Architecture
Archived Posts from this Category
That’s the question asked of me on my latest posts with the category added “In tribute to Mary Jo.”
So, here’s your answer:
Mary Jo fought for architectural past
By Steve Lackmeyer
| Tuesday, March 20, 2007 Edition: CITY, Section: BUSINESS, Page 4B |
Mary Jo Nelson wasn’t a cheerleader for the chamber of commerce, or someone who simply took a news release and rewrote it verbatim. Her questions were tough, and she went to great lengths to get the truth out when nobody wanted to dare say the rich and powerful were heading in the wrong direction as they sought to create a new downtown. Her influence on this city was in full display Monday as friends, relatives and admirers gathered for the former Oklahoman reporter’s funeral. Mary Jo was 80.
As the Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority was targeting hundreds of buildings for demolition, Mary Jo was reminding us what was being lost and what was in danger next. She authored an entire series detailing the history and importance of the few old buildings remaining. By the time I started covering downtown years later, the damage was done — with one notable exception: the Skirvin Hotel.
Between 1996, when I was first assigned to cover downtown, and 1999, when the city council agreed to actively seek a developer for the property, I wrote 23 stories detailing the hotel’s history, its plight, ties to the community, and examples of successful hotel restorations in other cities.
I now confess to all the editors who grew exasperated with my coverage: yes, I was trying to steer the public’s attention to the Skirvin hotel. But blame Mary Jo. She unknowingly taught me how to bring readers’ attention to at-risk historic buildings. She wouldn’t let readers forget the city’s architectural past.
Blame her as well for my reminders every now and then of the architectural relics that continue even now to suffer from neglect in the courtyard of the Santa Fe Parking Garage. The items, placed when the surrounding offices were occupied by the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber, include a lion’s head ornament from the Terminal Building, an exterior light fixture from the Patterson Building, the grinding wheel from the area’s first grist mill, a spire and cupola from the Baum Building, marble from the Biltmore Hotel and a finial from the Criterion Theater.
Chamber folks, prompted by inquiries from Mary Jo, promised in 1994 they were going to move the collection to a safer spot, but never did. Mary Jo cared about these items because they are the last vestiges of a past she believed were carelessly discarded. They continue to suffer the abuse of fun-seeking skateboarders and vandals.
I spoke for what became the final time with Mary Jo last summer after writing about how an architectural gem like the Baum Building was replaced during the Urban Renewal era with the much-derided and now empty Century Center Plaza.
She loved that column. She hated Urban Renewal.
Times have changed. Urban Renewal’s latest work involving historic buildings was the restoration of the Skirvin Hotel and the preservation of the Centre Theater facade as part of development of the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.
For those in the architectural and preservation community who are mourning her death, just know she probably wouldn’t be too interested in flowers or tributes. If I had to guess, she’d probably much rather see that passion go into saving those forgotten downtown relics.
Here is a far better picture of the old India Temple Building, which is covered with a fake concrete tilt-up facade and may be in jeopardy of being torn down. To learn more about this building, go to www.dougdawg.blogspot.com or read about it here.
What will be Stage Center’s ultimate legacy? I’ll be the first to admit I am among those who haven’t always appreciated this downtown oddity. I understand it’s highly regarded in the modern architecture movement, having been designed by living legend John Johansen.
Like the Crystal Bridge Botanical Tube at the neighboring Myriad Gardens, the former Mummer’s Theater is a stand out from an era that brought downtown some pretty bland architecture (think Vincent Carrozza’s Galleria Towers and Mid-America Tower).
And yet the Crystal Bridge and Stage Center also are vastly different in this respect: if I were to guess what motivated the designers of the Crystal Bridge, they’d say it was to create something beautiful. But Johansen, who I interviewed in this story for Sunday’s Oklahoman, wasn’t looking for beauty.
Backing up again, look at this way: when I go to the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, I really like seeing the old portraits, paintings and modern pop culture paintings that depict gas stations, etc. I really don’t like the abstract, but I appreciate it for being something special - and I like that this part of the art world is included at the museum (something that wasn’t always the case - but that’s a story for another day).
OK, so it’s not as easy to understand Stage Center. But look at it closely. Enter that elaborate Tinker Toy of a theater and glance up the colorful stairways. Take a seat in the auditorium and really get a sense of the place. Then go out to the outer corridor and look out into the plaza. Look at the tubes, the elaborate linkages between the “pods.”
This is our theater. We could have settled for a big plain box. But we didn’t. At some level, this too is Oklahoma City, though it’s not a side of the community personality that we’re always comfortable with.
