Before We Dismiss What Buildings Remain Standing in Core to Shore…
Candidates for Demolition? Not under Urban Renewal.
The same buildings today - home to the Deep Deuce apartments clubhouse.
The Littlepage Building - boarded up and ugly, right? Once again, the Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority chose a new course of direction and required developers to build around the blight.
The Littlepage Building today - home to Sage Cafe and Gourmet Market, a corporate furnishings store and apartments upstairs.
Another building that needed a savior and could have been torn down in the name of progress.
Maybe it's easy to write this building off - the north facade's windows are broken and covered with graffiti as city officials have turned their backs on building maintenance in the area.
The same building in its heyday - once home to the Oklahoma City branch of International Harvester.
Another building that doesn't appear in any Core to Shore plans.
Yet another building not shown in Core to Shore plans.
Definitely not shown in Core to Shore plans. Once the original Film Exchange building.
While no other buildings have the architectural significance of Little Flower Church and Union Station, several notable older buildings, such as the Latino Community Development Agency building, contribute to the character of the area and could be incorporated into development projects if economically feasible.”
An Update on the Mayo
Yes, yes, I know it’s in downtown Tulsa, not in downtown Oklahoma City. And yes, I realize there are those of you who might take this post as a sign that OKC Central is being taken over by the Tulsa World. Now, relax, and take this as it’s intended – an interesting glimpse at the renovations underway at the Mayo Hotel in Tulsa. It’s a cool project, and the Mayo is to Tulsa what the Skirvin is to Oklahoma City. Both hotels share glorious pasts through the 1960s, only to be sadly neglected in the 1980s and 1990s. We all know about the Skirvin’s rebirth; it’s interesting to compare it to what’s underway at the Mayo.
The player, by the way, is a bit weird. Just hit the first button on the left bottom row that says “Mayo.”
Good to Bad to Good at the Sieber Hotel
They say that all journalists are cynical and are harbingers of only bad news. I’m not arguing that my profession probably deserves a lot of the criticisms it gets day to day. But I’ll be the first to admit I’m the type to root for the underdog. And Marva Ellard was definitely the underdog when she bought the Sieber Hotel more than a decade ago. Once a MidTown landmark, at 1305 N Hudson, the property was a mess by the 1990s.
For whatever reason, Ellard had plenty of doubters. Two city council members seemed intent on sinking her project at one point. Other downtown developers tried to place doubt as to whether she could ever pull it off.
And yet Marva pulled it off. I had a lot of fun covering this this past decade, and in conjunction with my coverage today, I thought I’d share a pictorial journey through the good and bad times of the Sieber Hotel.
The Sieber Hotel during its “glory days.”
The Sieber Hotel – during not so glorious days (circa 2001)
Marva Ellard gets to work on the lobby.
This building will not fall!
Marva Ellard looks upward at the skylight in the Sieber lobby - maybe for some divine guidence….
Window restoration – one of the most complicated and expensive items on any historic tax credit project, begins (circa 2007)
The old mosaic tile floor in the Sieber lobby is revealed to be incredibly intact.
The former Sieber butcher shop and grocery, once barely standing during early renovations, is back in top shape by fall 2008.
The completed lobby – one of many wonderful photos shot by Paul Southerland during a recent tour.
The Sieber on Video
Learning About Film Row and the Film Exchange
For those who follow this blog and my column, you know I’ve written qutie a bit about the potential of a School of Rock making the old Fred Jones Ford factory its long-term future home. But like many people, I got tripped up on whether to refer to the area as Film Row or the Film Exchange. Developer Chip Fudge recently wrote and offered the following bit of education on the area:
Dear Steve:
Thank you for all of the recent press regarding the Film Exchange District and Historic Film Row.We love the idea of UCO’s collaboration for the “School of Rock”.
I believe Roger Webb and Scott Booker have a very forward thinking vision for this type of public/private partnership and it will be great for our community.
