Posted March 26, 20169 yr A few snapshots of OKC's rapid redevelopment. Yes, OKC used to suck. No, it no longer does - but it is still hard to tell what it is going to become. The entire city has been a construction detour for the last ten years. OKC has grown 50% since 1990. All photos taken on iPhone 5c, either from instagram (eurokie[/member]) or my blog. Flying in Infill in Deep Deuce The lights in Automobile Alley Lights in Automobile Alley Used to be a parking garage. Redevelopment in Midtown. Infill in Deep Deuce Infill in Deep Deuce Myriad Gardens in downtown Streetscape in front of Devon Tower Devon Tower landscaping absorbing the Colcord Hotel, the city's first "high-rise" Old school Capitol Hill Rt 66-style neon signage in the Plaza District The Skydance Bridge's LED light show is nearly impossible to catch on an iPhone camera Absolutely impossible Plaza District in NW OKC Historic preservation in Midtown Midtown's heart The Womb Gallery, owned by the Flaming Lips, in Automobile Alley 2nd Street in Deep Deuce, used to be urban prairie 4 years ago Looking above Bricktown toward Downtown's skyline More Rt 66-style neon signage in the Plaza District Summer nights on the patios of the Plaza District MLK Jr was once turned down for a job, for being too young, at Calgary Baptist Church in Deep Deuce Neon blade signs in Automobile Alley Pocket park in Deep Deuce Downtown core Original HQ of the local newspaper Bikeshare, check; downtown grocery store, check Unfortunately there are a dozen new high-rise parking garages Framing the sunset The state's most legendary steakhouse, in Stockyards City Retro rehabs in Classen-Ten-Penn Grit and glam NW 16th in the Plaza District Skyline view through a clearing in Midtown's urban fabric (a scar that still remains from the Murrah Bldg) Retail storefronts in the Plaza District North Broadway lights in Automobile Alley Super-wide Classen Blvd in Uptown - planned streetcar extension Fassler Hall (biergarten) and Dust Bowl Lanes (bowling alley) in Midtown Old Ford Model T Factory being rehabbed into 21c Hotel in Film Row Farmer's Market SW of downtown New 450-ft tall BOK Park Plaza under construction, where the last remnants of OKC's historic Main Street once stood A most depressing "then and now" Nobody can ever get enough of The Womb Or the lights on Broadway in Automobile Alley Or the sunset reflecting through the CBD's core
March 26, 20169 yr Yeah, Oklahoma City has come a long way from even 2007, when I actually first explored that city. I went there a couple of years ago (not a far drive from my mother's place in the DFW area) to see what was going up and it seemed like the city is "getting it" compared to 9 years ago. I wish it a great future. "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
March 26, 20169 yr It for sure still has a ways to go, but there have been several YUUUGE mixed-use developments to just open (300+ acts, plus street retail) that I haven't yet seen. Projects like The Metropolitan: "The Residences at 21c" that just broke ground surrounding the 21c on 3 sides: The Steel Yard in Bricktown: New office "tower" in Bricktown: The Edge at Midtown: LIFT at Shartel Circle: Maywood Apartments in Deep Deuce: And further out from breaking ground (probably 2 years out, but they have already broken ground on the green spaces) is this project on the south riverfront: So even though all of these are on the streetcar route, the trick is going to be weaving these big projects together with the existing fabric and all of the smaller development projects. Locals aren't even allowed to see some angles of this stuff going up because they just close entire streets in downtown (imagine Vine Street or Gay Street just completely closed for two years at a time). That's why I say despite how well I know OKC, I am still intrigued when I ponder what type of city it is about to become. Who the hell knows? It could be great if they weave all of this into a fabric. Or it could be like a huge Scottsdale.
March 28, 20169 yr Wow this is like Columbus level bad architecture wise. What happened to OKC historic stock? Did they literally demolish everything? Everything that is being built now looks so incredibly generic. It doesn't even have that New age Toronto modernist/futurism look. It just looks cheap and generic.
March 28, 20169 yr Great pics, Eurokie. I assume the Devon tower is the tallest one? That's a great looking building. I can't be all positive, though--"The Residences at 21C" makes me think of the SODASOPA episode of South Park! ;)
March 29, 20169 yr Wow this is like Columbus level bad architecture wise. What happened to OKC historic stock? Did they literally demolish everything? Everything that is being built now looks so incredibly generic. It doesn't even have that New age Toronto modernist/futurism look. It just looks cheap and generic. I have always been intrigued with OKC and Oklahoma in general. I think generally the state gets too much of a bad reputation and most of it is not warranted, but some of it is. OKC and Tulsa have a great collection of art deco (more so Tulsa), there are beautiful green and heavily wooded areas in the eastern part of the state; it's not all brown flat plains as far as the eye can see. When it comes to Columbus, they have architecture OKC could only dream of. Not to mention Columbus' infill has been far more attractive IMO versus what I have seen on my two visits to OKC. The vibrancy in the neighborhoods is a stark contrast as well, with Columbus offering much more. I think OKC is just underwhelming for the size of the city and metro. Devon Tower is a very nice addition to a somewhat uninspiring skyline, but it sticks out too much. With that, hopefully the growth in Oklahoma City leads to much more investment in its urban fabric because it's far behind most of its peers.
