A Closer Look at the Voss Building
Yesterday I posted some great photos taken by Will Hider while he and I toured “the lost city.” One building we discovered, one neither of us had ever noticed before, was the stunning Voss Building.
Thanks to Bradley Wynn, we also have some photos from the Oklahoma Historical Society to provide us with a glimpse of the building when it was home to Voss Truck Lines.
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Comments
Here’s the rest of the OHS photos by date.
http://www.okctalk.com/showthread.php?t=28882&p=513418#post513418
So which of these buildings, if any, are actually within the proposed footprint of the park? If it means a grand park for my kids and their kids to play in for the future, I would have to think long and hard about giving that up for the sake of some buildings. Plaques can be moved and saved and re-installed in ways that honor the spot, other than giving up the park. If they are outside of the park, then perhaps I can get behind saving some of them.
Brent, do your kids play in any of the already existing parks in Oklahoma City? There are dozens of them, from small parks like Swatek Park to huge ones like Will Rogers Park. Sadly, they are greatly underutilized now. But once you tear down these buildings, buildings that have existed for 50-70 years and have the resiliency to serve for many more decades, you can never get them back.
Noftsger was a well-resspected architect. He did the Farmers market building, among a number of others in the OKC area.
Not just a matter of the Park but the entire Core to Shore area that the Council in their infinite wisdom has declared as “blighted” which i presume will lead the way for the widespread demolition of anything and everything in its path. As others have correctly pointed out, once a building is gone, it is gone. And the character and history that went with it. only pictures like these will remain.
Jim, yup, go to the parks all the time. Love them, Myriad, Hefner, small ones, big ones…they/we love them all. The people we want to live downtown deserve the space too though. But time marches on, I’ve had houses I’ve lived in demolished, schools I attended (and were around for longer than these buildings) condemned and erased, etc. When it comes down to it, they are only brick and mortar. It is sad for a brief time for the memories, but you move on. Nothing will really last forever.
Of course, you should give it thought before you tear down any of them, but do they have true historical significance? Or should they just be remembered as they once were? And this is coming from a big history buff. If any can be used in a park context, great! Again though, if they were outside the park zone maybe I could get more behind saving some. Not to mention the uproar it would probably cause within the city if the crown jewel of the MAPS 3 program were eliminated.
The Council is already “rethinking” the “crown jewel” Park and it may be nothing like what was presented prevote. While it hasn’t been eliminated, it has moved from the front of the line (being one of the 1st completed projects in 2014, along with the Boulevard), to the end of the line. With only minimal landscaping etc along the northern edge fronting the Boulevard/Convention Center and the Harvey spine that runs through the Park down to the Skydance pedestrian bridge over the new I-40.
The building is quite a resource as is the large Oklahoma Operating Company bldg about a blcok or to the south. Both are many blocks from the park. The Voss family has written abook about the company and that may have some insights about the building.
It is a fantastic building especially with the adjoining warehouse/food storage spaces to the south.