It dawned on me that we have done a poor job of explaining the difference between “The Film Exchange District” and “Historic Film Row”. The District is shaped like a piano (see attachment in orange) and borders Classen on the West, Hudson and Walker on the East, the Arts District on the North and the new I-40/Boulevard on the South. It encompasses a much larger area than Film Row.
“Historic Film Row” refers to the two block area on the 600 and 700 blocks of Sheridan extending North and South from California to Main. “Historic Film Row” is the specific area that was placed on the National Historic Register last year with a great deal of help from the State Historic Preservation office and the documented historical significance by local designer David Wanzer. Historic Film Row was the home of various movie houses: 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, M-G-M Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Republic Pictures, RKO Radio Pictures, United Artists, Universal Pictures, and Warner Brothers. They used these properties to screen the new films and exchange or distribute them to regional theaters.
Besides the great historic buildings in our District, the area comes with a variety of tax incentives for owners and developers, new market tax credits, state and federal rehabilitation tax credits for historically significant properties, and many employee related tax incentives for companies that relocate to our District.
I am sending this email to Fred and Kirk Hall, along with your article from December 2nd, so that they are in the loop. Feel free to use any or all of this information in any future articles as you wish.
Finally, this project would not have progressed to this point without all of the help from the City of Oklahoma City, specifically Robbie Kienzle, Brent Bryant, Cathy O’Connor, Ann Simank, and many others. As we have discussed in the past, I do not consider myself much of a developer. I have a day job that keeps me busy.
I like to put back together older properties for fun and sometimes for profit. One added benefit has been the education I have received about our homeless issue. I had the opportunity to serve on the Mayor’s “Homeless Task Force” committee and we have great communication with Tom Jones of City Rescue, Dan Straughan of the Homeless Alliance, and now Tim Ulrich of the Refuge Oklahoma City Mission. The Hart building and parking lots will be the anchor of the West end of our District, directly across the street from City Rescue. The bottom line, we are comfortable with our office next to the homeless shelters.
Thanks again for your support. I know we both have a love of the rich history of the great historic buildings in our community. I will keep you posted on all future progress.
Sincerely, John M. “Chip” Fudge
Businessman, Part-time Developer
Here's Something to Begin Pondering…
One of the largest clearances of old historic buildings in 25 years may soon be pursued downtown…. developing.
Dog Days of Summer
It’s hot out there. But downtown is still moving forward at a fast clip, and I guess, so must I. As I’ve reported before, more hotels are likley to be announced, most of them in Bricktown.
More housing is coming too – and much of it will be targeted to the pent-up demand for downtown homes priced at less than $200,000.
I’m also beginning to see signs that the folks in Bricktown may be awakening to reality – let’s wait and see of course – but surely a decade of demanding $20 a square foot and not getting it should be a loud and clear answer from the market about what is and isn’t realistic.
Had a nice visit with the owner of Lit Clothing, which opened up in The Centennial. Overall, Lower Bricktown still isn’t hitting the retail mix I know some leaders hoped for several years ago, but it’s getting closer to offering the sort of diversity that’s been missing from Bricktown since day one.
I talked with Chuck Ainsworth, and yes, that is construction you can see starting up in what will the American Banjo Museum. Now, if only someone could close a deal to have the Mickey Mantle Museum. Then we would really have a regional tourism destination.
Automobile Alley is still humming along. I visited with Steve Mason yesterday and I’ll have a story on that soon. I also visited with Marva Ellard, and things are going nicely with her redevelopment of the Sieber Hotel. The Sieber family is still very emotionally attached to that old building and it’s not unusual to find one of them driving by … veeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyy sssssssssssllllllllllllloooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwlllllllllllyyyyyyyy.
Marva is definitely one of those folks I’d call a “building hugger.” I asked her what she thought about Bert Belanger tearing down the old sex offender houses and plans to tear down the boarded up nursing home on Broadway Drive. Her response was ho-hum at best… I’m not hearing from any people who really consider these properties a big loss.
