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The OSU-OKC Farmers’ Market continues to draw bigger crowds to downtown’s Couch Park, located between Broadway and Robert S. Kerr Avenue, adjacent to Kerr Park and just west of the Skirvin Hilton Hotel. The market is open every Wednesday, 9:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m., through September 24. The downtown market is a partnership between OSU-OKC and Downtown Oklahoma City, Inc.

The OSU-OKC Farmers’ Market is a member of the Oklahoma Grown Farmers Market program, registered with the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry. Every item sold at the market is grown or made in Oklahoma. Items available include produce, dairy, eggs, meats, nuts, baked items and processed foods - many of which are certified organic.

In addition to a wide array of food items, the Market offers plant materials, fresh cut flowers, and a variety of handmade skin care and craft items. For more information, visit www.osuokc.edu/farmersmarket.

Visitors will also enjoy entertainment, as well as cooking demonstrations by some of Downtown’s most notable chefs including The Skirvin Hilton’s executive chef Andrew Black.

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Several of you have asked to see all of the images provided by Devon Energy for the new tower. So here you go. Above, the entire block is shown with One North Hudson to the left and the Colcord Hotel to the right.

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A park will front Sheridan Avenue in front the tower’s “podium.”

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Water pools will surround the property, with a grand public lobby and rotunda atrium looking out on the park.

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The rotunda will light up at night, providing passersby a dramatic view of life inside Devon Energy’s new world headquarters.

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Another look at the rotunda entrance.

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Looking up at the rotunda, where people will be able to walk along bridges on the upper floors.

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More models of the new Devon Energy tower and headquarters.

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Schematic and floor plan for new Devon headquarters.

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Several of you have asked to see all of the images provided by Devon Energy for the new tower. So here you go:

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While catching up on Tulsa news, I found this tidbit on downtown Tulsa finally completing improvements that will eliminate trains having to blast their horns as they pass restaurants, lofts and businesses:

“Oh, it will be a great improvement,” says downtown developer Michael Sager. “I mean, the trains are wonderful as they are on the open plans echoing. They knock you out of bed at night, so it will be a great improvement for all these residential projects.”

Workers at nearby restaurants say no train whistles will be nice. The new gates that are going up will keep cars and people from going across the tracks when trains are coming through, also making crossings safer.

“Train intersections, people get antsy and want to take off,” says Jamie Young with the Blue Dome Restaurant. “Every so often, somebody gets unlucky about hitting that train intersection.”

A similar effort is getting underway for Oklahoma City, with Urban Neighbors and Downtown OKC Inc. both wanting to end the whistles and horns as trains pass through along the Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks between NW 13 and NW 6.
 

The good news is the spam filter with Word Press is very, very aggressive at nabbing spam. You’ve been spared countless rip-off pitches.

But sometimes it gets too aggressive, as it did with my own comment this morning, and it did with several of you earlier this week. Please be patient and know I’m trying to keep tabs on the filter several times a day to ensure your posts are not lost for long. If you don’t see your comment posted within a few hours, feel free to email me at slackmeyer@oklahoman.com. I believe almost all of the comments that did not post immediately this week were eventually recovered.

By the way, last week I discussed tweaking this blog. Yesterday’s post is an example of my trying to get a bit more advanced in display of art. I hope it worked out ok. Still trying to figure out how to overcome the font differences.

- Steve

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Steve and Jack, on the job live blogging Wednesday. Photo by Doug Loudenback, www.dougdawg.blogspot.com (be sure to check out Doug’s great account of yesterday’s Devon tower announcement) .

Yesterday’s reporting on the new Devon Tower was a lot of fun, if simply because it allowed the repairing of what editors used to refer to as “Lack-Money.” Yep, that could also probably describe my financial situation - and that of Jack Money. But back at the newsroom, the phrase “Lack-Money” was usually uttered by an editor amused at our latest bit of trouble-making or excited over our big scoop.

Jack started at The Oklahoman in 1988, I started in 1990. That means that in the early 1990s, we were a couple of kids who didn’t have any life (well, at least I didn’t) and journalism was a fresh adventure. Our earliest collaborations involved mostly crime stories. Investigations into Asian gangs, a brutal slaying in Edmond, etc. Jack was moved to the City Hall beat just as MAPS was being launched. We worked together again reporting on the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, and we were paired as a real reporting team in 1996.

