acoustical consultation. In Gibbs College, he regularly teaches design studios, materials and sustainable technology courses, design-build courses and an architectural acoustics elective.
Deborah Richards.
Richards received the AIA Oklahoma Award for Community Service, which recognizes an extended commitment to community service or significant contribution evidenced in a positive impact on urban, environmental or neighborhood issues.
Richards teaches architecture design studios as well as computational design and fabrication seminars. She is also a licensed architect in Oklahoma, and across the U.S. As an architect, she is dedicated to creating a more equitable and sustainable world through design excellence and community-led design.
Amy Leveno and Mark Leveno.
Since its creation in 2012, OFFICIAL has earned numerous design awards, has been featured on the AIA Dallas Tour of Homes and has been published nationally and internationally in books, magazines, and design websites. The firm’s furniture design and fabrication shop utilizes a combination of handcraft and digital construction techniques and primarily develops limited edition pieces.
The firm received two Honor Awards in the Interior Architecture category for their work on Civitas Capitol Group and Houndstooth Coffee MLK. The Honor Award is the AIA’s highest level of award and recognizes projects with distinctive character and outstanding merit.
Learn more about OFFICIAL and the firm’s award winning projects.
Hans Butzer.
Butzer Architects and Urbanism, an award-winning firm led by Hans E. Butzer, dean of Gibbs College, and his partner Torrey Butzer, won two Merit Awards, which recognize projects that clearly demonstrate a level of design that exemplifies superior achievements. The firm also received three Citation Awards, which are given to projects of notable accomplishment with excellent design qualities.
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.
