More on the Bricktown Holiday Inn Express
Here’s one advantage of having a blog – the ability to provide to you more information on a story that just couldn’t fit into the newspaper (I’ve been told that because there are other writers at the paper, I can’t simply have two pages just for my stories each day).
Today’s paper had a story about a proposed Holiday Inn Express for Bricktown. Here is a more in-depth discussion of the proposed design:
Demolition of the building, however, is not a certainty. Committee members unanimously criticized the proposed design by Quinn & Associates, which included a facade of 61 percent brick and 49 percent synthetic stucco.
Kip Bettencourt, an architect with Quinn & Associates, defended the design and argued the use of synthetic stucco, commonly known as EIFS, was not a matter of cost. Instead, he said, the material was included as a matter of good design.
“I selected the amount of brick myself with architectural license,” Bettencourt said. “I felt that just slapping brick on this building for the sake of putting brick on it was inappropriate. These buildings were built at different times … and that’s how these things evolved and that’s what I was trying to be true to.”
The use of synthetic stucco – also known as Exterior Insulation Finish Systems (EIFS) – has been frowned on before by the Bricktown Urban Design Committee. A glass elevator tower was dropped from the Hampton Inn at Sheridan Avenue and Vince Gill Avenue when developers were forced by the committee to increase the amount of brick on the hotel and eliminate much of the proposed EIFS from the facade.
Bettencourt countered his project’s use of EIFS would be different.
“The synthetic plaster is a Dryvit product – we don’t like to call it EIFS because that has a negative connotation,” Bettencourt said. “This actually does have stone and mica in it … it has the appearance of granite. It certainly doesn’t look like the typical EIFS you would see.”
Bettencourt also agreed with committee comments that the building was “a little bit busy.” But he said he was trying to provide something “attractive to address the corner of Oklahoma and Main Street.”Committee members, however, were unswayed by Bettencourt and ruled no demolition can take place before a new design is submitted that “flattens” the facade and eliminates much of the synthetic stucco.
Wilson also suggested the developers try to incorporate an antique boiler inside the building and the oldest part of the structure – the north facade facing the BPI parking lot.
John Sweeney, vice president of operations for Kusum Hospitality, said after the meeting his group is prepared to follow the committee’s recommendations – including possible preservation of the dairy’s north facade.
“We definitely are doing more brick,” Sweeney said. “The thinking was, let’s get out concept together, and make sure the building fits on the site. And then let’s go to the committee and get their feedback and make sure we’re doing in the right direction. If they want 90 percent brick, whatever they want to do with that, we’ll be happy to along with them. We see the committee as a resource, as a valuable tool, in coming up with what’s right for Bricktown.”
Sweeney said he also had read criticisms voiced on local online chat boards and forums.
“We’re not going to build an eyesore,” Sweeney said. “We’re relying on the local population, and we need the local population to like what we do. The Holiday Inn Express we’re going to build will be built to last.”
Sweeney noted his group is spending $2.2 million to renovate a two-year old Amerisuites at Belle Isle Station to convert it into a Hyatt Place – proof, he said, of their commitment to quality.But urban design committee members remained concerned Wednesday that franchise architecture, and not design intended for Bricktown, governed plans for the proposed Holiday Inn Express.
“It concerns me to destroy this building … and replace it with a busy footprint with 51 percent brick and all these ins and outs, and adapting a Holiday Inn franchisor’s requirements,” committee member Bob Bright said.
Sweeney promised he and his partners are balancing the desires of the community and Holiday Inn.
“Holiday Inn wants to brand their building so that a customer driving down the road might not see the sign, but they see the building and know it’s a Holiday Inn Express just as when you see a Chilli’s or any other national chain,” Sweeney said. “They have guidelines they want us to follow. But they’ll conform to the local codes as well.”
Thank you for joining our conversation on OKC Central. We encourage your discussion but ask that you stay within the bounds of our commenting and posting policy.
Comments
There certainly was a difference in how this matter was handled versus how the McDonald’s application went last summer. I’ll blog about that later this weekend.
-Steve
If the guidelines are basically at around 90% brick at this point, I wonder why they don’t just take the next step and ban the use of stucco altogether, except for in the rare case of a style where real stucco is warranted?
I would think that the other 10% could be an attractive material such as stone, concrete, steel, etc. – or just use more glass. Hell, I’m no architect, but there has to be some cheap material out there that looks cool on the exterior of a building – In other cities, I’ve seen cement board, metal panels, plastic panels, fake concrete stone, all sorts of shite. Brick and stucco are not the only 2 exterior facing building materials in the world, even in my limited sphere of insight on the subject.
It would be nice to see a little creativity and/or ingenuity in affect. Must we be 5-10 years behind on everything?
Other chains have had to comply with Bricktown’s restrictions. What makes Bricktown unique is that it isn’t just a bunch of franshise-appearing Mc-buildings like you’d find at any retail/restaurant corridor in the city. The restaurants adapt the warehouse theme. Look at Abuelos and Hooters….they’ve adapted to the warehouse structure just fine. Even IHOP has.
If we start building a bunch of Mc-buildings in Bricktown, the area will lose its charm, and will become just any other restaurant/hotel strip.
And I don’t buy Sweeney’s comments that their spending $2.2 million to rebrand the Amerisuites is proof that they do quality work. They’re having to do that because the Amerisuites name is being phased out all across the country.
From good ole Wikipedia:
“Global Hyatt Select Hotel Group is closing the AmeriSuites brand and creating a new brand named Hyatt Place. This process began in 2006 and they currently have 15 or more hotels open nationwide with 70+ to be completed by the end of 2007.”
That’s correct, Patrick, and Sweeney acknowledged that during our interview. His point, however, was that they could have simply shopped for a different flag to avoid spending $2.2 million on a 2-year-old hotel. Likewise, Sweeney didn’t try to suggest the exterior of the hotel on Classen is anywhere close to being an acceptable model for Bricktown. He was very proud, however, of the changes underway inside the hotel – and I must admit, the new interior isn’t what you would expect inside that exterior.
This was really interesting to me, looking inside the meeting and getting inside the heads of all the people who are involved in this. I think it’s fascinating how easily the developer gave in to Urban Design… They must have had that speech prepared in advance. In any case, it does seem that they are willing to make it as good as they have to in order to build.