Progress! From shawnw:

http://www.okctalk.com/attachments/development-buildings/7741d1399387176-dowell-garage-dowellpark050514.jpg

yeah, the street closure is ridiculous. We complain about superblocks; how about the fact that currently there are zero continuous east-west streets crossing downtown between sheridan and 6th street. That's more than half a mile. If you're trying to get from say, bricktown or deep deuce to the civic center or 420 w. Main it's just this side of "you can't get there from here."
Amen!

Yes, getting east and west right now in this area is quite difficult, I keep on forgetting which are closed and do a great deal of backtracking.

Now with the closure of westbound 10th in front of Fassler/Dust Bowl it is even worse.

Yeah I just encountered 10th being like that last night and yikes at rush hour!

Now with the closure of westbound 10th in front of Fassler/Dust Bowl it is even worse.

It's open again


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From Metro:



http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/dowellpark051214a.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/dowellpark051214b.jpg

City of OKC just posted they expect NW 4th to remain closed until mid-June.

City of OKC just posted they expect NW 4th to remain closed until mid-June.

What year?

What year?Feeling generous today? I almost thought what decade. ;P

It's moving along pretty quickly, though I still don't see the need for a street closure with that whole surface lot right next to it. There's a picture I keep meaning to take where you can see the construction of both the dowell and main street garages in one frame...

Photo from https://twitter.com/dtOKCbuilds:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bp9KijjCYAIhC7h.jpg:large

Great news; steel almost topped out. We (downtowners) get 4th Street back soon. Or we had better, anyway...

From shawnw... 4th is now back open:


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/dowell062614.jpg

Ugly, blank cinderblock wall going up on this project (photo credit to shawnw). You can bet this will be repeatedly tagged by graffiti:

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/dg082514.jpg

How does he get by with this!?


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This is what the west side looked like before the addition:

http://www.okctalk.com/attachments/development-buildings/6050d1389730847-dowell-garage-dg11314d.jpg

Now this is textbook definition of better than crap makes us..... OK that maybe inappropriate, so I'll stick with the original one.

That's how he got away with it... the permit was "to improve the west facing wall [of his previous garage] with a new wall [and another parking structure in between while we're at it]"

This project bothers me more than any other downtown because it happened after the Downtown Design Review Committee was established and specific guidelines were adopted.

Just a total fail of not only the people and processes that are supposed to guard against this junk, and completely irresponsible by Dowell to even propose it, let alone build it.

I lamented on Instagram about this. But I don't have enough followers to create a backlash.

I have learned by following the various parking garage posts that the facade can be most anything ...It galls me that Dowell does this!


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You can bet this will be repeatedly tagged by graffiti

Pete maybe you are on to something there, maybe this can be improved by painting a large mural?

I completely agree that the "design" here is awful.

I'm not a big Dowell fan. I was talking to one of his contractors earlier this year and he said that Dowell asked him to do some stuff that was against city code. When the contractor told him he couldn't break the city code, Dowell told him that he (Dowell) could do whatever he wanted to because of "all the stuff he does for the city". What an arrogant SOB.

What exactly does he do?

well, "Dowellville" wouldn't be what it is today were it not for him, BUT we're happy with it crappy...

at least it will be easy to tear down when the time comes

The blank wall is blank because it it up against the property line. If and when the adjacent parking lot is developed, that wall will be concealed. It needs to be solid to maintain a fire separation between the garage and a future building. This isn't intended to be a facade, but a firewall.

Now the rest of the facades that face the street...smh.

I'm not a big Dowell fan. I was talking to one of his contractors earlier this year and he said that Dowell asked him to do some stuff that was against city code. When the contractor told him he couldn't break the city code, Dowell told him that he (Dowell) could do whatever he wanted to because of "all the stuff he does for the city". What an arrogant SOB.

Yep, Dowell is an arrogant prick. And his "work" downtown is consistently some of the ugliest stuff around, which is particularly odd considering the amount of time he takes to do anything.

Nothing like painstaking attention to near-mediocrity.

I'm actually pleasantly surprised he did the firewall with cinder blocks.

Sturdy.

Would be a great place for a large mural. The design of the building is minimalist and only functional, but it can be fixed pretty easily.

To those who accuse me of "never having met a building I didn't like", I offer Exhibit A (thanks to shawnw for the photo).

And no, this isn't Soviet Russia; Soviet Russia had more flair.

