OETA Video of Core to Shore

[lasomeday]

Looks like the mayors biggest goal is the 6 lane boulevard with parking along the street of course. So, it will be 8 lanes wide, isn't that wider than the interstate separating the city?

State of Creativity

I think they have everything set in stone for this to be Core to Shore. I am not sure who they had on their select steering committee.

It also didn't mention anything about mass transit of any type.

They are going to push the development of Core to Shore over any other development whether we like it or not!

[metro]

Can't get too far without voter approval....If people don't care enough to show up to City Council meetings (rarely more than a dozen people there) or to show up to vote "NO" if they are against it, can't really blame the City.

[gmwise]

I disagree it all depends on the City "leaders" on what they want and care about determines how they want to present it.
If you want to see the difference, I offer the Ford Renovation for instance.
And how every resident survey conducted how and how far they will work and fight to get the hows and whys to the voters.

[OKCisOK4me]

I watched that on Tuesday night. It was better than any other video I had seen thus far showing the elements of Core to Shore and what it COULD be.

The only thing I didn't like, is that they said the pedestrian bridge over the new I-40 probably wouldn't be completed until something like 50 years down the road. Screw that man, I'm 31--who knows if I'll be alive by then. They could have possibly said 15 and it sounded like 50 but you figure they'd do it now as much as the city leaders talk about Oklahoma City being an iconic destination.

[shane453]

^^ I noticed that the video made it sound like Skydance Bridge was a 50-year project. He was saying development of C2S is a 50-year project. The Skydance Bridge will be finished either before I-40 or at the same time.

[Urban Pioneer]

Yes. That was slightly confusing. But, 2012 is the target for the highway and the bridge.

I don't watch much television, but I must say I was impressed with this piece. It explained it well in glowing terms.

Regarding the boulevard, nearly every consultant and the majority of C2S committee members believe that it has to be smaller and designed right. At the moment, the renderings appear to the scale that ODoT wants to see.

Since we are going to pay for it, we will design it. It is the only way to get that part of the project right.

[kevinpate]

I'm not all that crazy on Core to Shore overall, but i do like that bridge. I'm odd like that.

[Urban Pioneer]

I'm not all that crazy on Core to Shore overall, but i do like that bridge. I'm odd like that.

What makes you have misgivings about it?

[lasomeday]

I agree with Kevin. I like the concept of Core to Shore. I just don't like the way the city has gone about doing it. I don't like the three parks that Hargraeves presented. I wish they would incorporate the original Film Exchange building and Union Station. Their design aesthetics are not good for an urban park. I feel that Union Station is just sitting there in their design. The park should also have some sort of tie to the Myriad Gardens instead of having it divided by a hotel.

Also, the Convention Center should be where the mill is located. That eyesore will be there forever if the city doesn't utilize its newly for sale status to get it moved ASAP!

Also, why didn't they mention anything about a mass transit system moving throughout core to shore connecting core to shore to the rest of the city instead of having the 6 lane boulevard as the focus.

I love the bridge! I love the concept of Core to Shore. I just feel that it needs to be more flexible.

[kevinpate]

> What makes you have misgivings about it?

Size, choppiness of the design, need in comparison to other needs.

On the flip side, it isn't my town, so while I'm a more frequent visitor than I used to be, my input isn't the least bit vital to the outcome.

[lasomeday]

I think that Mayor Cornett is pushing this because he sees Core to Shore as his legacy as mayor of OKC. He is pushing his ideas through his select group of council.

I can't believe they picked a designer for the park and spent a few hundred thousand on it before they have any funding for it. That is shady! They didn't even announce they were bidding out the design. They sent a few emails out and picked the firm designing the Native American mound.

[CuatrodeMayo]

There is also some great existing building stock that will be bulldozed.

[mugofbeer]

There is also some great existing building stock that will be bulldozed.

Such as?

[Platemaker]

Such as the oldest Film Exchange in the city and the building the City Rescue Mission used to be in at SW 4th and Robinson. With the momentum of Film Row, it doesn't make sense to pretend that the oldest Film Exchange we have isn't there.

There are also several old buildings on Robinson between SW 10th and 13th.

Hopefully, the new historic register study will force us to modify (not scrap) Core to Shore.

