Coffee Talk Again
Sorry, but I’ve been swamped the past day or two so I’ve not had a chance to post. But you guys are just as informative as I am, so let’s do a little coffee talk again.
Today’s topic: What downtown streets, sidewalks and park areas should OKC look to if it should implement the plan proposed by Larry Nichols?
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Comments
One particular idea I came up with a couple of years ago, was to create a gateway-type fountain within a roundabout where Classen meets the new boulevard.
It would look like a combination of Buckingham Fountain: http://www.destination360.com/north-america/us/illinois/images/s/illinois-buckingham-fountain.jpg and Columbus Circle: http://www.asla.org/awards/2006/medals/images/ol_10.jpg
More ideas to follow.
2. Obvious above-ground signage for the Underground.
3. A more pedestrian Broadway: Remove the center turning lane on Broadway north of 4th and replace it with a landscaped median and add traffic signals and crosswalks at each cross street.
4. Bribe fellow Chamber of Commerce members to reconsider the design for their new building.
5. Create an incentive for building owners to make the ground floors of their buildings for public-use, i.e. restaurant, retail, gallery, etc. (including parking garages).
6. Creation of the Oklahoma City School of Design in First National.
7: Execute Couch/Kerr Park renovation design.
8. Streetscapes
9. Renovate the fountains in front of city hall and the civic center. (See Kansas City)
That all I got for now.
The “mind boggling” development, as referred to by Ron Norick, was the extent of what Devon is trying to accomplish downtown and the overall impact of the tower construction. Read my weekend post.
so was your “I’m stunned” and your “all your hopes…come true” statements about the 135 million as well? Or something else soon to be annonced?
All of the downtown area parks need to add spaces for visitors to “stay and play.” Let’s think big (i.e. Bryant Park in New York) with bistro furniture, movies on the lawn, public concerts, street artists, etc.
I also think some Devon’s TIF district could be used to incentivize new retail. More people will come downtown when we have more things for them to do, not more trees and suburbia-inspired landscaping (as important as they are).
Steve or anyone:
Hate posting this here but only place I know too. What happened to okctalk.com? I can’t access the site for days now.
Ryne – I believe the $135 million is the Steve’s point. It may not seem like much in comparison to the cost of the Devon building itself, but when it comes to infrastructure investment, it’s a huge sum of money. Combine those with the projects voters approved in the 2007 GOB Election, and we get a double benefit.
Scott, it’s working for me and I only noticed a very brief outage over the weekend. Try hitting your refresh button.
Hey – that is great, and I will take it. I would just tone down the superlatives if that is “IT” – we are big league now.
Buy Fred Jones Ford Property and expand the Myriad Gardens South. Probably would have to close Reno and Harvey though.
I hope the person that suggested a parking garage in the front yard of the Civic Center was joking. Even if that park was not used by anyone but the homeless, it would be a tragedy to put any kind of structure there.
I think the main thing Bicentennial Park needs is just redoing the brick pavers and landscaping, and maybe looking at what other cities do to make their smaller parks more lively. A fountain would be great and maybe more sculpture–perhaps art-related given the location.
I think we definitely need to add a lot of fountains. People love fountains, and the more interactive they can be, the better.
Add bike lanes and more bike racks.
The retail incentive idea is good, if it will work with this money.
Anything we can do to make downtown more pedestrian friendly.
Steve, I tried refresh and even a different web browser and it won’t work. Will someone pass along the message I keep getting this error and can’t access the website:
Warning: mysql_query() [function.mysql-query]: Unable to save result set in [path]/includes/class_core.php on line 408
We need a few sidewalks much wider to accomodate newstands, outdoor cafe seating, benches, etc, businesses open to the sidewalk (like small bakeries, etc.). .. with a few stategic wind-blocks of course. People don’t “live” on our streets. We need to invite people to “live” in our downtown.
It seems like the only time Bicentennial Park gets any attention is when the Ice Rink is there for Downtown In December. I wish it were utilized more. Perhaps a mini Arts Festival in the Fall, and another event or two in the spring and summer.
But if there are no possibilities for the little park in front of City Hall, then I am afraid it could be scrapped in favor of a new COTPA parking garage. The ice rink could be moved to the Myriad Gardens.