Associate Professor David L. Boeck and College of Engineering Professor Musharraf Zaman have been awarded a two-year $250,000 grant from the Oklahoma Department of Transportation to study the use of Recycled Asphalt Shingles (RAS) in road mix design. A significant number of asphalt shingles are damaged each year in Oklahoma due to storms, and this grant will allow testing which should prove their viability in road construction.

Dr. Khosrow Bozorgi will be presenting a paper entitled “Contributions of the Middle East to European Architecture” at the 5th Annual ASMEA (Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa). Conference on October 11-13, 2012 in Washington, D.C. Dr. Bozorgi is also the Founder of the The Center for Middle Eastern Architecture and Culture at the College of Architecture, which was established in the spring of 2012. The Center seeks to advance knowledge of the Middle Eastern built environment and culture, and will support scholarship that is of historical and contemporary importance, by acting as a coordinating body for participating universities and institutions whose research focus relates to this geographic area.

 

Assistant Professor Daniel Butko was the Instructor for a Spring Intercession Course in which students designed and built a playhouse for the Playhouse Parade project for CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) of Oklahoma County. This is the third year the college has been involved in the project. The playhouses were raffled off in early June 2012 to raise money for CASA, which provides trained court appointed volunteers who advocate for the best interests of abused or neglected children in the juvenile court system. The playhouse was designed to be easy to assemble with light-weight materials, and to be weatherproof. The students used harvested cedar from around the Norman campus and wood donated from local construction sites in this year’s design. Krone Construction and Western Plastics also donated materials. Enrolled and volunteer students included Aaron Crandall, Haven “Bud” Hardage, Nick Norsworthy, Hunter Roth, Alma Sandoval, Trent Still, Jason Tyler, and Ryan Williams. Faculty reviewing the design and assisting included Assistant Professor Tony Cricchio, Professor Joel Dietrich, Dean Charles Graham, Shop Manager Hunter Roth, and Assistant Professor Stephanie Pilat.

Professor Butko is also on the planning committee for the 164th Meeting/Conference of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA). Please see the web site for details:  http://acousticalsociety.org/meetings/kansas_city

The Oklahoma City Skydance Bridge, completed following a national competition with a design consortium assembled by OU Mabrey Presidential Professor Hans E. Butzer, was recently completed in Oklahoma City and has now been recognized as one of the 50 best public art projects by the 2012 Public Art Network Year in Review by Americans for the Arts. Included in the multidisciplinary team that designed the $6.8M pedestrian bridge are OU faculty members Dr. Chris Ramseyer, P.E. and Stan Carroll, AIA.

“Tomorrow’s Yukon” is an initiative that will engage the City of Yukon in a partnership with faculty and students from the University of Oklahoma’s (OU) College of Architecture. Associate Professor Marjorie Callahan, Architecture, and Associate Professor Leehu Loon, Landscape Architecture, are directing a design studio which will provide the initial visionary steps to stimulate ideas for (1) a streetscape on Main Street and Route 66 and, (2) a new city hall complex capable of consolidating all city services. This project will involve the beloved Oklahoma Route 66, which runs through the heart of the Yukon community. The students’ landscaping and architectural conceptual plans and models will demonstrate ideas for: (1) colorful and safe streetscapes; (2) retail and office options; (3) a government central campus; (4) the beautification of the Route 66 to Garth Brooks Drive; (5) a parkway system of bicycle trails; and, (6) other important connections to children’s state of the art playgrounds, housing, schools and festivals.

Associate Professor Lee Fithian was awarded a grant by SAIC in the amount of $5,000  to provide the continuing education program series in sustainability entitled “ Acquisition, Coordination and Dissemination of AIA+2030 Curriculum.”

Professor Fithian and Associate Professor Tamera McCuen (Construction Science), were awarded OU Provosts’ Dream Course funding in the amount of $20,000 for the interdisciplinary collaboration “BIM for Constructors” which will be used to enhance curriculum for over 70 graduate and undergraduate OU College of Architecture students. The grant provides the opportunity for students, academicians and professionals to train in BIM and interact in a virtual charrette via the upcoming BIMStormtm OKC on November 7, 2012:  http://www.bimstorm.com/i/OklahomaStorm.php. Professors Fithian, McCuen, and Butko will be working together in this collaborative effort with the Construction Science students and the Design 7 studio in Architecture to design a mixed-use building in the Core to Shore re-development area of Oklahoma City.

Adjunct Lecturer Geoff Parker was the Winner of the 2012 Architectural Record “Cocktail Napkin Sketch Contest” in the Professional Division. You may view his entry via this link: http://archrecord.construction.com/features/cocktail_napkin_sketch_contest/2012/.

Assistant Professor Dr. Stephanie Pilat has been awarded an AAUW American Summer/Short-Term Research Publication Grant for 2012-13, which provides support for work on her forthcoming book, Reconstructing Italy: The Ina-Casa Neighborhoods of the Postwar Era (Ashgate, 2014).

M. Arch Grad Student Andrew Stevens has won 2nd Place in the National ACSA/NSF jointly sponsored Open Challenge Competition “The Architecture & Engineering of Sustainable Buildings”.  http://www.sustainableae.com/ This award gives $2,000 for to the student and $500 to the faculty involved; in this case Professor Lee Fithian.

In other student news, Lisa Om and Ana Ruiz were just awarded the Newman Medal for Excellence in Acoustics based on work performed in Spring 2012 architectural acoustics class.  http://www.newmanfund.org/newman-student-awards/. Keaton Cizek,  as a member of the OU Habitat for Humanity Group (HFH for Cleveland County), is involved in the “Shackathon,” a fundraising and awareness event held in fall semester which engages many student organizations as well as any person walking along the South Oval for a day. Participating student organizations are allotted a plot of grass along the Oval upon which to build a minimal shelter with limited materials. Facts about poverty displayed by the participants raise awareness among passersby, who are then asked to donate whatever they can to the cause (Cleveland County HFH). Friendly competition among the participating student organizations encourages hard work.