It figures. But as a reality check has ANYTHING ever been built exactly to plan??? 90%??? 80%??? Having a family business that was in construction for over 80 years what the final product looks like is never 100% what was designed.

You design what you need to to get the application approved then the inevitable design changes begin coming once the public looses interest in the original design. This time frame can be amazinly short, such as one news cycle.

Steve – Can you provide us with a little bit of background on this project? I’ve driven past it for seemingly YEARS and observed glacial progress. I couldn’t understand how a private developer (and lender) could allow such a slow construction timeline – it was reminiscent of what eventually became Casa De Los Milagros Mexican restaurant at Belle Isle.

But is the final product THAT MUCH DIFFERENT other than the obvious omission of the large pagoda? Isn’t there still to be one placed in the parking lot, albeit smaller? Because the renderings of the actual structure itself and finishes seem legit. Even from the pagoda rendering I can see that they have followed through with that faithfully. I’d be much more concerned about that then some fancy little shade structure in the middle of a parking lot that didn’t come to be.

But I do agree with the principle of the post, it seems that OKC always gets swindled between the time-frame a project is presented and is actually built.

MikeN is right, rarely does a project ever ending up exactly as promised, but I can not stand that project. Every time I drive by it I think of what could have been. Standards would have stopped this eyesore from ever being built.

Whoever did the curbs did a good job.

Reminds me of The Teahouse of the August Moon.
I loved everybody in that movie.

Oh. And I have my blog up and running. I’m going to be critiquing The Daily Oklahoman editorials. I need to work
on my writing skills so I need to get back out there. Plus,
I’ve tried to leave a few comments on their Scissor Tales
blog but it will never take my comments, which I, personally, find wrong, rude and just downright not very
Oklahoma friendly. So I’m going to do critiquing, maybe a
few recipes, clunky slideshows (even though I read somewhere
that they’re not very hip) and just whatever pops into my
head. Then pictures that I take around and about. Plus,
my poetry. Poetry and some other things. Songs. Mayve some
Soduku (because of the pagoda.)

Typical

Michael H: the surrounding strip mall itself walls appear to be the same but the protected “awning” over each doorway and connecting “canopy” seems to have vanished. Looks like the “awnings” were to be tiled like the the main roof structure over the plaza area? The missing plaza area is what helped pull the whole design together to make the entire center that feel rather than just another generic strip mall with an ethnic restaurant on one end (sort of like in the days when Casa Bonita or even Panchos currently). No mistaking that part of the complex as being ethnic, but no one is going to make the mistake that it is nothing but Mexican/Latino shopping etc in the entire strip mall.

Tom: Reportedly, the one you mentioned was due to him not going into debt to make the renovations but paying for it as he had the means to do so.

Love the clouds. Very Eric Sloane.

[...] Having said that, there are some visual amenities we cherish. We like the bank on Classen and the building T-Mobile leases on NW 23rd, and we totally dig Super Cao Nguyen, the big Asian market with all its colorful fish [...]