Hans Butzer goes to his office in Oklahoma City every morning before driving to Norman for his day job as dean of the OU College of Architecture.
Butzer and his wife, Torrey, also own their own architecture firm, Butzer Architects and Urbanism. Torrey Butzer runs the day-to-day business, but they design everything together.
“In a certain sense, it’s a reflection of the fact that ultimately I’m an architect first who happens to love to teach,” Hans Butzer said. “Having that business for me is a critical, essential creative outlet to allow me to continue to explore ideas.”
Hans and Torrey Butzer designed and detailed the Oklahoma City National Memorial, led the team that worked on the Oklahoma City Skydance Bridge and helped guide the vision for The Oklahoman's new building, Hans Butzer said. He has also won several American Institute of Architects awards.
“Nothing gets built without a great team of people working towards the same end,” Hans Butzer said. “I’ve just been very fortunate to have been a part of many great teams who have helped see successful projects through.”
Hans Butzer had served as interim dean of the College of Architecture since March 2016, but he was appointed as the official dean at the Jan. 26 Board of Regents meeting, officially starting Feb. 1.
“Hans is very inspirational,” architecture freshman Walter Brown said. "He looks at our work, and he shows us his work."
Brown said Hans Butzer has helped many students find their potential.
Hans Butzer viewed his role as interim dean initially to unite the community after the death of former architecture dean Charles Graham, he said.
“And now, we can use the work that we’ve been doing the last 11 months as the foundation, and now we’re going to start launching and being much more assertive in our mission,” Hans Butzer said.
The college’s mission, Hans Butzer said, is to design and build things that matter to communities, in and out of the classroom.
“We make things that matter here at the college, and we want our students to kind of come out with a sense of that entrepreneurial spirit that they as individual creative forces can really go out and make a difference in the world,” Hans Butzer said.
Before he was interim dean, he was a professor. He helped establish OU’s architecture research studio in Oklahoma City. The vision that his students came up with in the studio became what is now the Olympic Rowing Training Facility, he said.
“These projects are all indicative of the glow and the pride the students have and the fact that our students … want to make things that matter,” he said.
The College of Architecture has several types of architecture students, from those who deal with planning and construction to those who focus on design and entrepreneurship. Hans Butzer said the college’s range is like that of an accordion.
“The traditional role of the architect is somewhere in that middle, but the college is all about how that accordion is stretching out to its maximum conditions on either end, but all at the same time, trying to remember that the most beautiful sounds come when things are kind of compressing, coming together,” he said. “It’s kind of representative of this collaborative effort that we’re really interested in exploring on a day-to-day basis.”
While he said his days are long, being dean is the job he wants.
“Every day, I see how fortunate I am to be in the position I am in and to be surrounded by so many great people,” Hans Butzer said. “I don’t feel like I work. I get to play out my hobbies everyday.”