And so we even create legends - I’ve heard it time and again that the theater’s design was to blame for the failure of the once brilliant theatrical troupe that was to call it home - Mummer’s. And yet we can dig deeper into this aspect as well - and you can read about that here.
So what’s the future for Stage Center? It’s home now to the popular Carpenter Square Theater, though one must always remember that live theater isn’t a money maker - it is considered by many, however, a vital sign of a community’s soul, of its spirit
Things will inevitably change, as I noted at the end of today’s column. What will all mean - that’s what I want to hear from you.
Charles Hill, by the way, has some thoughts about Stage Center and John Johansen here.
- Steve
It was at one of the very first mayors roundtables, several years ago, that I first got a glimpse of what we’re now seeing as the transformation of the Flat Iron and Deep Deuce areas into a real downtown neighborhood.
And yes, again, it was at another roundtable that it became clear the city was going to aggressively seek development of the area we now know as Core to Shore.
So what’s next?
Here’s the advance for next week’s Mayors Roundtable from the city:
Developers, contractors, design professionals and government leaders interested in learning about future housing demand and the development of a Central Park-like space in downtown Oklahoma City can register now through May 12 for the seventh annual Mayor’s Development Roundtable. The Roundtable will be held from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., Wednesday, May 14 at the Cox Business Services Convention Center. Real estate market expert Laurie Volk will kick off the event with a session called “Changing Markets and the New Housing Paradigm.”
Volk is co-director of Zimmerman/Volk Associates, a New Jersey-based market research firm specializing in urban development and redevelopment.
The second session will feature Peter Harnik, director of the Center for City Park Excellence for the Trust for Public Land in Washington, D.C. Harnik, who is the author of Inside City Parks, a book about the park system in the 25 largest cities in the U.S. and The Excellent City Park System: What Makes it Great and How to Get There, will discuss development opportunities related to a proposed park in downtown Oklahoma City. Mayor Cornett will facilitate roundtable discussion with speakers, attendees and local experts after each session.
The Mayor will close the conference by presenting an Award for Outstanding Development in Oklahoma City. Registration is $65 and includes breakfast and lunch.
Register online by May 12 at www.okc.gov/planning/roundtable.
Yeah sure, there’s plenty to see and take photos of in Bricktown at night, but what about the rest of downtown? Here’s some intesting angles taken tonight along an increasingly vibrant Automobile Alley and in Maywood Park, which is awaiting the last element needed to make a neighborhood complete - residents.
Now is the time to move up to Downtown Oklahoma City! On Saturday, May 3, the Move UP Downtown Living Tour will lead visitors through 11 new or renovated residential developments for sale and lease, with a featured stop at the 2008 Symphony Designer Show House.
This self-guided tour runs from 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. and visitors are invited to tour as many properties as they like. The free Move UP shuttles will run a continuous loop of the tour locations until 6 p.m. Stops can be visited in any order. Tour books with maps will be available at each stop. Guests should allow 20 – 30 minutes for each stop they choose to visit.
Free parking will be provided at NW 10th & Robinson across from Hadden Hall, Lower Bricktown lots and the City Center Garage (enter from Park Avenue or Hudson) located at 301 W. Sheridan. Downtown OKC offers over 20,000 lot and on street metered parking spaces for your convenience. Metered spots are free on weekends.
The 11 stops featured on the tour include; Block 42; The Hill; The Sieber; Legacy at Arts Quarter; Carnegie Centre; Park Harvey; Sycamore Square South; Lower Bricktown/Centennial; The Montgomery; Hadden Hall; and Brownstones at Maywood Park and the 2008 Symphony Designer Show House. Click here for a tour map
Tour guests will experience all that downtown OKC has to offer, with restaurants and specialty shops offering tour specials and prizes. As guests visit each property, they are invited to register to win one of many exciting Downtown prizes. The more properties visited, the better the chance to win! Prizes include a $2,000 gift certificate to Bo Concept Urban Design; a “Downtown Test Drive” at the Skirvin Hilton with a deluxe room and dinner at the Park Avenue Grill; and gift certificates and passes to many of Downtown’s finest eating establishments and exciting attractions
The 35th annual Symphony Designers Show House and Gardens, a project of the Oklahoma City Orchestra League, will feature the new downtown construction of the Brownstones at Maywood Park. Admission to the Symphony Designer Show House is $15.00 each and no children under 8 or cameras are allowed. The Show House is open until 3:30 on May 3. The Show House opens runs through May 18.
