A one story building being replaced with some nice mid-rise infill housing is a great success story.

Forgot to snap a pic but I noticed a few weeks ago this lot is completely empty now.

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/marquette092522a.jpg

Any guesses on the timeline of this project? Any chance we'll see construction start on it this year?

^

Hard to say, but hopefully they start by the end of the year or early next.

In this small area you have this project, The Spaniard, the hotel at Villa Teresa starting any day and the Phillips Murray mixed-used project.

Also, something may happen soon with Brown's Bakery.

I count 60 units and 13k sf of retail but only see 47 stalls in the parking lot. I would assume that is for the retail, where are the residents going to park?

This is interesting. Both BD Eddie (developer of Classen Marquette) and Midtown Renaissance (owner of Plaza Court) have applied to close Classen Drive to traffic from the 10th Street Circle to 11th Street.

The last image is one of many examples of what they may do with the closed street.

HTTP://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/marquette101222b.jpg


HTTP://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/marquette101222a.jpg


HTTP://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/marquette101222c.jpg

LOVE that idea!^^

Great idea!

I can’t remember the name of the street off the top of my head, but there’s a street just off Burnside that I used to walk past pretty often in Portland that is closed off to traffic. Downtown Portland is pretty walkable but I always loved going down that street just to kind of get away from the traffic for a few minutes without having to sacrifice the “activity” since it had restaurants, shops, etc along it that stayed pretty active.

Edit to say: things like these are seemingly minor for the most part but they do a lot for helping a community get introduced to the mindset of creating interactive areas that are designed to emphasize the human element of urban spaces. There’s a lot of places across the city where this wouldn’t work but Midtown is a great place to try something like this out.

Midtown Renaissance has been systematically upgrading that entire area and this could help serve as a center.

Will be very interesting to see how this unfolds but Midtown R does things right.

I sure hope they can get their hands on the Kong's building and maybe Brown's Bakery.

I LOVE this idea. My hometown has a street that is only open to pedestrians and it is by far the most popular area of the city.

I wish they’d do that in the Paseo. Not sure how much benefit this provide to the area given the fact that the building right up next to this was designed around cars. This may sound silly but could they literally pick the build up and move it closer to the street and place the parking underground? They did it in Paris to make way for wider roads. Why couldn’t they do they here?

I wish they’d do that in the Paseo. Not sure how much benefit this provide to the area given the fact that the building right up next to this was designed around cars. This may sound silly but could they literally pick the build up and move it closer to the street and place the parking underground? They did it in Paris to make way for wider roads. Why couldn’t they do they here?

Because Paris is Goliath, and OKC is barely bigger than David, money-wise.

That’s a pretty busy street. I’m not sure diverting all of that traffic down 10th or up to the stop signs on Walker is appropriate for the area. Walker is a fairly quiet street in that part of Midtown because of that diagonal taking traffic up to 13th street.

That’s a pretty busy street. I’m not sure diverting all of that traffic down 10th or up to the stop signs on Walker is appropriate for the area. Walker is a fairly quiet street in that part of Midtown because of that diagonal taking traffic up to 13th street.

More lanes/car capacity only make traffic worse, studies have shown that for years.

Also there's just not much traffic in midtown so adding a few cars won't be a big deal. There are literally no negatives to this proposal.

More lanes/car capacity only make traffic worse, studies have shown that for years.
.

that is not really true .. in a place like OKC where everyone that can drive pretty much already drives ...

induced demand for the overall system in OKC doesn't happen .... (yes there can be induced demand on a particular road but there is also a reduction on a different road) in places where public transit is widely used there is induced demand system wide as roads are expanded ..

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like OKC has done a traffic count study on Classen Drive, ever. If they had, it would be in ACOG's online database, but nothing exists. I'd be really curious to see how traffic has ebbed and flowed over the years.

