The University of Oklahoma Phone Booths: A New Calling

IQC perennially invites advocates and stakeholders from communities across Oklahoma to collaborate on planning and design projects, harnessing the knowledge and skills of students and faculty at the Gibbs College of Architecture to deliver the best community outcomes possible. In spring of 2022, Jeremy Lambeth, Director of Risk Management at OU’s David L. Boren College of International Studies, approached the IQC with a proposal to study, remediate, and revitalize the red London phone booths on OU’s Campus and on Campus Corner.
The IQC Team researched the history of these booths and their journey to Norman, and subsequently conducted several community engagement efforts to understand how both institutional stakeholders and the general public would like to see these booths utilized in the future.
From this point, the team developed a number of intervention recommendations, ranging from simple maintenance to transformative programming changes.

Community Partners:

The University of Oklahoma
Jeremy Lambeth, College of International Studies
Dr. Matthew Rom, OU Facilities Management

Special thanks to the nineteen community members from
across the OU Norman Campus, OU Tulsa Campus, and
Campus Corner for their insights and support of this project.