Storywalk for L’Ouverture High School
Last school year, Interior Design students within the Gibbs College of Architecture helped the L'Ouverture Historical Committee (LHC) in the City of McAlester with their plans to preserve the historic L'Ouverture High School. L'Ouverture School first opened in 1908...
Progress Continues in Westville
During the Spring 2023 semester, IQC worked with the town of Westville, OK, on an array of projects to revitalize the town and improve accessibility and connectivity. One of the main objectives of the project was to design a concept for converting a large, empty...
IQC’s Ron Frantz Honored at AIA Awards Banquet
The Oklahoma and Central States AIA Awards Banquet was held this past Friday, September 15, 2023. There, IQC's own Ron Frantz was awarded the Lifetime Achievement award and received a standing ovation. This award commemorates Ron's lifetime of...
Garden Oaks: A Bright Future in Northeast Oklahoma City
Garden Oaks Elementary SchoolIn 2021, the Alpha Community Foundation of Oklahoma purchased a vacant Oklahoma City Public School building with the goal of converting the facility into a community center. The former Garden Oaks Elementary School is now set to be...
IQC Partners with Kay County TSET for Walkability and Placemaking Summit
This summer the IQC (Institute for Quality Communities) partnered with Kay County TSET (Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust) and to host the first ever Oklahoma Towns: Walkability and Placemaking Summit. Due to COVID-19, the highly anticipated biennial Placemaking...
IQC Project Partners Win Grants
Two IQC project partners recently won nearly $150,000 in funding from Oklahoma Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust (TSET) to enhance public spaces and walkability.Both of these IQC projects were made possible in part by sponsorship from the Oklahoma...
Quality Communities Retreats
This fall, we hosted a new program called the Quality Communities Retreat sponsored by the Mayors' Institute on City Design and Oklahoma Municipal League. Between two retreat sessions, we gathered representatives from eight Oklahoma communities, along with...
Webinar: Anchors and Connectors for Small Town Success
On December 17, 2020, we hosted a free, public webinar via Zoom. Anchors and Connectors are key components for building a strong foundation of small town success. This workshop, co-sponsored by the Mayors’ Institute on City Design and the OU Institute for Quality Communities explored Anchors and Connectors with different perspectives.
Placemaking & Community Building During Covid-19
Much of the world's population is getting familiar with the term "social distancing" and what it means for daily life and personal well-being. This public health strategy in communities goes back a long time. More than 100 years ago, Oklahoma faced the...
Propose a Project 2020-21
Community assistance projects are a collaborative effort between the OU Institute for Quality Communities, Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture, and representatives from communities in Oklahoma. Projects result in conceptual design and planning assistance....
IQC Hosts Mayor’s Institute on City Design
IQC hosted the Mayor's Institute on City Design for a regional session in Oklahoma City November 20-22. 7 mayors and 7 resource team members in fields related to design, planning, and development came together for two days of meetings. Each mayor brought a...
Guymon’s Curb Extension Pilot Project
In June 2017, an IQC team traveled to Guymon, Oklahoma at the invitation of the Texas County TSET Healthy Living Program. During our trip, we talked with community leaders and residents about low-cost improvements that might slow down traffic and make it...