I would bet there would be zero change to traffic around this area by closing this small section of street. That is the beauty of having a fully intact street grid.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like OKC has done a traffic count study on Classen Drive, ever. If they had, it would be in ACOG's online database, but nothing exists. I'd be really curious to see how traffic has ebbed and flowed over the years.

I don't see it in any of the planning documents, but at the Planning Commission meeting it was stated that a small study was done on this stretch and that it sees very little traffic, for whatever that's worth (and also fits my notions—I honestly feel like I see more traffic down Walker than this stretch).

, for whatever that's worth (and also fits my notions—I honestly feel like I see more traffic down Walker than this stretch).

this is my long term observation of the area as well ..

that is not really true .. in a place like OKC where everyone that can drive pretty much already drives ...

induced demand for the overall system in OKC doesn't happen .... (yes there can be induced demand on a particular road but there is also a reduction on a different road) in places where public transit is widely used there is induced demand system wide as roads are expanded ..
Induced demand is a crock of sh!t on so many levels. It might be more true in a city like NYC but it’s so funny how latent demand is never mentioned. It’s a bad excuse to not built new or widen existing roads.

Sounds great. But where will parking be for all this future dev? With the advent of Lunar Lounge parking at Midtown Plaza is already bad. I love the idea of the walking court thing, but people aren't going to walk TO it. So where will parking be?

There’s some historical buildings around we could probably tear down to make some surface parking.

Sounds great. But where will parking be for all this future dev? With the advent of Lunar Lounge parking at Midtown Plaza is already bad. I love the idea of the walking court thing, but people aren't going to walk TO it. So where will parking be?

Why would people not walk to it?

Induced demand is a crock of sh!t on so many levels. It might be more true in a city like NYC but it’s so funny how latent demand is never mentioned. It’s a bad excuse to not built new or widen existing roads.

Squirrel

Squirrel
Lol

Why would people not walk to it?
Because it’s OKC and people won’t walk anywhere. It’s going to be awhile before that culture changes and with climate change I don’t know how popular that will ever become in a far oriented city like OKC. They should have just went with a subterranean garage and built out the entire lot instead of having surface parking.

I’m not so opposed to the street closure though there is a decent amount of traffic on it. Closing that street just doesn’t make sense. Maybe they should look at weekend closures. I would like to see a long term plan to close the Paseo st in the paseo.

Lamenting OKC’s lack of walkability yet constantly advocating for bigger/wider roads and highways seems like conflicting ideals.

Lamenting OKC’s lack of walkability yet constantly advocating for bigger/wider roads and highways seems like conflicting ideals.
Well even though I do advocate for bigger and wider roads when needed no one has done that here so I fail to see how that’s relevant.

PS, when you do widen a road or freeway it isn’t mutually exclusive to adding an alternative for people to take like a sidewalk or bus line. It’s something OKC can’t seem to figure out. They just widened a crap ton of roads on the north side many of them don’t have sidewalks or bike lanes. That’s ridiculous.

i feel plus and minus about this.

Plus, now they can get rid of those streetside parking and (as Plu mentioned) possibly move the building closer to the "street". Also, they could make a nice pedestrian "mall" which other cities have. And it could serve as the 'centre' of Midtown as Pete mentions.

Minus include - I HATE the idea of yet another superblock in downtown OKC. Come on, WHY do we need to create these mammouth blocks when we could have more retail frontage. Another negative IMO is I like diagonal streets that somewhat break the grid; OKC has very few of these so I hate for this one to go and create an even smaller, basically useless diag. If anything Id like to see Classen Drive extended toward downtown creating more urban retail frontage and a more direct link into the city.

i feel plus and minus about this.

Plus, now they can get rid of those streetside parking and (as Plu mentioned) possibly move the building closer to the "street". Also, they could make a nice pedestrian "mall" which other cities have. And it could serve as the 'centre' of Midtown as Pete mentions.

