The irony is two layers thick: First, being the profile picture of the decimated KMG block; second, the Skirvin being ‘friends’ with KDU!

(Captcha: sunlight urban) heh

Your agenda is just as ironic

Agenda? AJ elaborate. It seems I hear this ‘agenda’ word all the time, but I just can’t get past it’s irrelevance in this whole situation. It’s just a placeholder word that gives the opposing sides something to argue about. That’s the way I see it.

Captcha: unfortunately egoists. [How.. appropriate for some our less-urban minded posters XD]

No one gave a rip about any of these empty, useless buildings until SR came up with their plans. Now all of the sudden they are irreplaceable treasures – HA HA! Be a little more proactive next time Preservation Oklahoma. You want SR to keep IT? Present them with a plan, drawings, schematics, etc. that fits with their business model and mission. Put some real money into this endeavor if the buildings are so irreplaceable. The only one that’s offered so far is Poston with the trust. An out-of-towner can’t fight your battle.

Wouldn’t one expect the Skirvin to be friendly to the KDU movement? Although, didn’t the general manager of the Skirvin endorse the demolition yesterday?

MH – Tell us what you know about Urban Design and Architecture, because I really hope that historical preservation wins and these buildings stand empty for another quarter century. I guess then we will have our “urban environment”.

BTW if they survive and get developed within 25 years, I will issue a public apology.

Well you might want to start writing that up, Matt. You seem to be ignoring the fact that Kerr-McGee and Sandridge have had NUMEROUS offers to redevelop these buildings and they’ve all been turned down.

Offers are one thing Jason, getting it done is another. Nothing was happening in ’95 in that neck of the woods and I can assure nothing has changed (Except KM filled in its fountains with plants). TAP wanted to do it, but McDermid was going to tear down ITB anyway. You can’t do much with 10′-0″ floor to floor, the building was designed before modern mechanical systems were developed. I guess you could put window units into each room, but that wouldn’t do much for ITB’s glorious hidden facade.

Talk is cheap, get it done and I will apologize. And it has to get past all design phases, CD phases. I want to see a crane before any of you can say I told you so.

But Jason that’s exactly it. It’s their right to turn them down. They own the buildings. They own the land the buildings sit on. What if an oil company doesn’t want a residential building on their property and right next to their HQ tower that can be leased by who the heck knows? Perhaps SR tower doesn’t want a clear view of the guy who likes to walk around undressed with the blinds open living at the Kermac lofts? This is a oil and gas company. If a compromise can be worked out that saves something great, but it should be SR’s decision, not the city’s or the courts.

SandRidge has the power to do a lot of things with their property. That legal right doesn’t take away the potential damage to their relationship with the rest of the Oklahoma City urban community. From a PR standpoint, I hope SandRidge is thinking this through cafefully.

Whether or not folks like it, the truth is neither SandRidge or anyone else had the legal right to do whatever they want with their property: they are governed by an ordinance that requires a certificate of appropriateness for exterior changes and building demolitions.
This similar process resulted in McDonalds going back and custom designing a restaurant in Bricktown when the Bricktown Urban Design Committee refused to approve a standard franchise design. And this also resulted in Hampton Inn adding more brick to its facade when the same committee ruled the original design had too much stucco.
One final note: I observed an early case with the then newly formed Downtown Design Review Committee when it declined to approve a setback for a planned Office Depot citing concerns about maintaining an urban street frontage. The project fell apart due to committee’s stance on this matter. I’d be curious to see how observers might compare the committee’s actions on the Office Depot to those on the chamber and SandRidge projects.

Steve, don’t get me started on that Office Depot. That was an epic fail on the part of the downtown design review committee. Ask yourself, would it have been better to have had an office depot at classen and 11th (or somewhere around there)or are you more than happy with the piece of deteriorating dirt work that sits there now and most likely will stay that way for the foreseeable future. I’m sure they saw what Bricktown did to McDs and thought they could get away with telling national corporations what to do – and blew it. That new structure could have been the anchor for new development along that outdated and worn-out stretch of Classen- an anchor. Urban design made it hard for folks to do business with a really dumb interpretation of urban street that has not applicability on Classen so they said “see ya!” Now to get an ink cartridge downtown you have to pay 3 times what you would at Office Depot or drive to May and NW expressway to get it. Downtown design really let OKC down on that one. Hope they don’t do it again and make it hard on Sandridge.

Everybody, don’t think that the Houston C of C isn’t watching all of this happen, and telling SR behind the scenes that if they can’t get it done here, then dump the whole thing and come down to Houston – plenty of buildings, incentives and freedom to develop what they want in a Headquarters. Sandridge leaving would be MUCH more detrimental to OKC then losing any downtown buildings. At some point we have to get real about that.

Sandridge does have the legal right to relocate, right Steve?

The cost for the suburbanization of our downtown will mostly be felt in the decades to come. When the suburbs crumble due to lack of sustainability and walkability, where will they go in OKC if our downtown is also built around the automobile?

Our big box developments do nothing to create a sense of place and will be worn-out within ten years anyway. Why not invest in recreating an urban fabric built on a human scale? In case you haven’t heard, cities are already contracting. People of all ages are looking for walkable communities, not large \anchor stores\ with big parking lots in the heart of downtown.

Gees Kris, I guess there will be people lined up to develop that space. Oh wait, nothing’s been there for over 15 years and in this economy, most likely nothing will be there within the next decade either. That’s close to three decades of lost jobs, lost tax revenue, and lost opportunities to bring something new to that part of Classen. I’m confused what sense of urban place you’re trying to impose on a 4-lane divided boulevard like Classen.

People are looking for jobs and services downtown so they don’t have to drive to the suburbs to buy groceries, and find work. So when one highly respected company shows interest in doing just what downtown needed downtown design runs them off. A huge success for Office depot might have convinced a grocery store that they could make a go putting a store downtown. And it would have been a huge success with downtown, St. Anthony’s and the new Law school all closeby. Instead, Whole Foods will go to Classen Curve and the folks living downtown will again wonder why downtown doesn’t have a grocery and can’t draw the kinds of retail they’ve asked for.

It’s always going to be a give and take Kris. That instance was a time design review needed to give to help the folks that are trying to live in that area. There’s plenty of places with frontage parking all along Classen as it is so it was foolish to try to change that now. It’s too late and was a colossal loss for that area. A real shame.

Jeffrey, that’s not true, it was a Dollar General as recently as 3-4 years ago.

As far as WF downtown, get real, we all knew it was highly unlikely given the amount of rooftops, we’re talking 1.2 million in the metro and we are just now getting one period, long shot that the first one was going DT.

I was pro Maps 3 but also a \friend\ of the anti-Maps 3 Facebook account so that I could see all their updates and rumors.
There really isn’t much to say about the Skirvin being \friends\ with the Keepdowntown Urban account… (know thy enemy, right?)

So Casey, are you trying to say that the Skirvin hotel is an enemy of Preservation Oklahoma?

Now there is a Dollar store over there of some kind now – I think Family Dollar. Are you saying there was another one over there on the site that was going to become Office Depot?

Steve,
You are just an amazing human being. Your contributions to Oklahoma City deserve so much recognition. Really, I feel so good just knowing you. Sorry to drool and be sappy. I can’t help it. You’re amazing! Someone needs to give you a fancy plaque or something. =)