Define Dog Park…
Something that hasn’t been easy to explain is the dog area plannned for the Myriad Gardens. This won’t be an area where dogs can run and go nuts fetching frisbees. To be blunt, this will be an area that allows people to walk their dogs through the gardens, but have a place for their pets to “relieve” themselves.
Some cool fountain features are being discussed, however, as part of the dog area.
Lighting Up the Crystal Bridge at the Myriad Botanical Gardens
Just learned bids out for replacing glass skin on the Crystal Bridge includes an add-alternate (will be a part of the project if funding permits) for advanced LED lighting system that would allow for automated rotation of lighting colors. Up to 4 million color shades are possible (which blows my mind – are there really 4 million of them?)
Rapid Movement
I had a couple of posts pre-written for yesterday and today. I had to scrap them. Yes, that’s how fast things are moving when it comes to downtown’s makeover (I’m hearing some call it “downtown 180″ – nice touch!).
Sitting through the last set of meetings, and listening to the discussion of light fixtures, I couldn’t help but ask afterwards, “where are people like Rand Elliott?” Or when seeing the earnest debate over street furniture, I couldn’t help but wonder “where are people like Stan Carroll?”
The entire table changes tomorrow. And yeah, I’m hearing Rand will be there. If possible, I’ll try to do some live blogging and tweeting.
Guess Which Building This Is?
We’re set to see a pretty cool renovation take place… the owners aren’t talking, yet… but this project is out on the streets, and word is construction will start soon with leasing set to start next summer.
People who really know downtown should have no trouble figuring this one out.
Keeping Busy
I’ll post this afternoon, I promise.
Taxpayers Spend Millions on River Boats
Last week KWTV had an interesting expose on the federal subsidies going to the Oklahoma River cruisers:
http://www.news9.com/Global/story.asp?S=11394981
In previous reports I had posted that the operator of the boats, Hornblower Marine, gets $15,000 to just show up and run the boats. Labor, fuel, marketing and operations are all paid by various city entities, including a couple hundred grand paid by the Oklahoma City Riverfront Redevelopment Authority and MetroTransit for marketing. All together, at least during the first year, various public entities were paying about a half million or more for the operation.
On the flip side of all this, the Bricktown Canal boats have netted a profit for taxpayers all but one of its 10 years of operations and have yet to require any subsidies.
I never got around to posting some updated information on river boat ridership I requested and received from MetroTransit back in June:
(FROM MICHAEL SCROGGINS, METROTRANSIT PIO)
So far this season, we have carried 2,152 scheduled service riders. We have already had 23 charters this season (carrying about 670 riders). For a month-to-month comparison, I’ve included May comparison data below.
2008 2009 Month of Scheduled Service May May Days of Service 23 23 Total Trips 234 150 Total Hours of Service 351 225 Total Passengers 2380 1563 Passengers per Day 103.48 67.96 Passengers per Trip 10.17 10.42 Passengers per Service Hour 6.78 6.95
Sunday Flashback: Mary Jo Takes on Downtown Architecture
Flashback doesn’t get any better than when it features a story by the late great Mary Jo Nelson. If you like what I do, credit her. If you don’t like what I do, then blame me, because no matter what I still fall short of the standard she set over 40 some-odd years.
I was lucky to have known her, to have learned just a fraction of not just what she knew, but how she went about telling stories and also creating the sort of community discussion that made this a better place to live. She was all about urbanism when urbanism wasn’t cool. She was all about old buildings and architecture when they weren’t cool either.
I miss the anxiety I felt whenever my phone rang and it was Mary Jo saying “Steve, this is Mary Jo. About that Century Center Mall story you just wrote …” And then I’d wait. Did I screw something up? If I had, she’d nail me on it. She knew EVERYTHING. And when she was happy with my work, well, that was just great.
The downtown skyline as Mary Jo Nelson saw it during her days covering downtown after the end of the I.M. Pei era.
Bricktown Project Is Applauded, But-Noted Architect Critical of City’s Downtown Buildings
By Mary Jo Nelson
Sunday, November 21, 1982Oklahoma City’s latest downtown buildings are “just terrible,” in the eyes of one world-renowned architectural critic.
Hiroshi Watanabe, author of several books and critic for leading art and design journals, candidly describes much of the downtown urban renewal area as “awful.”
But he did praise its plazas, parks and restorations.Given a special tour during a visit here, Watanabe found it “quite informative,” but was not favorably impressed by most new construction. He did find Bricktown, being restored by local developer Neal Horton “very exciting” and called Myriad Gardens and Kerr Park “tremendous.”
Generally, though, he found little to praise in the building architecture.
“Not too much, I’m afraid,” was the designer/planner/critic’s description of how he liked office buildings and other replacements for scores of destroyed structures.
He saw “nothing particularly striking” in the Liberty Tower and Fidelity Bank buildings. But he praised their setbacks, plazas and use of sculpture and flagpoles.
The Kerr-McGee Tower was a building high point. “It’s all right,” he said, giving a solid positive ring to the “all right”. He said it was “very nicely done” and fit into the general scheme of good design. He especially liked its plaza and the tie to Kerr Park.
His harshest criticism was reserved for the three newest downtown structures Mid-America Building, American First and First Oklahoma Towers particularly the 32-story First Oklahoma.
“The office buildings all sort of merge. They are really awful,” he said. Why would the designers, some famous for other works, turn out such creations? Could it have been that the out-of-state architects assigned lesser importance to an Oklahoma project?