March 29, 20169 yr Wow this is like Columbus level bad architecture wise. What happened to OKC historic stock? Did they literally demolish everything? Everything that is being built now looks so incredibly generic. It doesn't even have that New age Toronto modernist/futurism look. It just looks cheap and generic. I have always been intrigued with OKC and Oklahoma in general. I think generally the state gets too much of a bad reputation and most of it is not warranted, but some of it is. OKC and Tulsa have a great collection of art deco (more so Tulsa), there are beautiful green and heavily wooded areas in the eastern part of the state; it's not all brown flat plains as far as the eye can see. When it comes to Columbus, they have architecture OKC could only dream of. Not to mention Columbus' infill has been far more attractive IMO versus what I have seen on my two visits to OKC. The vibrancy in the neighborhoods is a stark contrast as well, with Columbus offering much more. I think OKC is just underwhelming for the size of the city and metro. Devon Tower is a very nice addition to a somewhat uninspiring skyline, but it sticks out too much. With that, hopefully the growth in Oklahoma City leads to much more investment in its urban fabric because it's far behind most of its peers. I recently lost a lot of pics that I think would be helpful here, but if you haven't been back in the last 2 years, it's a totally different Central OKC. Comparatively, the 4 SQ MI downtown Columbus is geographically a lot larger than any of us realize (comparing to peer cities helps put this in perspective) but our beloved Cbus is mostly parking lots. It will take "Neighborhood Launch" projects for the next 20 years to fill in the sheer volume of parking we have. I also think our Scioto Riverfront is incredibly generic and bland and the Arena District, like its brand, is also bland. That said, Columbus is a Victorian city, and I can respect that all new infill has to fit that style. We are blessed with a ton of solid Queen Anne, Second Empire, and Italianates. OKC doesn't have any of that. Their historic neighborhoods date back to the 1920s. OKC has a very unique urban aesthetic. A lot of old oil money Revivals, shotgun housing, bungalows, plantation-style homes, and more mission-style stuff than you'd expect. In watching OKC evolve and preserve some, tear down the rest, the best way I can summarize OKC's urban aesthetic is Route 66 urbanism. Flashy always wins. A lot of urban strip districts. Neon signage is very important down there. The city has a fund where, if you're on an old Rt 66 corridor, there is 50/50 matching funding available for a new neon blade sign (but with LED lights of course). Downtown preservation is dead. There is not even any point in saying a damn thing about saving the downtown core, because the market pressures are just too strong right now, and there are no checks on developers. There is a mentality that if a project isn't great, it will just get torn down soon anyway. The city actually has plans to rip out this awful new boulevard that the state is building, because coming up with another $30 million is easier than challenging the state. There was a cheap stucco townhouse project near the medical district NE of downtown, reviled by all (only thing worse than gentrification is cheap lame gentrification lol) - nobody ever moved in because another developer bought it right before CofO's were issued and tore it down for an apartment building. This happens all over Texas. Some of our more notable losses that still keep me up at night: Stage Center This whole block, the last remnant of the Main Street core: The old Greyhound, which will at least be memorialized (or held captive) in this parking garage elevator stack: SandRidge Energy tore down 7 buildings, but there 2 were the only historic ones: I used to love this little building that was all alone left on a block that now has a big mixed-use proposal: We just lost the Midwest's first Film Exchange last month: We are about to lose the old Villa Theresa nunnery in Midtown: I hope we've successfully fended off developers from the Gold Dome, which is one of our awesome Route 66 landmarks in Uptown: That's all really recent. I used to maintain a "war list" of all the landmarks we've lost for anytime someone tried talking me off the ledge, but I've given that up. It's too depressing. This is the three-way tie we often debate (which is worse?) back home. The Criterion represents the greatest of 6 theaters we lost on Broadway. Spires from the Baum Building still pop up in forgotten city parks everywhere. The Biltmore Hotel wasn't supposed to be demo'd, but it just made a lot of sense as the city worked a deal in the 70s for surrounding properties. Just gut-wrenching stories. That said, while downtown has been a total loss for preservation, the market strength radiating outward has completely turned around all the historic neighborhoods north of I-40. The south side, where I'm from, has gang problems and will never gentrify, but the north side has become nearly 100% gentrified. Long-term stable strips like the Plaza, the Paseo, Midtown, have been merging into each other with infill, and we've seen the emergence of new strips that nobody ever noticed before. I'm now going to do a little mis-direction, because it's the only way us locals refuse to let downtown OKC get us down. The Paseo is a really cool little neighborhood. Developed by JC Nichols, who built KC's Plaza. By far the state's largest arts district. Somehow the Plaza District came out of nowhere to hog up all of the local artisan retailers: Uptown 23rd Street is the new hot district. Really cool mix of art deco and mid-century. The