Canal Extension website debuts...

[warreng88]

I got this from Steve's blog:

Canal Connection

[OKCisOK4me]

Wow, that's an exciting website...

[Midtowner]

That would be truly awesome.

What a great place to live/own a business that area would be.

[Architect2010]

I also like how it purposely runs along or through open parking lots to help fuel new businesses and buildings on those parking lots.

They are using the Northern Canal extension to help sell that area of Bricktown and revive it, it looks like. There's really no other reason for that canal extension. But that's okay. I'd love to see the Coca Cola Parking lot to be infilled, or at least partially along that canal extension because that street could be a true extension of Bricktown.

[bbhill]

Looks like the north extension would be a good boost for new development along the parking lots as architect mentioned. Very exciting. The West expansion looks pretty ambitious to me, however.

[Pete]

[CuatrodeMayo]

Poorly thought out and unnecessarily ambitious for starters. Nice graphics, tho.

[Patrick]

This is a little extensive. What is this, like the plan over the next 75 years?

[warreng88]

I liked the original idea to extend it from Harkins across that parking lot, hug the train wall, then replace Reno to the Myriad Gardens. The cost of the original canal was $23 million in 1999. I could see this part of the project easily topping $75 million.

I hope anyone that wants to build near the canal can also do underground parking because I could see a lot of it being eliminated due to the canal running through it and development popping up on either side.

[Thunder]

That area where it says Future Development. Is that where those rundowm mills and that Oklahoma's 100th Birthday graphic painted on an old building reside? I sure can't wait for those buildings to be demolished.

[Pete]

Yes, Thunder, that's the site of the current co-op which has been for sale for about a year now.

[Thunder]

Yes, Thunder, that's the site of the current co-op which has been for sale for about a year now.

It's a miracle!!!

[TaurusNYC]

The co-op is beautiful. It adds interest to the city, acknowledges the state's agriculture industry, and doesn't look like the rest of the city. The new boathouse row on the river, with its shiny metal buildings, echo the co-op's materials and shapes. I think there is almost no chance that anything that replaces the co-op will be as interesting or beautiful. More likely it will look like the schlock that is lower Bricktown. Does anyone agree with me? Can't anyone else appreciate that old industrial buildings have their own aesthetic beauty and interest?

[Midtowner]

The co-op is beautiful. It adds interest to the city, acknowledges the state's agriculture industry, and doesn't look like the rest of the city. The new boathouse row on the river, with its shiny metal buildings, echo the co-op's materials and shapes. I think there is almost no chance that anything that replaces the co-op will be as interesting or beautiful. More likely it will look like the schlock that is lower Bricktown. Does anyone agree with me? Can't anyone else appreciate that old industrial buildings have their own aesthetic beauty and interest?

I feel the same way about hubcap alley. The run down buildings and open fields where the old buildings have either burned or been condemned make me think of the simpler times and the automotive part and salvage yard history of that part of the city.

I also particularly enjoy the abandoned homeless shelter.

[Architect2010]

I find the Co-op interesting, but not beautiful by any means.

If it were up to me, I would demolish most of it. But I do see the beauty that some people find in it. I think part of it should remain, maybe one of the larger mills or whatever that thing entails and adapt it to something else, retail or whatever. But I do not wish to see that behemoth stand untouched for any second longer. Most of it should go for something much more aesthetically and purpose pleasing. I'm sorry I don't see eye to eye with you.

[metro]

The co-op is beautiful. It adds interest to the city, acknowledges the state's agriculture industry, and doesn't look like the rest of the city. The new boathouse row on the river, with its shiny metal buildings, echo the co-op's materials and shapes. I think there is almost no chance that anything that replaces the co-op will be as interesting or beautiful. More likely it will look like the schlock that is lower Bricktown. Does anyone agree with me? Can't anyone else appreciate that old industrial buildings have their own aesthetic beauty and interest?

I agree, but I'd like to see them repurposed for something the general public can use. I'd also like to see some infill in that general area as well, but I agree, it makes our City look less cookie-cutter and like Lower Bricktown.

Also, who is funding this canal extension website? Steve do you know? How come no pressing questions like you did with the MTP?

[Pete]

Taurus, I've opened my mind to what you are saying and can see that point of view. I used to think more like Thunder on those buildings.

But I agree, it's one of the very few things that are unique about OKC and I think we should look hard at adaptive use for at least some of them.

Otherwise, until I see some evidence to the contrary, I would expect whatever replaces it to be quite unremarkable.

[TaurusNYC]

Taurus, I've opened my mind to what you are saying and can see that point of view. I used to think more like Thunder on those buildings.

But I agree, it's one of the very few things that are unique about OKC and I think we should look hard at adaptive use for at least some of them.

Otherwise, until I see some evidence to the contrary, I would expect whatever replaces it to be quite unremarkable.

I appreciate your sarcasm, Midtowner. But the co-op is not burned out, condemned, or abandoned. It is a place that actually employs people and produces something of value. Of course, if the co-op moves, it may be condemned and abandoned. Or perhaps it will just be torn down like most of downtown Oklahoma City in the 1980s and remain a blank space for the next 25 years. Now that's progress.

[Pete]

I saw a video on that Producer's Co-op on the Oklahoman website about a year ago when they expanded their operations a bit.

Those huge metal structures are seed silos... Just big open spaces where they pile the cotton seeds (and now other types of seeds as well) before they are crushed and turned into oil.

Because they are so big and open, it would be very interesting to see what the creative mind could come up with for adaptive use.

Looking at aerials, the appears to be about ten of these silos of varying size. keeping 2 or 3 of the large ones might be a cool exercise in design.

[Patrick]

The Co-Op is better than what would probably replace it....another Randy Hogan suburban style office complex.

[CuatrodeMayo]

I saw a video on that Producer's Co-op on the Oklahoman website about a year ago when they expanded their operations a bit.

Those huge metal structures are seed silos... Just big open spaces where they pile the cotton seeds (and now other types of seeds as well) before they are crushed and turned into oil.

Because they are so big and open, it would be very interesting to see what the creative mind could come up with for adaptive use.

Looking at aerials, the appears to be about ten of these silos of varying size. keeping 2 or 3 of the large ones might be a cool exercise in design.

I strongly agree with Taurus and Pete both here. Let's take it a bit further and consider how this facility could actually be adapted into the new conference center. The large clean-span buildings are ideal for convention space. The new architecture that would be integrated with the existing buildings would look towards the future of the city as well as celebrating our past. This is a very unique opportunity.

[Patrick]

Hmmmm....a new convention center within the co-op buildings? Call it the Co-Op! Actually, that would be a pretty novel concept. I honestly don't think the current co-op buildings will be demolished. They have too much money wrapped up in that facility.

[Architect2010]

I'm sorry. But the only part of LB that isn't an embarassment to real urban character is the area around the Centennial Plaza. That's it. Way to pinpoint me out when everyone else is calling LB a flop and I'm just repeating them, and the one defending it and saying it can be fixed.

[Pete]

Here's the inside of one of those silos... They are obviously filled from the top through the openings in the cupolas that sit on the highest ridge. And they are clear-span inside:

[kevinpate]

That's some serious expansion. One question though. Is there enough EFIS stockpiled somewhere to adequately cover the new Lower BT, and Lower BT West?