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/dowell111114.jpg

Okay, we get it. You don't like it. You :Smiley077 LOVE IT :Smiley077

It makes the blank, concrete AT&T behemoth to the east look busy and overly ornate.

to those who accuse me of "never having met a building i didn't like", i offer exhibit a (thanks to shawnw for the photo).
;)

It seriously looks abandoned... and it's brand new.

Absolutely awful. Rick Dowell can build as he pleases but why doesn't he take pride in his work and in the city. Shameful.

I'm glad we have design review.

For this and Chase bank...you know.

Anyone want to donate a few climbing ivy plants?:)

I wish all of NW 4th had been redone per Project 180. The trees would have helped a lot.

I think ivy would be very helpful here, also add some 'green' to downtown.

Maybe a super large mural could go here? Place mesh on the outside and paint a mural on it.

I'm glad we have design review.

For this and Chase bank...you know.

Right?! It's a bad joke at this point. Wasn't Dowell also the one who fought city on P180 so his area wouldn't have to be included? Seems like his developments need all the help they can get.

I think ivy would be very helpful here, also add some 'green' to downtown.

There was a building in Paris that was covered in different colored plants. I'd love to see something like that on this thing to help hide the hideous facade.

Absolutely awful. Rick Dowell can build as he pleases but why doesn't he take pride in his work and in the city. Shameful.

Here's the weird part: He does

Guess there is no accounting for taste (or lack of)

Well it's exactly that. Dowell is hell-bent to preserve a certain aesthetic around his projects. It is very unfortunate that he doesn't participate in the public processes where we hone our chosen aesthetic for public spaces, but that is likely because he knows he won't like nor want any part of it.

He would view his taste as old school vs. new school, but it really isn't that when you look at what he did to the old Lincoln dealership at 4th and Walker, or the fact that generally he seems to invest a ton of effort into the Romanesque fortress style. And if there were ever a Romanesque fortress parking garage, for better or worse, this would be it.

His developments alone have become an interesting political case study over urban design and property rights, where all the prior case study looks at density and massing and zoning etc., whereas this is about ugly. He thinks what we are doing (P180) is ugly and we think what he is doing (Midtown Plaza, et al) is ugly.

Can't wait to see that Romanesque fortress apartment high-rise (bring on the pitched roof and ugly stone)...

Behold:



http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/dowellgarage032015a.jpg

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/dowellgarage032015b.jpg

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/dowellgarage032015c.jpg

Please tell me that's not finished!

Please tell me that's not finished!

I wish I could.

The saddest thing about all this is that the first phase was absolutely atrocious and when he wanted to double the size, instead on insisting that the whole thing be finished to a higher standard (the perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone), they just let him build more ugliness.

It's really unbelievable this got built at all, let alone very recently.

That wall would be perfect for a mural or even a large advertisement like what is common on blank walls in Dallas. Is there any chance the city will ever let something like that happen?

I wish I could.

The saddest thing about all this is that the first phase was absolutely atrocious and when he wanted to double the size, instead on insisting that the whole thing be finished to a higher standard (the perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone), they just let him build more ugliness.

It's really unbelievable this got built at all, let alone very recently.

And sadly...it still looks arguably better than the Santa Fe Garage after it's "renovation"

It's sad that there's no motivation on Dowell's part to make this thing something nice instead of this bare-bones hideous monstrosity. We've seen first-hand here in OKC that garages can be really cool-looking and unique. Or they can be built to blend in beautifully with the existing landscape, such as the ones SMU has erected in recent years. They've done at least three or four new ones, and each is so perfect that it's hard to distinguish it from a real building.

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The worst thing about the Dowell garage is how much real estate--in a very visible locale--it takes up. Imagine how much it'd clean up that area if he'd done it right.

soul crushing

And sadly...it still looks arguably better than the Santa Fe Garage after it's "renovation"

At least in that case 1) it was built in the ugly 70's; and 2) there was no design review at that time.

This was just finished.

That wall would be perfect for a mural or even a large advertisement like what is common on blank walls in Dallas. Is there any chance the city will ever let something like that happen?

Agree. The more murals the better, IMO.

(I did this on photoshop) I would like to see some big ad go here, not electronic. Big cities have these all over, big ads like these say "big city"
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Is anyone familiar with the huge poster of LeBron in downtown Cleveland? This is it:
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Piggy-backing off my last post, I would like to see us step up with "big" things. Once again, big ads are for big cities. Even though OKC isn't huge, we can act like it.
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I would love to see big advertisements like this. I would also love to see more clown colors on our skyline and led electronic signs in downtown.