Recent alumni of OU’s Master of Urban Design program are seeing their visions for Collinsville, Oklahoma, come to life. On Aug. 21, 2023, local officials announced a $4.4 million project in partnership with LandPlan to revitalize Collinsville’s historic downtown area.
Back in 2020, Master of Urban Design alumnus Chris Paulsen designed a new downtown park, plaza and food truck park in Collinsville as a part of his capstone project, “The Depot: A Collinsville Market.” Paulsen worked closely with local community members and stakeholders to develop a design proposal for a vacant lot next to the local fair barn and veteran’s building.
After conducting in-depth research and engaging with the local community, Paulsen recommended that the city relocate the historic depot station and caboose, an important local site and museum built in 1899, to the Collinsville Market. He also came up with several placemaking ideas to revitalize this new space such as farmers markets and movie nights.
A rendering of a food truck event from Paulsen’s Project, “The Depot: A Collinsville Market.”
Paulsen’s design ideas are now being incorporated into the master plan for the Depot Park. According to Paulsen, “When you spend a year working on a project like this, you hope it becomes more than a dusty plan on a shelf. It makes me happy to see it go from just being a plan, to taking its first steps, to becoming a reality.”
A rendering of the Depot Park from Paulsen’s Project, “The Depot: A Collinsville Market.”
He continued, “I love how LandPlan was able to integrate some of my ideas and reimagine them, such as incorporating the water tower into playground equipment. The water tower was one of my favorite concepts for the park, so it was exciting to see it. This goes to show that one idea can be interpreted in so many different ways.”
Jessi Stringer, an alumna of the Master of Urban Design program and current city planner for Collinsville, is overseeing the implementation of the new Depot Park. Current plans for the park include a performance stage, a food truck park, a farmers market area, a gathering space with outdoor seating, and a playground with synthetic turf and a play fountain.
Paulsen expressed his excitement for the new project, “I look forward to the day I can go to Downtown Collinsville to see the difference this project has made and how much happiness it can bring to a small town in Oklahoma.”
Learn more about the upcoming project.
Featured Image: “Depot Park drone photo sim #2” from LandPlan.
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.
