I was shocked when my wife came home yesterday and said they had called all the big garages downtown and not a single one had monthly spaces available for some new employees they have. Their only option right now is a coupon booklet which makes daily parking extremely expensive when you have several new employees doing it. I assumed with these new garages that we had plenty of space available.

Devon took a big chunk of this garage and there was other pent-up demand.

Imagine taking 1,000 spaces out of the inventory for three years if they try to re-work the Cox Center as the new cc site.

The Cox Center will be reworked at some point - removing those spaces from inventory temporarily or permanently - whether it's done for the CC or not. Which it won't be, anyway.

^

Yes, but before the Cox site is reworked they could build new parking structures, which was exactly the plan when the cc was to be located on the REHCO site.

They have plenty of time to do that if the site is to be done after the cc, not so much if they are one and the same.

Won't happen anyway, so there's little to be concerned about.

How does this effect businesses locating or expanding in the downtown area in the immediate climate? I know it would be a big concern of mine if my employees had nowhere to park or if I had to pay daily rates for them to park.

It's a huge deal in the CBD which is why Devon wants to build two parking garages and so does Clayco.

This is why OKC needs to get off the parking garage hamster wheel as soon as possible. They will never be able to out-build the demand because parking creates its own demand. There needs to be another way to get downtown, and it can't come soon enough. A single commuter train can carry 500 people, the equivalent of a Main St parking garage, and they can run 12 of those every morning. Of course, that won't solve the parking issue because some people will choose to drive no matter how little parking there is, but for those who do take the train their parking problem is solved.

This is why OKC needs to get off the parking garage hamster wheel as soon as possible. They will never be able to out-build the demand because parking creates its own demand. There needs to be another way to get downtown, and it can't come soon enough. A single commuter train can carry 500 people, the equivalent of a Main St parking garage, and they can run 12 of those every morning. Of course, that won't solve the parking issue because some people will choose to drive no matter how little parking there is, but for those who do take the train their parking problem is solved.

Was just about to post this. +1

This is why OKC needs to get off the parking garage hamster wheel as soon as possible. They will never be able to out-build the demand because parking creates its own demand. There needs to be another way to get downtown, and it can't come soon enough. A single commuter train can carry 500 people, the equivalent of a Main St parking garage, and they can run 12 of those every morning. Of course, that won't solve the parking issue because some people will choose to drive no matter how little parking there is, but for those who do take the train their parking problem is solved.

I agree with this, as it would most likely free up a lot of spaces. In my wife's circumstance, these are mostly sales and service positions and these people come and go from the downtown office all day long - so mass transit is not an option. My wife stays in the office all day and she even looked into CityLink from Edmond to OKC but it won't work for her. She has to be there before the bus can get her downtown and it stops returning to Edmond from OKC before she heads home from working out.

Yup. A commuter rail running parallel with I-235 would be amazingly helpful.


Someday OKC.... Someday...

Someday OKC.... Someday...

They have 2 years to get it going or they can forget about it - forever. The transportation trust fund won't have the funds and too many cities will be fighting over too little money.

I think we are 10 years out from having a functional commuter rail system. I've taken a look at the January RTA committee plan, and I think we definitely need to move forward with it. But if they try to fund it similarly to MAPS, it's going to take a long time. I don't know whether the law here allows municipalities to fund a mass transit system through bonds, or if that's politically feasible for them, but the faster we get it in place the better.

If instead of MAPS 4 in 2017, we opt for a Regional Transit Authority vote, along with Edmond, Norman, Moore, Midwest City, and Del City, then we could probably have the Edmond line operating by 2021 and the Norman line operating by 2025 without any federal funding at all.

Have any major downtown businesses offered employees the choice of a parking spot OR an annual check for the equivalent? Seems like that could reduce demand quick as people would actually have an incentive to find another way into downtown.

Not that I am aware of. Incentivizing is the answer, though. I touched on this a year or so ago on this.

The amount of cars coming into downtown that have 1 person in it is insane. Carpooling incentive by companies to save on parking would be a great solution. A company could pay a group of people extra to do a rotating car pool or something along those lines. The amount of employees who live in places like Edmond and Norman is large enough that surely some would take advantage.

This so much. For the tens of millions spending on parking garages, you could make a really nice investment in connecting our suburbs with light rail.

Exactly. The money is there now, they are just misallocating it.

We need to be doing everything possible to make this a reality now, but there never seems to be a sense of urgency with anything. I wouldn't expect to have commuter rail for another 20 years if that.

