L'Ouverture School Vision

McAlester, OK | Spring 2023

Alumni from the historic L’Ouverture School in McAlester, Oklahoma seek to preserve the historical school structure and repurpose it as a new, community-serving mixed use development. L’Ouverture stakeholders worked on adaptive reuse and phasing concepts for the site with the University of Oklahoma Environmental Design Program in Spring of 2022, and applied for additional assistance from the University of Oklahoma Institute for Quality Communities (IQC) in Spring 2022. IQC is an outreach program from the Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture. IQC collaborated with the Division of Interior Design to integrate the L’Ouverture Historical Center project into a studio course.

5 teams of OU Interior Design students developed adaptive reuse floorplans and design concepts for the interior of the main school building. Each team explored interior design options, programming suggestions, and other elements. The presentation of 5 different design concepts allowed community members to compare choices and discover opportunities for the future of the L’Ouverture school building.

Community Partners:

City of McAlester
Herbert Keith
Clarence Ellis
Mrs. Clarence Ellis