“I don’t think they were that cynical. I think they have done very good buildings elsewhere,” said the U.S.-educated native of Japan.
Then he defended the architects in part: “They don’t have a scale to work with. I suppose they weren’t responsible for tearing down what you once had.” Reminded that I.M. Pei, who fashioned the American First Tower, also authored the Pei Plan that destroyed scores of downtown buildings and replaced them with new ones, Watanabe had no answer.
Mostly concrete and glass, the new buildings were seen as an extension of the international/modern movement, which Watanabe acknowledged has fallen into disfavor with much of the worldwide architectural community.
“They are isolated towers, criss-crossed by service roads. They are isolated from the people they are supposed to be for. There is no place for pedestrians. They’re just islands.”
In some instances, he said, the new buildings “turn their backs” on people.
Vincent Carrozza, Dallas developer of the office towers, declined to respond. “I don’t thing I can comment. That is for architects to comment to each other about,” he said.
Response was sought but was not forthcoming immediately from I.M. Pei & Partners in New York and Morris/Aubrey Architects in Houston, designers of First Oklahoma and American First buildings.
Watanabe admired styling and siting of the county courthouse and city hall, but particularly disapproved of placing so many parking garages in the heart of the city. He suggested a better solution would have been to build them on the fringe of downtown and run shuttle buses to the core.
The critic also found the lack of shops and stores deplorable, a deficiency Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority officials recognize and have been attempting to remedy for years.
“What really excited me downtown was Bricktown,” he said. “That is going to be very impressive.” He said some other major North American cities have done restorations similar to the old brick-street warehouse district where developer Horton is restoring several blocks of early statehood buildings.
“The fact that the brickwork is part of the city’s history makes it unique,” the critic said. An apparent lack of concern for history is a flaw in the Oklahoma City urban renewal plan, he believes.
“I think more of a concern for the city’s history might have been shown. I can’t say what quality or historical value the (torn-down) buildings had, but I understand that now there is a continuing effort to save what is left. This should be strengthened and encouraged.”
Watanabe sees the future Myriad Gardens, now under construction, as a “tremendous asset” to downtown. He snapped many pictures of the Gardens and Kerr Park, to be shown to Japanese audiences.
He praised the interior of Sheraton Century Center, but made no comment on its exterior. Restorations of the Skirvin Plaza Hotel, the old Black Hotel, the Montgomery Ward and Harbour Longmire buildings on Main Street were seen as “excellent” and “outstanding.” But he said it was a “negative” to close Main Street at Robinson. That shuts out people, he said.
Although Watanabe didn’t like all of the new downtown, he found other parts of the metropolitan area “very exciting.” Among these was another urban renewal project, the Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. The capitol complex also was highly approved, and he was especially delighted with the oil wells on the capitol grounds. He called the Francis Tuttle Vo-Tech Center an outstanding design.
“This is the type of building that will be of great importance in the future,” he said.
For another, he thrilled to see several Bruce Goff-designed houses, if only from the outside and, in the case of the Ledbetter House in Norman, in the rain.
“I could only see the top of the Bavinger House (in Norman) from the road, but it was exciting anyway.” He also considered the Goff “seven gables” house near Penn Square a high point.
Some of Watanabe’s most enthusiastic praise came in Heritage Hills, a preservation neighborhood listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The author of several books, Watanabe has been widely published in Asia, North America and Europe. He is a critic for the American Institute of Architects Journal, Asian Wall Street Journal, Japan Times, ARTnews, the Encyclopedia of Japan, and, until recently, Progressive Architecture, a the leading U.S. architectural design magazine.
Redneck Venice, Part Two
A couple weeks ago I noted reports that comedian Robin Williams had toured Bricktown during his visit here and joked he had seen “Redneck Venice.” I submitted this to Richard Mize, real estate editor, but also our in-house expert on all things “redneck.”
Here’s his column.
Red, Yellow or Green?
So we’re finally getting back into the whole streetscape discussion. One might think that a traffic light is just a traffic light. But in other cities I’ve actually seen a variety of designs that can really improve or detract from a street’s appearance. The Office of James Burnett (that’s the title these folks have chosen for their firm) provided Oklahoma City’s streetscape committee with a choice of designs. The one above has boxes around the signal lights that have a bit of a curve to them. The poles are straight, however, just as they are today, but with a cross-bar or tail at each end.
The committee rejected both of the above candidates, apparently not liking the boxes. They also rejected any design where the signal lights were presented horozontal instead vertical.
The curved pole did appeal to a couple of the committee members, most notably Assistant City Manager Cathy O’Connor and Assistant Engineer Laura Story. But others, like urban planner Aubrey Hammontree, commented the curved lights might conflict too much with signal lights that will remain intact on the perimeter of downtown. O’Connor responded the idea was to create a new look downtown that would make it different from anywhere else.
The apparent winner is the vertical candidate up above – the only difference from current fixtures being the cross-bars or tails at each end. The box around the lights remains a box – just as they are now.
I say “apparent” because the decisions became much more complicated after this one, and the committee may revisit this choice as they look at combinations designs.
Let the discussion begin. My next post will consist of examples of traffic light designs you’ve submitted and ones I’ve seen elsewhere.
The Best Halloween Song You Likely Haven’t Heard
Have a happy Halloween…
(Yes, I promise, more streetscape posts are coming soon!)