Tower Theater alone has languished for 50 years through countless failed restoration attempts, which has now finally happened. Western Avenue in Crown Heights is really nice too. It was the first revitalized strip, that faded as others emerged, so the city just did a huge streetscape here that has resulted in lots of new infill: So it's not all bad. There's also some incredible stuff happening in OKC. Not only is architecture a lot bolder down there, but people seem to dream bigger. The sky feels a lot bigger and more expansive when you're down there than in Columbus, and it's just a different feeling I still can't put my finger on. I promise I'm not naive enough to impress you with a project dump (every big city has a TON going on right now), but here's just an examples of the really unique local design flavor: So sorry for the long post in response, but I think OKC is the most fascinating case study in the nation. It's a city that's started over so many times that it doesn't blink an eye at large-scale destruction, whether it was caused by us or not. I read that downtown has 4,000 housing units in various phases of development, after the last 10 years just netted 5,000. All of this growth will be a huge opportunity to fix a lot of mistakes and make some new mistakes. Always three steps forward, one leap backward. The one positive nobody can take away from OKC is that it's unique and you'll piss a lot of locals off by calling it "the next Austin" or "the next Denver" etc. By the way my favorite is Dust Bowl / Fassler Hall.. which is actually an incredibly sophisticated design: This project is basically parodying late mid-century Oklahoma when things started to go downhill. The exterior intentionally mirrors an Oklahoma Dept of Transportation overpass design, and the yellow metal cladding is supposed to evoke road signs. The architect told me for carpet he just googled "ugly ass carpet. It goes without saying that the retro chairs, huge bulb lights, and wood-vinyl wainscoting was intentional. Despite all that, it's packed as the place to be right now (like The Walrus) with a bowling alley on bottom and German biergarten above. One of the coolest design-build entertainment concepts I've seen in a while. I think for an Ohio audience, the lesson is two-fold: Don't dig yourself too big of a hole to fill (ahem Cleveland), but don't be afraid to be unique and crazy (ahem Columbus).
March 30, 20169 yr I think for an Ohio audience, the lesson is two-fold: Don't dig yourself too big of a hole to fill (ahem Cleveland), but don't be afraid to be unique and crazy (ahem Columbus). But to be fair, I don't see anything quite unique or crazy that OKC is doing (in these photos, as evidence) than what Columbus or Cleveland are doing. For example, The Joseph in the Short North seems far more pedestrian-friendly in the integration of streetscape and architecture versus these Plano-esque developments I'm seeing in OKC. That isn't a knock as OKC is clearly influenced by the Metroplex in design development but I see nothing that is unique or "bold." "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
March 30, 20169 yr I think for an Ohio audience, the lesson is two-fold: Don't dig yourself too big of a hole to fill (ahem Cleveland), but don't be afraid to be unique and crazy (ahem Columbus). But to be fair, I don't see anything quite unique or crazy that OKC is doing (in these photos, as evidence) than what Columbus or Cleveland are doing. For example, The Joseph in the Short North seems far more pedestrian-friendly in the integration of streetscape and architecture versus these Plano-esque developments I'm seeing in OKC. That isn't a knock as OKC is clearly influenced by the Metroplex in design development but I see nothing that is unique or "bold." Although OKC's development may not be too "crazy" (although some of those renderings are fairly interesting), I think their boldness is more visible with the MAPS investments--rebuilding their downtown street infrastructure, river/park improvements, the modern streetcar, etc. Although local governments and organizations are investing in many large scale projects across Ohio cities, the MAPS funding program is pretty impressive and seems to be the key as to why opinions are starting to change about OKC. I will probably always be more partial to the architecture of Tulsa, but it will be interesting to follow OKC's development in the coming decades.
March 30, 20169 yr interesting. well it certainly looks steadily a-boomin, if not spectacularly. i like the rehabs of the older buildings the most. its seems all major american city central areas are doing pretty well these days because this growth looks and feels a lot like nashville, charlotte and etc.. its great to see though as we dont hear about okc so much unfortunately unless there is a tornado. oh and of course i like the instagrammy thread style a lot too.
March 31, 20169 yr Interesting that you guys go more for substantive boldness (MAPS3), than for visual panache. I was mostly just talking about the distinctive local design flavor, in large part furthered by a half-dozen local architects who grew up there. One example is Wade Scaramucci who grew up in OKC, became a partner with AHMM in London, which has since done about 6 downtown projects - all of them bringing a modern U.K. design aesthetic (minimalist modern). They also use bright colors, lighting elements, sharp angles, glass panels, and especially alternative building materials like wood and metal. I think OKC is also on the forefront of the shipping container design movement. By bold I mostly meant "not faux Victorian" I guess.
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