Devon/Myriad Gardens landscaping public design workshop

[metro]

I did a little "investigative journalism" and found the following info about the landscaping workshop that the public is invited to this Saturday. I really hope the media picks up on this and publicizes it. We need to actually get the public there and not be one of those corporate/city meetings and advertise it the day of when it's a morning event.

Devon's public landscaping workshop

Saturday 9:00 a.m.
Myriad Botanical Gardens Crystal Bridge Dean A. McGee Edcuation Center

Here is the excerpt I posted in the Devon Tower thread earlier:

Landscaping and the gardens
At a cost of $750 million, the new Devon headquarters will add millions of dollars to the city's tax increment financing district, which can be used to pay for public improvements downtown.
Devon Chairman and Chief Executive Larry Nichols said his company will only request a fraction of the TIF dollars generated by the project for creation of a 2.5-acre park that will front Sheridan Avenue, across from the Myriad Gardens.

The area will consist of a lawn, shade trees and fountains. The design by James Burnett and Murase Associates calls for a "living pool teeming with aquatic life.” A public green will accommodate between 1,500 and 2,000 people during special events. At the western edge of the park, a pavilion will rise up from what is called "a skin of water” and will provide a shaded space for festivities and picnic lunches.

Nichols hopes a significant amount of the TIF dollars generated by the project will pay for an overhaul of the Myriad Gardens, which already has seen an upgrade of its water stage funded by Devon. Nichols said his landscape architects also will be charged with assisting the city and the Myriad Gardens Foundation on possible improvements.

"It is a beautiful park, but there are not a lot of people in it,” Nichols said. "There are some design flaws where the city over time really didn't have the money to do what needed to be done.”

Nichols said discussions are already under way, and a design workshop Saturday will invite the public to tell landscape architects what they would like to see added to the park. "Restaurants, ice skating rinks, dog parks ... they have a list of 30 or so different features you could put into that park to really make it work,” Nichols said. "Our hope is, when you really see what an urban park can do, it will create that much more enthusiasm for the long-term plans the city has for the really big park in the Core to Shore area.”

[BG918]

I did a little "investigative journalism" and found the following info about the landscaping workshop that the public is invited to this Saturday. I really hope the media picks up on this and publicizes it. We need to actually get the public there and not be one of those corporate/city meetings and advertise it the day of when it's a morning event.

Devon's public landscaping workshop

Saturday 9:00 a.m.
Myriad Botanical Gardens Crystal Bridge Dean A. McGee Edcuation Center

Here is the excerpt I posted in the Devon Tower thread earlier:

I'd look at Discovery Green in Houston and Millenium Park in Chicago as good models of newer urban parks that could transform Myriad Gardens. The addition of fountains, sculpture, and actual garden areas would make it a more interesting place, IMO.

[Luke]

Fountains for the children!

[Midtowner]

If this Devon project gets built, I really could see at least one, maybe more than one residential highrises being built on the south side of the Myriad Gardens.

[metro]

Great ideas, please bring them to the workshop on Saturday!

[okcustu]

coolest part of millenium park
http://www.chicagoarchitecture.info/...untain-002.jpg

[okcustu]

[metro]

Bump, everyone come on out tomorrow that can or is just interested in the project. I'm hoping Devon will have the model of their building there as well, but pure speculation.

Devon's public landscaping workshop

Saturday 9:00 a.m.
Myriad Botanical Gardens Crystal Bridge Dean A. McGee Edcuation Center

[westsidesooner]

Any new information on the meeting, I completely forgot about it. I did catch about 1/2 of a second on channel 5 news last night. Just enough to see what looked like a model, anyone go or know where the renderings/info are on the meeting.

[metro]

Yes, I went it was very good. About 75 people or so showed up. Lots of big names and some regular citizens. I wish more would have attended. Larry Nichols himself attended and I spoke with him afterwords. We broke into focus groups and "brainstormed" wants and ideas. In my group was two guys from Devon's design firm (one from Houston and one from San Diego), Bob Meinders (owns the steel yard in Bricktown), City Councilman Sam Bowman, Gerry Bonds (former tv anchor) some other guy, and myself. There was definitely some old guard in the overall group of people there. Some of them definitely don't want change and want the place to remain the same and don't see the need for other activities to attract other demographics. The main ideas tossed around are childrens play areas, opening some of the burms up at street level to see there is an actual park there, creating grand entrances (and no "backdoor" feel like it is currently), outdoor chess sets, checkers, sports rentals (bikes, frisbees, chess sets, checker sets, kites, rollerblades, etc.), soccer fields, outdoor movie screening area, outdoor yoga/tai chi area, misters, jogging trails, wi-fi, dog park, etc. These are just some of the many ideas tossed around. I have a more extensive list. Larry asked me to get with downtown residents and pass the survey on to them as well to rank/prioritize their top amenties wish list. I asked the developer what sort of "timeline" has he been given. Basically they should hopefully have the results calculated and develop a report for Devon/City of OKC in a few months. That's all he really said on record. It was also mentioned that this new TIF district wouldn't start collecting until around 2013 so the changes would have to be after that BUT two people mentioned (I believe Larry commented as well) that their are ways to work with the city to possibly speed this up much quicker before TIF collections. Possibly a bridge loan with the city or something it sounded and then the TIF would pay the loan back or something. City manager Jim Couch also showed up about halfway through the day. Everyone was confident we'd see renovations within 5 years, if not much sooner. Here are a few pics I took.

[CCOKC]

Metro, thanks for keeping us informed. I could not attend yesterday as I am moving my office but am very interested in this projcect. I would be interested in being involved although I don't live or work downtown , yet. My family and I do visit downtown at least twice a month now and even more of course when BBall season starts.