metro
02-13-2007, 09:47 AM
Spring cleaning polishes Big 12 open
By Steve Lackmeyer
Business Writer
Call it an early spring cleaning.
When the Big 12 Men's and Women's Basketball tournaments come next month, their fans will discover a downtown Oklahoma City that has undergone an extensive cleanup and repair job unrivaled in the past decade.
At the Cox Convention Center and Ford Center, the city has spent $8.2 million making improvements that didn't make the cut with the Metropolitan Area Projects program a few years ago. Much of the love went into the convention center, where 35-year-old escalators were replaced. The worn carpet is gone, and crumbling canopies at the entrance are being replaced.
Even meeting rooms surrounding the old Myriad arena that were abandoned more than a decade ago have been spruced up and reopened.
The lighting fixtures in front of the convention center, erected in the early 1970s, also are getting updated. The downtown information kiosks are getting updates, too — some of their maps literally are crumbling from the glare of the hot Oklahoma sun.
The very last boarded up building in the central business district — the Skirvin hotel — is racing toward a Feb. 26 opening.
And the Central Oklahoma Transportation and Parking Authority is awarding a contract to repaint the lobby tower of the adjoining Santa Fe Parking Garage.
Some of the work may indeed be just a coincidence.
The iconic First National Tower clock at Park and Robinson is lit and working after being broken at least the last decade. Automobile Alley is looking pretty sharp as work finishes on the old Greenlease Moore Cadillac building at 920 N Broadway.
Where construction still is under way, it indicates a city moving forward. At least a half-dozen construction cranes dot the skyline, with steel rising in the air at Block 42 in Deep Deuce, the Oklahoma City Community Foundation on Broadway, The Centennial in Lower Bricktown and the Presbyterian Health Foundation Research Park.
Downtown Oklahoma City Inc. promises extra contingents of ambassadors will greet the thousands of basketball fans expected to arrive March 6, while cleaning teams will be making extra sweeps.
Banners and window decals welcoming the tournament will be displayed by businesses throughout downtown.
So what's left?
Some eyesores remain. Improvements continue at First National Tower, but broken windows are visible on the landmark's second and third floors.
Bricktown property owners Jim Brewer and Walter Gillespie spent months resisting city requests to remove large graffiti reading "Germ True” on the second story of the Wormy Dog Saloon, 311 E Sheridan.
Gillespie agreed last month to remove the graffiti after initially arguing the graffiti could have been a historic sign worthy of preservation.
Dozens, if not hundreds, of wads of used gum also remain stuck to the side of Brewer's Haunted Warehouse building along the Bricktown Canal — a sight that has greeted visitors since the waterway opened in 1999.
An old trailer has been parked for weeks in the recently rechristened Flaming Lips Alley — named after hometown boys who just won their second and third Grammys.
And more than two dozen dumpsters remain in the open in the entertainment district despite warnings by city code inspectors.
Such distractions may annoy locals. But I'm betting first-time visitors will like what they see.
By Steve Lackmeyer
Business Writer
Call it an early spring cleaning.
When the Big 12 Men's and Women's Basketball tournaments come next month, their fans will discover a downtown Oklahoma City that has undergone an extensive cleanup and repair job unrivaled in the past decade.
At the Cox Convention Center and Ford Center, the city has spent $8.2 million making improvements that didn't make the cut with the Metropolitan Area Projects program a few years ago. Much of the love went into the convention center, where 35-year-old escalators were replaced. The worn carpet is gone, and crumbling canopies at the entrance are being replaced.
Even meeting rooms surrounding the old Myriad arena that were abandoned more than a decade ago have been spruced up and reopened.
The lighting fixtures in front of the convention center, erected in the early 1970s, also are getting updated. The downtown information kiosks are getting updates, too — some of their maps literally are crumbling from the glare of the hot Oklahoma sun.
The very last boarded up building in the central business district — the Skirvin hotel — is racing toward a Feb. 26 opening.
And the Central Oklahoma Transportation and Parking Authority is awarding a contract to repaint the lobby tower of the adjoining Santa Fe Parking Garage.
Some of the work may indeed be just a coincidence.
The iconic First National Tower clock at Park and Robinson is lit and working after being broken at least the last decade. Automobile Alley is looking pretty sharp as work finishes on the old Greenlease Moore Cadillac building at 920 N Broadway.
Where construction still is under way, it indicates a city moving forward. At least a half-dozen construction cranes dot the skyline, with steel rising in the air at Block 42 in Deep Deuce, the Oklahoma City Community Foundation on Broadway, The Centennial in Lower Bricktown and the Presbyterian Health Foundation Research Park.
Downtown Oklahoma City Inc. promises extra contingents of ambassadors will greet the thousands of basketball fans expected to arrive March 6, while cleaning teams will be making extra sweeps.
Banners and window decals welcoming the tournament will be displayed by businesses throughout downtown.
So what's left?
Some eyesores remain. Improvements continue at First National Tower, but broken windows are visible on the landmark's second and third floors.
Bricktown property owners Jim Brewer and Walter Gillespie spent months resisting city requests to remove large graffiti reading "Germ True” on the second story of the Wormy Dog Saloon, 311 E Sheridan.
Gillespie agreed last month to remove the graffiti after initially arguing the graffiti could have been a historic sign worthy of preservation.
Dozens, if not hundreds, of wads of used gum also remain stuck to the side of Brewer's Haunted Warehouse building along the Bricktown Canal — a sight that has greeted visitors since the waterway opened in 1999.
An old trailer has been parked for weeks in the recently rechristened Flaming Lips Alley — named after hometown boys who just won their second and third Grammys.
And more than two dozen dumpsters remain in the open in the entertainment district despite warnings by city code inspectors.
Such distractions may annoy locals. But I'm betting first-time visitors will like what they see.