That’s it for now. Sorry for the dearth of posts this week.
So Who Is Mary Jo?
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.
Downtown's Oldest Building – Still Standing …
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.
The India Temple Building – Downtown's Forgotten Gem
Left: The India Temple Building is shown as it appeared in the first half of the 1900s. Right: A concrete facade was placed over the original exterior as part of a renovation about 40 years ago that made the building part of the Kerr-McGee headquarters. – PHOTO PROVIDED BY OKLAHOMA COUNTY ASSESSOR LEONARD SULLIVAN
For those of you not familiar with the India Temple Building, here is a history of the property, along with developments that have transpired the past couple years:
History lost
Restorer seeks images, plans of site before Urban RenewalBy Steve Lackmeyer
Business Writer
| Friday, March 10, 2006 Edition: CITY, Section: BUSINESS, Page 6B |
Photos and plans from a renovation more than 30 years ago are being sought to determine whether a historic downtown building assumed to have been lost forever to Urban Renewal can be brought back as part of an upcoming loft development. To passers-by, the seven-story office building at the corner of Broadway and Robert S. Kerr Ave., long a part of the Kerr-McGee headquarters, looks like just another example of 1960s architecture. But architect Anthony McDermid confirms the concrete facade hides what was once the India Temple, built in 1902.The building’s history includes a four-year stint as a temporary home of the Legislature. McDermid said the concrete facade likely was added when the block was developed into the current Kerr-McGee headquarters.
If the building facade is restored, the property would complete a string of historic buildings visible from Broadway, including the Pioneer Telephone Building, which is home to AT&T, and the Skirvin Hotel, which is undergoing a facade restoration as part of conversion to a Hilton.
“As a developer, it poses challenges,” said McDermid, who is leading the renovation with partners Bert Belanger and Pat Garrett. “But for the city … if there is something that can be salvaged underneath the concrete exterior, something worthwhile under there, it would be wonderful.”
McDermid said the interior of the building is beyond restoration.
“It’s been so extensively changed on the inside, it doesn’t even qualify for the historic register,” McDermid said.
Dave Lopez, president of Downtown Oklahoma City Inc., said the exterior renovation could qualify for tax credits and financing through the tax increment financing district.
“Clearly, as we’re discovering from the renovation of the Skirvin, authenticity and affection seems to come with older architecture,” Lopez said. “It gives our downtown a sense of permanency and character you just can’t replicate. Not only would it be an asset if they can restore it to its grandeur, but it would give people a chance to engage with our history.”
Details of Braniff’s historic facade finally toldBy Steve Lackmeyer
| Tuesday, August 15, 2006 Edition: CITY, Section: BUSINESS, Page 4B |
I wanted to share Bob Maidt’s story at a triumphant moment. Maidt and his son Bob Maidt Jr. were veterans in the plastering business, and I was first introduced to Bob Maidt Jr. when he helped me understand the pros and cons in the use of EIFS stucco in new construction.In March, I wrote a story about a building on the Kerr-McGee campus that was to be part of a condominium development. At first glance, the building at Broadway and Robert S. Kerr Avenue in Oklahoma City is hardly spectacular. But developer and architect Anthony McDermid was aware that the concrete facade covered up a historic facade that dated back to 1902. The building, far from a forgettable Urban Renewal addition to downtown, is a true gem — and its restoration would give back a bit of history in an area that lost much of its past in the 1960s and 1970s.
But McDermid had no information on how the fake facade was added or whether the original India Temple facade was still intact. Before and after photos were printed with my story, and Bob Maidt Jr. immediately recognized the project as one completed by his ailing father. Maidt Jr. later e-mailed saying he approached his father, who was bed ridden, and memories started to flow.
The elder Maidt, 82, had been released from the hospital a couple of weeks earlier, with doctors telling the family they could do no more to relieve the man’s failing health.
