“This year, we had 109 entries, which nearly doubles past entry totals,” says Melissa Hunt, executive director of the American Institute of Architects Central Oklahoma Chapter, a nonprofit partner of the Oklahoma City Foundation for Architecture, which sponsors the OklahoManMade competition each spring. “The competition is growing, and it’s exciting because it really does showcase the fabulous architecture we have right here in our state.”

Rules of OklahoManMade are simple: Among four categories, architects, students and the public are asked to submit photographs that “highlight the beauty and diversity of the built environment in Oklahoma.”

And did they ever. Hunt says the response — particularly among student submissions — proved difficult for the three judges: Jon Burris, executive director of [Artspace] at Untitled; Antonina eskina, an artist with the construction management firm CMSWillowbrook; and John Ward, an architect with TAParchitecture.

“There was so much good work that fit the parameters of the competition,” Burris says. “In today’s digital photography world, there can be doubts about real creativity, given how much the photographer can rely on post-production processes like Photoshop.

The creativity I found in the winners’ images came from the photographers themselves, not from a Photoshop filter! As far as I know, there is no filter for ingenuity as of yet, and I saw a lot of ingenuity in the winning works.”

Stage Center, by student Julie Bragg

Roman Nose State Park in Watonga, by Simon Hurst

left Midtown Plaza Court, by architect Catherine Montgomery
right Oral Roberts University, by Ronda Morgan

Devon Tower, by student Barton Blackorby