Common Works Architects
Common Works Architects | The Academy of Classical Christian Studies, Oklahoma City, OK, 2016. Image credit: Leonid Furmansky
The Architectural League’s annual Emerging Voices program spotlights North American architects, landscape architects, and urban designers who have significant bodies of realized work and the potential to influence their field.
Asa Highsmith of Common Works Architects won a 2023 award.
Asa Highsmith founded Common Works Architects in Oklahoma City in 2015. The architecture and design firm operates almost exclusively within its local context, designing with and against Oklahoma City’s often-elusive vernacular. Through its familiar material palette and accessible architectural language, Common Works is dedicated to “democratizing design and elevating that which is common,” in Highsmith’s words. The firm’s projects range in program and scale, from residences to restaurants to public spaces, but share a refined simplicity and compositional restraint.
Projects include:
- The Academy of Classical Christian Studies, an 18,000-square-foot educational complex that includes a chapel and two classroom wings
- Red House, a private residence clad with red brick in Oklahoma City’s Cottage District
- Nonesuch, the remodel of a 22-seat seasonal restaurant in midtown Oklahoma City
Common Works Architects was recognized in Metropolis’s 2021 New Talent Feature and AN Interior’s Top 50 Architects and Designers of 2022. The firm’s projects have received several awards from AIA Oklahoma.
Asa Highsmith holds a BArch from the University of Oklahoma. He served on the Oklahoma City planning commission from 2017 to 2022.