Minus include - I HATE the idea of yet another superblock in downtown OKC. Come on, WHY do we need to create these mammouth blocks when we could have more retail frontage. Another negative IMO is I like diagonal streets that somewhat break the grid; OKC has very few of these so I hate for this one to go and create an even smaller, basically useless diag. If anything Id like to see Classen Drive extended toward downtown creating more urban retail frontage and a more direct link into the city.

Closing the street wouldn't create a superblock. It would just create a standard sized block.

Also, the problem with superblocks are that they are terrible for pedestrian mobility. This proposal would leave the diagonal route for pedestrians to use so that wouldn't apply to this proposal anyway.

Induced demand is a crock of sh!t on so many levels. It might be more true in a city like NYC but it’s so funny how latent demand is never mentioned. It’s a bad excuse to not built new or widen existing roads.

lol ok guess you missed the last 4 years of construction on 235

also if you ever want to encourage more walkability or bike lanes, widening roads isn't the way to do that so

This is interesting. Both BD Eddie (developer of Classen Marquette) and Midtown Renaissance (owner of Plaza Court) have applied to close Classen Drive to traffic from the 10th Street Circle to 11th Street.

The last image is one of many examples of what they may do with the closed street.

HTTP://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/marquette101222b.jpg


HTTP://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/marquette101222a.jpg


HTTP://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/marquette101222c.jpg

This project was approved today by the Planning Commission.

Still has to go through the rubber stamp of city council.

That is going to be a really interesting change to Midtown.

That is going to be a really interesting change to Midtown.

It will be an easy decision.

I think will end up being an overall good. Certainly good for the property owners, tenants and residents who will probably thrive from this. Lots of potential with this, some fun things can be done with this "programable area."

There are at least two sizeable gravel lots that could be used for structured parking should they want it, there is more than enough parking in Midtown, and will only increase when structured parking gets built on those gravel surface lots.

There are at least two sizeable gravel lots that could be used for structured parking should they want it, there is more than enough parking in Midtown, and will only increase when structured parking gets built on those gravel surface lots.

Hopefully with a mixed-use building on top of them (nothing crazy, since that area is low-rise anyway).

St. Patrick's Day celebrations are about to be 5x cooler. This is fantastic!

Love this change.

I remember wanting them to incorporate this kind of Pedestrian diagonal on the lot south of Fassler into whatever they ultimately developed. Had they done that, this little area would have been truly one of the most charming areas in all of Oklahoma. As is this is already a real Mecca for the outside bar scene. H&8th probably doesn't get enough credit for fomenting this area's success, because it really showed us what packing a few thousand people into this area of downtown could look like.

St. Patrick's Day celebrations are about to be 5x cooler. This is fantastic!

Dang, that just got me pumped!

I bet they'll also eventually move the igloos and the other holiday things to Classen Drive so Midtown Renaissance can develop that huge vacant lot that surrounds City Garden.

All this will help the concentration of retail and restaurants along Walker.

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/marquette011523a.jpg

This project is starting to worry me; no movement in months:

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/marquette041623a.jpg

This project is starting to worry me; no movement in months:

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/marquette041623a.jpg

Maybe we get a better project?

Maybe we get a better project?
It’d be nice to see parking moved to underground and the entire block developed with no surface parking.

Maybe we get a better project?

Yeah, I'm not crazy about the current plan either. With the building gone that would actually make for a really nice park location.

I like the designs and hope it moves forward.

Any signs of life with this development?

Any signs of life with this development?

No yet.

Still zero happening here:

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/marquette060423a.jpg

18072
3 TLS trucks were there today - not sure if that means anything or not.

^

Thanks very much.

That's the most movement since demolition.

Still nothing yet but hopefully soon:

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/marquette061823a.jpg

Still no movement:

http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/marquette072023a.jpg

So was the orange fencing put up just for safety/OSHA? Or does it signal the beginning of something?

So was the orange fencing put up just for safety/OSHA? Or does it signal the beginning of something?

I believe it is just a precaution. No signs of anything happening here yet.

People were driving in there and parking (because Oklahoma). So they put up the orange netting and also buffed up the perimeter silt fence.