[lasomeday]

Yeah, Core to Shore could be great if they made some modifications and had the Convention Center where the Mill is.

If they bulldoze all the existing buildings to build the convention center and park and nothing else develops over there for 20 years then we have wasted our valuable buildings.

If we keep the existing buildings and focus on infill around them with a park that is built around the buildings not bulldozing them, then we could have an amazing and ultra modern park. This is what the great cities are doing now. Look at the parks in Germany and NYC. They are adapting the park around the buildings instead of bulldozing to create a park.

[CuatrodeMayo]

Such as?

Go look for yourself. Or use google Street view.

[gmwise]

I think that Mayor Cornett is pushing this because he sees Core to Shore as his legacy as mayor of OKC. He is pushing his ideas through his select group of council.
They sent a few emails out and picked the firm designing the Native American mound.....

Exactly!!! He wants that legacy so he can run for either a state wide office or as a US Rep, or US Senator, or Governor.
I swear I thought that the Mound was Cornett's Pharaohs-like tomb.lol

[LakeEffect]

They didn't even announce they were bidding out the design. They sent a few emails out and picked the firm designing the Native American mound.

They did advertise it. I think they interviewed at least 4, if not 6, separate design teams from across the country and within OKC. By they I mean the Consultant Selection committee (based in Public Works, overseen by the City Manager's Office).

[Doug Loudenback]

Just watched the OETA video. Very nice. Smart, creative people. It surely made me think about my mortality, and how I'd like to be able to see the city 50 years from now but still alive and not dead! Ha! At least I'll hopefully make it for the stunning Skydance Bridge.

The buildings which are at risk are pretty much if not altogether identified in photos I took when I put my Core To Shore article together, specifically, here.

I'm not sure whether the Film Exchange building is actually the original Film Exchange. I know that Steve mentioned that in one of his OkcCentral posts but when I asked him for detail, he didn't have any. I think he was repeating what he'd heard somewhere. I've not been able to pin that fact down. Original or not, it sits on the west side of Robinson and would be one marked for destruction in the initial phase of Core to Shore, which is effectively in the MAPS 3 area.

The building in 1946



The building today






The other principal building sits on Broadway, the 1909 International Harvester building.





Strictly speaking, Core to Shore Phase 1 & the Maps 3 area's east boundary is Robinson, so the Broadway property would be a block east. However, in this Journal Record article, the following appears:

Mark Beffort, with Grubb & Ellis Levy Beffort, has been hired by the city to assist in acquisition of properties for Core to Shore. Beffort came on just after the post office deal, but will handle all future acquisitions from negotiation to closing.

For now, Beffort said, the city is looking no farther than the proposed park area. The city is considering several properties around the proposed park but nothing is under contract. "Our primary concentration today is the park area and then one block off each side of the park," Beffort said.

There are other old buildings to consider as well, but these are the 2 that strike me as being the most significant.

[lasomeday]

What can we do to save these buildings?

I can't believe the design for the park does not incorporate the Film Exchange building, and it kind of just has Union Station in there as an afterthought.

The design is nice, but not for the site. It is like they had a central line and just worked off of that. They didn't take into consideration any of the existing architecture.

[gmwise]

I truly desire to protect historic buildings, and i would hope we can somehow incorporate them in C2S.
Maybe move the project more to the west?

[lasomeday]

Don't move it just design better. It is not hard to incorporate a few buildings into a design.

[Doug Loudenback]

Don't move it just design better. It is not hard to incorporate a few buildings into a design.

That's something I've also wondered about. Are architects, planners, whatever, creative enough to incoporate "what already exists" into their designs for future areas? I assume that they have that capability.

[lasomeday]

That is all they do. The landscape architects that designed the park have done it before. It is part of the environment that they design.

A good landscape architect can incorporate anything into their design.

They just didn't do a site analysis to incorporate the historic buildings. They probably just went off of the core to shore map.

That core to shore map is going to be the downfall of all of Maps3.

[metro]

What can we do to save these buildings?

I can't believe the design for the park does not incorporate the Film Exchange building, and it kind of just has Union Station in there as an afterthought.

The design is nice, but not for the site. It is like they had a central line and just worked off of that. They didn't take into consideration any of the existing architecture.

Get them on the historic register, then they can't tear them down.