OU Institute for Quality Communities

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OU Institute for Quality Communities

The Institute for Quality Communities provides information and services to enhance life in neighborhoods, towns, and cities.

At the IQC, we seek to serve and strengthen Oklahoma’s towns and cities while educating the next generation of Oklahoma’s leaders. We collaborate with faculty and students from The University of Oklahoma, as well as cutting-edge practitioners from around the world, to enhance our understanding of the built environment’s influence on quality of life. Through the IQC’s engagements with communities a

nd civic leaders, our OU team helps the citizens of Oklahoma reshape their towns and cities in ways that improve our state’s social ties, environment, and economy.

05/26/2026

The IQC team would like to welcome our newest member, our Summer Research Assistant, Adam Lodrigueza! During his time with the IQC he will be assisting our preparation for the 2027 Placemaking Conference and doing preliminary research to set the stage for the 20-year IQC anniversary in 2028.

Adam, a senior majoring in Environmental Design, is starting his second year in the accelerated Regional & City Planning master’s program. His upbringing in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and volunteer work with shelters for unhoused people in his hometown and in Tulsa instilled his dedication to public service. Adam channels his interests in zoning, urban design, and sustainable development into learning how real estate developers and communities can advocate for equitable futures and environments.

His experience interning as a Community Scholar with 929 Strategies and the Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center expanded his knowledge on how private-public partnerships, law, and design can help communities implement their goals. This interdisciplinary perspective encourages him to improve the quality of life, public services, and housing affordability for communities that struggle with economic disadvantages and vulnerabilities.

Adam is excited to learn more about adaptive reuse, zoning reform, and community engagement to guide the development of inclusive spaces that harmonize communities’ social, environmental, and economic values.

05/19/2026

Congratulations to our five amazing OU Institute for Quality Communities Graduate Assistants: Sanjita Basnet, Afrah Faheem, Taylor Fleming, Dez Harris, and David McPherson! What a phenomenal group of young leaders who graduated this past Saturday and are going out into the world to make a difference in regional/ city planning, landscape architecture, and community development.

We’ve had a rigorous year of working in depth with several Oklahoma communities including: Poteau, Del City, Moore, Grayson, and Durant. We are truly excited for our IQC graduates.

05/12/2026

It’s that time of the year. Our IQC GAs are working hard to wrap up their projects. Soon they’ll be off in the world. We could not be prouder of this team of superstars. More graduation celebrations coming!

04/15/2026

Snapshots of the second full day at the National Main Street Conference in Tulsa with the IQC team. IQC faculty affiliate Wei Liu led a record breaking (we believe) standing room only session entitled “8-Point Visual Check for a Better Main Street.” He gave an overview of the IQC’s recent work to develop a streetscape study in Poteau, followed by an easy guide to assess areas for improvement for main streets across the country. He also acknowledged all the work that IQC GAs put into the project. The session, like Molly’s on Monday, was a resounding success.

IQC staff past and present were well represented at the conference — in addition to Shane Hampton, we got to visit with past interim director Vanessa Morrison and faculty emeritus Ron Frantz. IQC GA Taylor Fleming served as a Main Street Conference volunteer, and documented her day on the instagram page.

At the end of the second day team members debriefed about everything we learned over dinner. We were so happy to have so many OU Gibbs representatives at this important national conference.

Did we mention the tornado warning? Main Streeters got to experience an authentic Oklahoma springtime storm, taking cover in their hotels and continuing the networking and camaraderie late into the night. A time was had by all. Kudos to Oklahoma Main Street for hosting such a well attended and inspiring conference.

04/14/2026

First 24 hours at the National Main Street Conference in Tulsa with the IQC team. IQC program manager Molly O’Connor led a packed session entitled “Harnessing the Art of Storytelling for Community Engagement.” She gave a history of storytelling, case studies on how it could be used in various scenarios, and how to create an infrastructure to support story slams. Audience members were invited to share a story on the topic of “home.”

We also enjoyed the opening plenary with a performance from the Tulsa Indian Club and remarks from various speakers including Oklahoma Main Street Director Buffy Skee.

IQC leaders past and present met up at the Sunday reception, and team members generally enjoyed the sights and sounds of Tulsa.

04/03/2026

This academic year the IQC has facilitated four faculty-led projects at three separate Oklahoma Veterans Centers: Ardmore, Claremore, and Sulphur. Today we accompanied Prof. John Harris and the students in his RCPL class 4723/5723 Community Development and Revitalization to the Ardmore Veterans Center to learn about resident and staff needs. Assistant Administrator Cory Sherfield and Facilities Manager Matt Smith gave of their time to take us throughout the campus to assess needs and site conditions.

02/27/2026

The Resilient Durant Design Charrette is coming next week (March 6 and 7)!