“He did most of the Kerr-McGee work, so I figured it was his job,” Maidt Jr. said. “I went over in the afternoon, after work, and he seemed pretty excited. It perked him right up — put a gleam in his eyes. He said, ‘Oh yeah, I remember doing that.’”
Maidt Sr. not only recalled the job, but also told his son where to find the job files and photos of the new facade’s installation. The original building, he said, wasn’t seriously damaged during the 1960s-era renovation.
For Maidt Jr., the conversation was a chance to relive the days when the pair worked together, running the family business. Their plastering business had been started a century earlier by Maidt Jr.’s grandfather’s uncle, Albert Maidt (who also was one of the founders of Twin Hills Golf and Country Club). The family business had passed from one generation to another until it closed in 1997.
The visit about the Kerr-McGee campus building would be their last. That night, Maidt Sr. died. Ironically, the story that sparked the Maidts’ visit had been written a couple weeks earlier — intended to run at a later date. Had the story been delayed one more day, the information needed to restore the India Temple building to its original facade might have disappeared forever.
I’d hoped to tell the Maidts’ story once McDermid and his partners started on the property’s renovation. Now that renovation, and the future of two other old buildings on the former Kerr-McGee campus, appear to be another unfulfilled downtown dream. A deal between McDermid’s Corporate Redevelopment Group and Kerr-McGee fell apart last week.
As the two sides go to court, hundreds of new residential units are being added to downtown, leaving the prospect of the planned Braniff Towers a question of will, timing and demand.
Meanwhile, if someone does decide to bring the old India Temple building back to life, Maidt Jr. is waiting to share more details about his father’s last discussion about what’s under the concrete facade.
Uncertain future faces Kerr-McGee buildingsBy Steve Lackmeyer
Business Writer
| Sunday, December 23, 2007 Edition: CITY, Section: BUSINESS, Page 6C |
Three older buildings on the former Kerr-McGee campus face an uncertain future as the block becomes home to its new owner, SandRidge Energy. The buildings could end up being torn down. Tom Ward, chief executive officer of SandRidge, also says he is keeping an open mind on whether the properties can be redeveloped and promises to meet with civic leaders and preservationists before making any final decision.But Ward is clear on one matter: he’s not interested in seeing half of the downtown block looking dark and abandoned as it has the past 20 years.
The buildings consist of the following:
111 Robert S. Kerr Ave. is a seven-story, 38,736-square-foot building built in 1902. The property was a temporary home to the Legislature for four years. The fake concrete siding hides its original India Temple facade.
135 Robert S. Kerr Ave. is an 11-story, 155,911-square-foot building built in 1921 that was once Kerr-McGee’s headquarters.
324 N Robinson Ave. is a 10-story, 75,584-square-foot building built in 1923 that was once home to Braniff Airlines.
Anthony McDermid, who tried to convert the buildings into upscale condominiums, insists at least two of the properties still can be brought back to life.
“They can be saved,” McDermid said. “There is no question that the two buildings on Robinson are structurally sound and eminently restorable … there are creative ways to address the issues.”
The former India Temple building poses the most challenges, but it also has the potential of uncovering an elaborate 1902 facade, the likes of which hasn’t graced downtown Oklahoma City since hundreds of buildings were destroyed by Urban Renewal in the 1970s.
Before his death last year, Bob Maidt, the man who installed the fake concrete facades at the former India Temple in the 1960s, reported the original facade is intact. He left records about the job with his son, Bob Maidt Jr.
“It’s more complicated,” McDermid says of the India Temple building. “It has been subjected to a lot of renovations over the years and structural changes. There were floors added into it. It’s a more challenging building that retains very little of the original building configuration.”
Another set of developers who looked at the buildings in the early 1990s are less optimistic that any of them can be saved.
Mark Ruffin recalls how he, Nicholas Preftakes and Jim Parrack looked at the odds of renovating the buildings and walked away.
“The bones weren’t really that conducive,” Ruffin said. “They had low clearance heights, they had significant asbestos issues. From a functional standpoint, they just weren’t that conducive.”
