Dean Hans Butzer received Vice President for Research and Partnerships Award for Excellence in Research, Design, and Creative Expression in the Humanities and Fine Arts, which is an award given to a tenured or tenure-track OU faculty member whose career-long and/or recent work offers a transformative new direction in humanistic or creative development.
Dean Butzer’s internationally recognized design practice leverages light, shadow, tectonics, and cultural expression to create inclusive places of identity, crafted through deliberate and diverse collaborations with community stakeholders and interdisciplinary professionals. Butzer has dedicated his practice to developing regionally grounded designs for communities and clients across Oklahoma. He has designed several civic projects, including the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Skydance Bridge. Dean Butzer also advocates for architectural and design excellence among other firms in Oklahoma City and among design students in the Gibbs College of Architecture.
Dr. Keith Gaddie, the Associate Dean of the Gibbs College of Architecture, discussed Dean Butzer’s impact: “[He] epitomizes the goals of good architectural design in practice – taking from all that the university does and putting it to work in creating built solutions that benefit people while creating an uplifting and positive aesthetic that is also imminently useable.”
Marlon Blackwell FAIA, recipient of the 2020 AIA Gold Medal, praised Butzer’s design work in Oklahoma, “It is impossible to think of architecture in Oklahoma without immediately thinking of Hans Butzer and his collaborative practice that directly engages community partners. No other architect has had such a broad and deep impact, whether in the built environment or in the development of succeeding generations of young architects through their education and mentorship.”
Congratulations to Dean Butzer for this well-deserved recognition!