I still want to know what happened to the art project that was to be installed in the main street garage. Nothing has been mentioned about this in months.

I still want to know what happened to the art project that was to be installed in the main street garage. Nothing has been mentioned about this in months.

It is still on, just had to be revised.

I believe they will start installation soon. I'll find the new images and post them. It changed quite a bit.

Thanks, I would be really interested to see those changes.

These changes were necessitated by the change in location of pipes in the ceiling of the garage’s pedestrian concourse during construction. The original pipe locations would have allowed the lights to be placed along the east and west walls to reflect on the acrylic “wind” strips. (See original concept.) The Artist has studied ways to keep the original design,but was not satisfied with it now that the lights must be placed above the work. The artist proposes a different material and fabrication method to allow the work to resemble ‘wind,” to be more reflective and engaging, and to meet the high quality standards that Creative Machines, inc. is known for worldwide.



http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/garageartnew1.JPG


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/garageartnew2.JPG


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/garageartnew3.JPG


ry4iSZxaww8&feature=youtu.be

new design is disappointing when compared to the original, but we'll see how it looks IRL

I like how the original incorporated all the colors of the fins at the same time.

I like how the original incorporated all the colors of the fins at the same time.

Surely that will be possible

Installation should take place in July.

I think it's an improvement myself, but I thought that the original design was beneath the other two first proposed.

I like how the original incorporated all the colors of the fins at the same time.Surely that will be possible

In the animation it only shows it cycling through the colors one at a time but maybe on the large scale it can show them all simultaneously.

In the animation it only shows it cycling through the colors one at a time but maybe on the large scale it can show them all simultaneously.

I think it was because it only shows one "feather". I'm sure each feather is programmable on its own & can be incorporated in a sequence.

Central Oklahoma Transportation and Parking Authority accepts plans to have Oklahoma City's Arts District garage offices ready by October | News OK (http://newsok.com/central-oklahoma-transportation-and-parking-authority-accepts-plans-to-have-oklahoma-citys-arts-district-garage-offices-ready-by-october/article/5407260)

They have started installing the interactive public art in the garage concourse; difficult to see but in the second photos the area below the Concourse sign is fenced off:



http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/artsgarage031616a.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/artsgarage031616b.jpg

This is completed.. There will be a grand unveiling on April 7th where it will be turned on for the first time.

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/artsgarage041016a.jpg

The sculpture is cool, however the backdrop kind of takes away from it.

Architects dream it, the engineers neuter it, the budget reduces it, and the contractors *£#! It all up.

I walked through tonight and the sculpture reacts to colors as they pass through.

I was wearing a gray sweatshirt and the lights all changed to gray as I walked past.

That's cool. I imagine the thing looks much more impressive at night.

I have checked this out over the past weekend and it was cool looking. However, the lights were not changing in respect to people crossing below them. Maybe a few panels changed from blue to white with someone underneath. But for the most part it was solid blue. Went through during daylight and also at night.

I have checked this out over the past weekend and it was cool looking. However, the lights were not changing in respect to people crossing below them. Maybe a few panels changed from blue to white with someone underneath. But for the most part it was solid blue. Went through during daylight and also at night.

There's a panel close by my wife and I discovered while at the festival over the weekend. I had expected the sculpture to change to as we walked by, as described by Pete, but we had to hit a button and then hold something up to the sensor to see it change. I held up my phone with a colorful background and it reflected all of the colors in the art. It was pretty cool.

Yes, should have said I had to wave my arms to get it to react.

Took these this morning as all the ground floor space on the north side facing City Hall is completely full:



http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/arts091016a.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/arts091016b.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/arts091016c.jpg

Fantastic!

Wow...that looks incredible

Looks great!

If they can mirror or exceed this across the street, it won't be half bad in the Parking Garage District.

I went by yesterday, on my way to the Matisse exhibit. I love the design of this garage.

In the last COTPA report, it shows this garage at 56% capacity and the Sheridan and Walker garage at 79%. Those numbers are particularly low when you consider the other City garage are all over 100%; Century City is actually 147%.

Will be very interesting to see what happens when BOK Park Plaza opens both their new garages. I believe some Devon employees are currently parking at the Main Street garage.

In the last COTPA report, it shows this garage at 56% capacity and the Sheridan and Walker garage at 79%. Those numbers are particularly low when you consider the other City garage are all over 100%; Century City is actually 147%.

Will be very interesting to see what happens when BOK Park Plaza opens both their new garages. I believe some Devon employees are currently parking at the Main Street garage.