The Move UP Downtown Living Tour is produced by Downtown OKC Inc. and sponsored by the Downtown Business Improvement District, The Oklahoman, Downtown Magazine and the Downtown Developers. Supporting sponsors include Bo Concept Urban Design, Downtown Urban Neighbors (U.N.) and Red Prime Steak.
SoundBites Concert Series Tomorrow! The John Arnold Band
Both kinds of music, country and western, will fill the Downtown spring air today as the The John Arnold Band takes the stage to entertain downtowners on their lunch break The band won the $50,000 national Dodge-Wrangler Country Showdown and has toured across the US with Ricky Skaggs and Exile. They have opened for such artists as George Strait, Steve Wariner, Marty Stuart, Reba McEntire, Michael Martin Murphey, The Bellamy Brothers, The Judds, T. Graham Brown, and many others.
SoundBites concerts happen Fridays in May and June from 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. in Couch Park, located between Broadway and Robinson at Robert S. Kerr, adjacent to Kerr Park.
SoundBites concerts include:
May 2…..John Arnold Band
May 9…..The Bluecats
May 16….Camille Harp
May 23….Horseshoe Road (Steve’s note: these guys are good - future national showcase performers good)
May 30….Starkweather Boys
June 6…..Shakespearean Afternoon Delight by Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park June 13…..Aranda
June 20…..Groove Merchants/SoundBites at Sunset 4:30 – 6:30
Hungry downtowners are encouraged to visit one of the many fine SoundBites restaurant partners to grab a lunch to go and enjoy the tunes. These restaurant partners are offering a special $5 “SoundBites2Go” lunch special! Couch Park features tables with umbrellas and cozy shaded seating areas and is the perfect spot for a midday Downtown retreat from the office.
To take advantage of the SoundBites2Go $5 lunch specials, visit the following:
Quizno’s………………110 N. Robinson….232-7773
Sub Stop……………..120 N Robinson…..232-3332
Interurban……………..204 N. Robinson….235-4448
City Bites……………..211 N. Robinson….232-3322
Ground Floor Café…..211 N. Robinson….232-2233
Crave……………………211 N. Robinson…..606-6691
SoundBites in the Park is presented by the Downtown Oklahoma City Business Improvement District, managed by Downtown Oklahoma City, Inc.
For more information regarding SoundBites in the Park or the BID, contact Downtown Oklahoma City Inc. at (405) 235-3500.
Doing something better than iconic. That’s the vision of architectural students I met with earlier this week at the studio of Hans Butzer along Film Row. The story is here.
The top three sketches are by OU architectural student Brent Gathright, who is also known as BG918 at www.okctalk.com
OU architectural student Kimberly Monroe envisions a convention center that would collect rainwater from the roof and circulate it in an interior courtyard, as shown below.
Kyung Namgoong drew her inspiration from the city’s terrain:
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The Eyesore List
A couple of weeks ago I posted the following question at www.okctalk.com: what are the worst downtown eyesores?
Here’s the list they compiled:
———————————-
Stage Center
Old Downtown Library
DEQ Building
AT&T campus
Former Stewart Metal buildings
304 NE 3 (Deep Deuce)
City Detox
Former Fox Collission Building
Bob Howard Ford
Union Bus Station
First National Arcade
Trigen
Garage at Kerr and Harvey
Park Harvey Building
Former nightclub at Main and Walker
Goodyear Tire store
Browns bakery
Dowell Center
Bricktown Parking Garage
U-Haul building in Bricktown
Cotton Coop
Finley building
Bass Pro
Century Center
Harkins Theater
So, what’s next? I’ve got a camera, and I’m preparing to take some photos of these “eyesores.” Then I’ll provide details on some of these properties, followed by a poll here at www.okccentral.com. The more of you who vote in this poll, the more likely it is you might nudge someone to make some improvements. Now, quiz time friends… which one of these “eyesores” is the only Oklahoma City property to win one of the highest architectural honors possible? Which property was deemed one of the city’s most significant architectural landmarks by a panel of architects and preservationists? Which building is owned by dedicated urban pioneers who have led in their district’s revival? And which building is closest to becoming history?
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New Skyline?
Thanks to the wonders of photoshop, some glances at our potential new skyline are beginning to emerge. Here are a couple that have popped up the past 24 hours:
- Doug Loudenback, www.dougdawg.blogspot.com
- BG198, www.okctalk.com
I know there are a lot of photoshop and simcity geniuses out there, and even some architects and architectural interns and students who are reading this blog. So let’s have some fun with this - take your best shot at imagining the new downtown OKC skyline and email to me, and I’ll post them over the next several days.
You might never know whose eyes are reading this site, and how your imagination could influence the folks who will be making the final call of downtown’s future.