We won the lottery getting to cover not just MAPS, but also the recovery from the bombing and the development of Bricktown and the Skirvin. In the late 1990s it seems as if we were getting on front page on a daily basis.  And just as the Bricktown Canal was about to open, I dared to suggest we were witnessing history - so why not write a book? Jack, almost always the more level-headed half of this team, looked at me and didn’t hesitate calling me crazy. But seven years later, we published an in-depty history on downtown, “OKC Second Time Around.” The response to it has been flattering.

We were separated as a team a few years ago - editors wanted me to try my hand at full-time investigative and special projects reporting. Jack was sent to the State Capitol and then promoted to assistant city editor.

I moved to the business desk first, in 2005, after I expressed an interest in covering more of the business angle to downtown development. It also didn’t hurt that editors agreed to let me have a weekly column - part of the job I truly enjoy. After spending a couple of years as a highly-regarded editor, Jack desired to move back to writing and reporting, and he took over the always-busy energy beat just as the ice storms were tearing through the state in December.

Anyway, just know that yesterday’s blog reporting was a two-man effort. I continuously posted play-by-play as Jack outlined interesting factoids in the press release and uploaded photos for us to post. Maybe along the way, you noticed an early error or two - construction starting in 2008 instead of 2009 (typo) or a quote attributed to the wrong person. We corrected both ASAP - such problems are the downside of reporting this way. But I’ve heard from quite a few of you that you enjoyed sharing a seat in the auditorium via our postings. We had fun, and I hope you did too.

-Steve

Well, you get the drift. It’s tall. Here’s a video from this morning:

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Curtains just pulled from models. Crowd applause. Oohs and ahs. People are pretty happy right now.

Pickard: “We are endeavoring to build a beacon.”

Facts:

925 feet tall

54 floors

1.9 million square feet of space

“it’s one of the most substantive projects Mr. Hines and Pickard and Chilton have ever been involved in.”

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The developer flew in from London to make this presentation

“Over the last 50 years our firm has had the privledge of designing signature office buildings throughout the land.”

Such projects, he says, can enrich a the lives and cultural fabric of a community.

“Devon has assembled a world class team to assemble this project.”

“Pickard Chilton Architecture has redefined and enhanced skylines throughout the world.”

New Devon Energy Tower

Plans are being unveiled now at the Ronald J. Norick Downtown Library. A packed auditorium of business and civic leaders were in attendance as architects showed off plans for a 54-story glass tower.  Devon Energy submitted the only response to a request for development proposals for the city-owned parcel across from the Myriad Gardens. Devon hopes to start construction by the third quarter of 2009.

The building floors will range from 25,000 to 28,000 square feet. The tower will appear to float in the reflecting pool that rings its base. Several glass enclosed atria spaces will be incorporated within the development. THe focal point of the space is a six-story glass rotunda, located in line with the Harvey Avenue access drive, which will serve as the primary pedestrian entrance for both Devon employees and the general public.

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It’s bigger than a bread box.

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Everybody wants to know what’s under that box.  And Chip Minty and Larry Nichols, below, aren’t saying yet.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Give the Urban Renewal Authority credit - they’re doing better at knowing when to move their board meetings away from the office. The board room on the 24th floor of CityPlace is a tight fit for ordinary meetings these days. At best larrynicholschip.jpgthere is seating for about a dozen people to sit and listen to the actions of this prestigious board.

The last time they left the office, they met in the board room at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art to review development proposals for the Skirvin hotel. It was a good decision - the agency made a good impression on the developers and also got to show off one of downtown’s premier attractions to a lot of out-of-towners.

But even the museum board room - a big circular area - likely wouldn’t be big enough for today’s presentation. A who’s-who of downtown business and civic leaders are on hand today to see what we’ve all been waiting for - the Devon tower designs. How big will it be? What will it look like?

The library auditorium holds about 150 people. Those in attendance include Roy Williams, president of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber, developer Grant Humphreys, architects Betsy Brunsteter, Anthony McDermid and Scott Dedmon, Automobile Alley civic leader Meg Salyer,  American Fidelity foundation head Dave Lopez, and council members Pat Ryan and Gary Marrs.

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