J.C. Nichols and Victor Gruen
The Plaza Court sign, circa 1950s (Oklahoman archives)
Otis White continues to provide some of the best links to stories about urban planning of anyone I follow on the Internet. The latest, “America’s Foolish Detour Into Shopping Malls,” laments what could have been if our country had continued with the model with the still incredible Country Club Plaza in Kansas City instead of the Victor Gruen-style malls that plagued our country for a half century.
Oklahoma City had a similar choice once upon a time. MidTown’s Plaza Court consists of retail and offices wrapped around structured parking. It’s not as ambitious as the Country Club Plaza, but it’s certainly a property that people fought to save decades later. Will anyone fight to save Heritage Park Mall in Midwest City, or Crossroads Mall in south Oklahoma City if they eventually are threatened with a wrecking ball?
The article also mentions the General Motors Futurama film of 1939 – which is an intriguing hint at how Gruen won out over J.C. Nichols in designing the shopping centers of the 20th century.
The quotes “residential, commercial and industrial areas have all been separated for greater convenience…” and “Here is an American city re-planned around a highly developed modern traffic system” and “man continually strives to replace the old with the new” are included in part two:
Ahhhh….. I can hear the urbanists among you gagging. The film reminds me of another grand piece of propaganda – the Tale of Two Cities film created by the Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority in 1967.
For those who haven’t watched “A Tale of Two Cities,” this is a must-see for anyone hoping to understand our own struggles in balancing suburban and urban development.
Twistin’ the Night Away
Gotta have a sense of humor on a story night like tonight. As I watch this, I can’t help but think “heck yeah, it’s time to bring back the twist.” And it’s going to be brought back, why not here in OKC? Imagine … an arena full of Thunder faithful … at half-time … during the play-offs … all doing the Twist before a national television audience…. if we’re going to be known for twisters, let’s own it!
More on the Kevin Durant Restaurant in Lower Bricktown
The item is definitely on the Urban Renewal Authority agenda for next Wednesday. As I reported last week (in a story that has since been blatantly ripped off by some local TV stations), Thunder superstar Kevin Durant is set to open a restaurant that will be owned and operated by the Hal Smith Restaurant Group, which also operates Charleston’s, Louies, Ted’s Escandido, and yes, Toby Keith’s I Love this Bar and Grill, which is next to the proposed site for the Durant restaurant.
I can now share that I’m being told the restaurant will feature southern comfort food and steaks, and the price point will be higher than what’s found at Toby Keith’s, but lower than Mickey Mantle Steakhouse a little further north up the Bricktown Canal.
Emerson Alternative School Meeting Tonight
The following notice is being provided by the city. Note: I’m told the designs being presented will suggest cutting two classrooms from the scope.
The final MAPS for Kids community meeting for Emerson Alternative School will be held at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 10. The meeting will take place in the school’s auditorium, 715 North Walker Avenue, and will cover the final design presentation for the school.
During the meeting, parents, teachers, students, neighbors, community members and school administrators can provide input and share their ideas for the school’s upcoming renovations.
Emerson, established in 1894, will receive over $5.1 million in facility improvements from MAPS for Kids funds.
Funding for the nearly $700 million MAPS for Kids program comes from two voter-approved sources: a seven-year penny sales tax which ended on Dec. 31, 2008 and an Oklahoma City Public Schools bond issue. Once completed, every student in the Oklahoma City Public Schools district will attend a new or fully renovated school.
Those needing a sign language interpreter, language interpreter or disability assistance can call 297-2578 at least 48 hours before the meeting.
This meeting is being coordinated by The Small Group Architecture and the Oklahoma City Metropolitan Area Public Schools (OCMAPS) Trust Project Office. For more information, contact the OCMAPS Office at 297-3461 or visit www.okc.gov/ocmaps.
“Who Will Be the Adult in the Room?”
OK, so the suggestion by Sen. Greg Treat that the city somehow be made responsible for finishing the American Indian Cultural Center is not going over well with OKC Central readers. This does not surprise me. But here’s the rub; more than $60 million in taxpayer money (both state and city) has already been spent on construction. I don’t think that it’s difficult to see that at some point along the way with this project, it suffered from inadequate oversight, inappropriate scope and bad planning (if it didn’t, wouldn’t it have been fully built and paid for by now?). So that said, with state and city money at risk here, let’s revisit the question asked by Scott Mitchell: who will be the adult in the room? Is it responsible to simply yell out “heck no, let it rot!” Is it the adult thing to say “these people have screwed this up, let them fix it” if it turns out the “these people” happen to be a state legislature and city council WE elected, and yet they didn’t bother to delve into the details of this project until it was going over a cliff? What if “these people” happen to be us?
Should Oklahoma City Take Over the American Indian Cultural Center?
That seems to be the hint dropped toward the end of this interview between my good friend Scott Mitchell and State Senator Greg Treat. Note: It is my understanding that during the behind-the-scenes planning for MAPS 3, there was an unsuccessful effort to add the museum to the list of projects. And because the ballot was written very loosely, yes, it could still be funded through MAPS 3 if the city council chose to realign the project budgets. But will the city want to simply double up its investment without control over construction and spending?
Flashlight
MidTown and Bricktown Updates
As I mentioned earlier this week, there’s a lot going on – so much so that it’s almost impossible right now to keep up with it all. Hopefully by the end of this week I’ll have most items caught up.
Let’s start with Bricktown, where it looks like a small wedge-shaped building along Main Street is being remodeled:
In MidTown, meanwhile, we’re continuing to see an influx of new housing and restaurants. At 430 NW 12, a long vacant two-story office building is about to extended to three stories and converted into housing:
We also know that the old strip shopping center at NW 10 and Walker is being renovated into an upscale string of restaurants as well. Passersby have seen renovations underway for the past couple of months for a Go-Go Sushi restaurant:
If you follow The Oklahoman’s food writer, David Cathey, you’ll also know that a new location for Saturn Grill will be opening next to Go Go Sushi. The opening of these two restaurants will likely solidify Walker Avenue’s status as an addition to the city’s list of leading restaurant rows.