This year, it is an honor to welcome Victor Dover, FAICP, founding principal of Dover, Kohl, & Partners Town Planning, who will be joining us at OU to lead the charrette. Environmental Design professor and IQC faculty affiliate Wei Liu, PhD, AICP, CNU-A, will co-lead the charrette alongside Victor as they guide students through an intensive, collaborative design process focused on advancing resilient strategies across multiple scales in Durant, OK.

Victor’s kick-off lecture will be open to the public and hosted at the Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture, University of Oklahoma, Gould Hall Gallery 130, at 11:30 AM on Friday, March 6.

We warmly invite colleagues, practitioners, students, and community members to join us to hear insights from his practice and experience.

More updates to come as our students develop their proposals. We look forward to sharing their progress in the weeks ahead.

DesignCharrette

02/23/2026

Join the Institute for Quality Communities at the Oklahoma Black Communities Symposium this Saturday, February 28, 2026!

We will be hosting a table between 1:30-2:00 pm to discuss our work across the state of Oklahoma, with an emphasis on a current project in the historic all-Black town of Grayson and two recent projects working with the historic all-Black town of Taft on a Safe Streets Action Plan, and the Oklahoma City Black Alumni Coalition documenting the history of Walnut Grove.

Oklahoma Black Communities Symposium
2/28/26, 12-5pm, Downtown Library, 300 Park Ave, OKC

On February 28th, the Metropolitan Library System will be hosting a series of discussions and presentations on Black community research and preservation in Oklahoma. This event will bring together individuals, organizations, and institutions from the central Oklahoma documenting the history of Black urban enclaves, rural communities, and Black towns.

02/19/2026

Call for Applications: Graduate Assistant Positions
Institute for Quality Communities | University of Oklahoma

The Institute for Quality Communities (IQC) in the Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture at the University of Oklahoma is seeking motivated graduate students to serve as Graduate Assistants for the 2026–2027 academic year. These positions offer the opportunity to contribute to real-world projects in an interdisciplinary, collaborative environment.

As the Gibbs College community outreach arm, the IQC is a leading source of community engagement, placemaking, and urban design expertise in the region. In addition to the work it performs in communities across the state, the IQC hosts the nationally recognized biennial Placemaking Conference and its approximately 700 attendees on the Norman campus. The IQC has completed over 125 projects while involving 900 students by partnering with communities and non-profit organizations across 60 counties and securing external funding to support our work. For more information, visit http://iqc.ou.edu.

Position Overview:

Graduate Assistants will work up to 20 hours per week, with flex office hours that accommodate their course schedule. Students must be enrolled for at least 0.50 FTE to qualify for an assistantship. The position runs from Aug. 17, 2026, and will end on May 15, 2027. Students are paid $893.70 bi-weekly, for a total $17,874 salary.

Assistants will support Community Assistance Projects, which may include:
• Transportation and mobility planning
• Neighborhood housing studies
• Parks and recreational design
• Adaptive reuse and urban redevelopment
• Historic preservation planning

Key Responsibilities:
• Assist with historic research to create foundation for project analysis
• Interact with community partners and stakeholders to design, plan, and lead community engagement
• Travel to partner communities for on-site engagements (occasional nights and weekends required)
• Collaborate with a multidisciplinary team of students and field professionals
• Communicate effectively with community stakeholders and clients

02/16/2026

Join Us! Share your thoughts and ideas!

Grayson School Heritage Project
Community Engagement

Thursday February 19th 2026
1:00 to 4:00 PM

Grayson Community Center
24160 Martin Luther King Henryetta, OK 74437

You are invited to help shape the future of the historic Grayson school building and school grounds. This work is being led by the town of Grayson in partnership with the University of Oklahoma through the Institute for Quality Communities. Our team of OU graduate students, faculty and staff will be on site to listen, learn, and help the community create a clear set of plans for the future of these historic assets.. The most important part of this process is hearing from the people who know Grayson best.

The Grayson School is a major part of the town’s story. It is also connected to major touchstones in Oklahoma history and Black history. This includes the Black town movement and the early childhood of civil rights activist Clara Luper. We want to honor that history while planning what the site can support today and in the future.

We are looking for storytellers.

If you attended the school, had family here, taught here, played here, attended events here, or have memories of the area, we want to hear from you.

What will happen during the day
• Short presentation about the school and the project
• Story circles and memory sharing
• Guided walk of the building site and school grounds
• Simple mapping activity to mark important places and ideas
• Group discussion about priorities and next steps

You can come for the full time or drop in as your schedule allows. Light refreshments served.

Address

830 Van Vleet Oval, Gould Hall, Suite 165
Norman, OK
73019

Website

http://iqc.ou.edu/

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