The Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture is pleased to announce that Dr. Tamar Zinguer, Associate Professor of Architecture, has been selected to participate in the prestigious 2026 Summer Residency at the National Humanities Center (NHC).
The competitively awarded residency will take place from June 1 through June 26, 2026, at the Center’s campus in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. The National Humanities Center is one of the nation’s leading institutes for advanced study in the humanities, providing scholars with dedicated time, resources, and a vibrant intellectual community to support major research projects.
During her residency, Zinguer will write a full chapter of her forthcoming book manuscript, Sandbox: An Architectural History of Play. The chapter, titled “Play Mountains (c. 1960),” examines significant playground designs in New York City during the 1960s. It considers visionary but unrealized proposals—such as Isamu Noguchi and Louis Kahn’s lunar landscape design for Riverside Park—alongside experimental sand-art techniques occasionally used in public spaces, including Costantino Nivola’s bas-relief murals. The chapter also analyzes innovative designs that became influential models for other cities, including the Jacob Riis Housing Project Playground by Paul Friedberg and the Adventure Playground in Central Park by Richard Dattner. In addition, Zinguer traces the legal and public debates surrounding sandboxes during the decade, culminating in New York City’s ban on sandboxes in the early 1970s amid growing concerns about sanitation.
Zinguer’s participation in the NHC Summer Residency is made possible with support from the OU Arts & Humanities Forum. As an institutional sponsor of the National Humanities Center, OU conducts an internal competition to nominate faculty members for national consideration, making this selection both a campus and national distinction.
Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture congratulates Thinh "Henry" Duong, a master's student in the Division of Interior Design, for earning first place in the 2026 Robert Bruce Thompson Annual Student Light Fixture Design Competition.
Gibbs College of Architecture Institute for Quality Communities (IQC) Director and Division of Planning, Landscape Architecture, and Design (PLAD) faculty member Amber N. Wiley, Ph.D., recently published a new book, Collective Yearning: Black Women Artists from the Zimmerli Art Museum.
In May, students from the Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture's Architecture, Environmental Design, and Interior Design programs participated in an intensive five-day Studio in Residence at Taliesin West, the iconic winter home and desert laboratory of Frank Lloyd Wright.