Change of Heart – Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark
I’m hearing from a lot of folks who are very complimentary of the Chickasaws for listening to local concerns about their first choice of names for the ballpark (Newcastle Field at Bricktown) and going with a name that celebrates the tribe, and not a suburb and one of its casinos.
Going Both Ways
This photo was taken in 1999. Only one of these signs has been eliminated.
More catching up….
Some of you will recall how shortfalls in Project 180 led to the decision, or rather, indecision, by city engineers to go only part of the way in the conversions of Walker and Hudson Avenues from one-way to two-way traffic. As all the dust kicked up by all this began to settle, I realized that the city was essentially going turn both streets (and had already done so with Walker) into two-way, one-way, two-way corridors between Reno Avenue and NW 13.
This discussion began with Public Works director Eric Wenger. But oh my, this discussion has had quite the evolution…
On Feb. 8 I posted the following on OKC Central:
Going through an extensive project update with Public Works director Eric Wenger, I learned the city still has money for traffic controllers for these intersections, but no money for the actual traffic lights.
Wenger said a study not yet done will determine a new timeline and potential funding. Note that the city council instructed the public works department to begin a study to convert downtown’s one-way streets to two-way traffic back in 1999. History shows that at City Hall, a study can translate into a years-long delay (consider the progress to date on a quiet zone on the railway tracks parallel to Automobile Alley).
What this means is the plan now in place would result in Walker Avenue being two-way traffic south of Robert S. Kerr Avenue, one-way traffic between Robert S. Kerr Avenue and NW 6, and then two-way traffic again north of NW 6. Ditto for Hudson Avenue.
Councilman Ed Shadid, a reader of OKC Central, checked on this for himself with city engineers and responded the next day:
I am grateful for your work; your questions are critical to the process.
I believe this Council is strongly committed to the goals outlined in the 1999 T.E.C. study as well as Jeff Speck’s recommendations that these streets be converted to 2-way.
The barriers to implementation go beyond traffic signaling (of which the City does have enough traffic poles and traffic lights in storage if and when we were to need them).
As you state, the sections between Kerr and 6th are not part of P180 or the ’07 Bond issue and will need to be dealt with by the City in house.
Perhaps the greatest barrier is that so many driveway designs along Walker and Hudson have taken advantage of the 1-way street design to make them oblique. Surveys need to be completed to assess which driveways would need to be straightened out to make them perpendicular to the new 2-way street. In addition, restriping would need to be done. Many of these driveways are owned by the County. The obstacles on Hudson are worse than they are on Walker.
Additional funding will be necessary to complete the downtown master plan but prior to that we need to survey those areas and study the geometry and design of 2-way streets in those areas.
The conversion of 2-way streets up to Kerr is still some time away. The conversion between Main to Couch will occur by the end of the year and the conversion from Couch to Kerr will occur after that, possibly into the beginning of 2013.
Obviously, this didn’t quite match up with what I had been told – at least it seemed to hint that Walker Avenue wasn’t as indefinite as I had been led to believe. I then got a call from Assistant City Manager Dennis Clowers, himself the former public works director. And I posted the following update:
Assistant City Manager Dennis Clowers just called me. They’re aware of this conversation. Clowers was the former public works director and that department is one of several that answer to him.
He said the city “has every intention” of finishing the conversion of Hudson and Walker to two-way traffic. But, he added, “it’s not just going to happen overnight.”
He repeated what was apparently told to Ed Shadid. I challenged him on the studies, noting studies began a dozen years ago. I asked, what is more urgent – a cosmetic makeover of the Civic Center park or the safety and function of Hudson and Walker Avenues?
At this point Dennis, who I do respect greatly, acknowledged this matter may not have been addressed with the diligence it deserves. He acknowledged the two-way, one-way, two-way pattern will be less safe for visitors than what we had before. He said city staff is going to get on top of this, and that this matter will be addressed with the same urgency being given to the park.
For downtown businesses, development of the urban core, consultants have determined street traffic patterns can make or break economic development.
More conversations ensued as I shared with readers how the city council had tasked the public works department with converting the one-way downtown streets a dozen years earlier. I posted the following on Feb. 10:
As noted by frequent OKC Central contributor Dennis Wells in a comment on yesterday’s blog post, the city has shifted its response on the street conversions. Assistant City Manager Dennis Clowers reports that the Project 180 contract will include money for complete conversion of Walker Avenue to two-way traffic after all – and that it will be done this year.
Clowers reports no change in plans, however, for Hudson Avenue. More studies and evaluations on funding, etc., are said to be needed before the section between Robert S. Kerr Avenue and NW 6 can be converted to two-way traffic. This means visitors are likely to encounter a two-way, one-way, two-way traffic pattern along the street from Interstate 40 to NW 6 until the city addresses this matter. I will remind readers, the city council instructed the public works department to begin conversions of one-way downtown streets to two-way traffic in 1999 – which was 13 years ago.
So what’s new?
The city council was provided an update on this whole matter on Tuesday. They saw in a black-and-white power point a schedule that now promises that both Hudson and Walker will be fully converted to two-way traffic by late 2012. When quizzed, City Manager Jim Couch reported no further studies are needed, and indeed, bond monies and surplus traffic signals and poles are available to make these full conversions possible without any further delays.
He also reported a similar gap along Robinson Avenue – one I admit sort of escaped my attention – will be addressed on the same timetable.
Watch the report here:
