Filling The Dome
If you didn’t catch the story yesterday in The Oklahoman, I wrote about a restaurant preparing to open in the Gold Dome. Dr. Irene Lam, who saved the landmark from almost certain destruction a few years ago, can soon boast more than 93 percent occupancy.
Not everyone thought she would succeed.
I still recall then councilman Guy Liebmann (now a state representative) expressing serious doubts about Lam’s chances and questioning whether the city should provide some grants and loans designed for restoring historic properties. I never sensed that Liebmann was opposed to Lam’s efforts – he just didn’t believe she would ever succeed at getting the odd shaped building (once the proud home of Citizens Bank) filled.
For those who don’t recall the events that led to this transformation, it began with an effort by BancOne (now Chase Bank) to move to smaller quarters across the street. Walgreens, meanwhile, was eager to buy the Gold Dome, raze it, and build a new store across the street from an existing CVS drug store.
The historic preservationists – to be blunt – went nuts. They organized, they held pickets at the corner of NW 23 and Classen, and they didn’t spare BancOne or Walgreens their wrath. They also sought out alternate buyers – one of whom ended up being Dr. Lam.
Walgreens and BancOne agreed to look at alternatives that allowed both companies to build new locations at the gateway to the Asian District and allow the Gold Dome to survive for future generations.
Dr. Lam, meanwhile, has stayed true to promises of making the Gold Dome a community center – and will be hosting the Lunar New Year festival on Saturday.
Preservationists since have had hits and misses. They succeeded in convincing the city to rebuild the Walnut Avenue bridge in Bricktown and also celebrated the renovation of once dilapidated Skirvin Hilton Hotel.
More old structures may face demolition in the near future. Developers of the Triangle have indicated they may seek to raze the Finley Building at NE 2 and Walnut. And Tom Ward indicated in an interview a few weeks ago that while he is keeping an open mind on the future of the former Braniff Building and former India Temple Building (one of downtown’s oldest – built in 1902) on the new SandRidge Energy campus, he also couldn’t rule out that they might be torn down.
Do these structures merrit pickets similar to those that surrounded the Gold Dome?
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Comments
Many buildings such as the landmark Gold Dome are worthy of preservation simply because of their importance to the fabric and history of the area where they are situated.
During the fight to save the building, several so-called development and real estate experts stated that the foot print and configuration of the building made it virtually unusable for anything other than a headquarters bank building. As anyone can see now that the building has been readapted for office use that the experts were at least unimaginitive and short sighted.
A cookie cutter Walgreens or any other temporary box development is never a wise substitute for a landmark. US cities are repleat with unique buildings that have been adaptively reused after preservationists have saved them from demolition. I dare say that nearly any existing building of reasonably good construction deserves very serious consideration as to how it might be reused or incorporated into a new development before it is sacrificed to the wrecking ball.
“Well, we’ve already wiped out almost all of the original Deep Deuce; we might as well finish the job.”
They won’t say it that way – they’ll throw in something about neighborhood compatibility or something like that – but that’s what they mean. Besides, Finley’s already got a bridge named for him, isn’t that enough?
On the Kermac/SandRidge properties, I might be a little more forgiving if the dozers come: the India Temple is so screwed up with that bogus façade that it might be impossible to return to something resembling its proper appearance, and while I like the Braniff, I suspect it has few fans.
I think all preservation efforts have to be weighed against the plans slated to go in their place, how stable these plans are, and whether the plans represent a better use for the land that the building occupies.
Until the Gold Dome was purchased with plans to turn it into a multicultural center, maybe a cookie cutter Walgreens would have made for a higher and better use for that land than a unique but wholly abandoned geodesic dome. The key is searching for alternatives to demolition.
As a second example, there is a 3- or 4-story brick structure south of I-40 that has been singled out on the OkMet forum as a potential candidate for some sort of preservative efforts… but it appears to be sitting on property that will one day be Oklahoma City’s shining new mega convention center… When funding, plans, etc, are solidly laid out for that facility, it may well be justifiable to tear down the historic structure.
We will always be hesitant about demolition in Oklahoma City after the extensive damage done to our core that is chronicled in OKC: Second Time Around. But was the problem with that demolition the fact that it destroyed historic structures, or was the REAL problem that it destroyed them without a secure financial foundation on which the redevelopment of these properties could occur?