Wichita Looks to Downtown OKC
Another nice article from a neighbor looking to revitalize its downtown. It features Mayor Cornett. I like the title and how it describes how OKC has maximized the benefits of the construction of the Ford Center.
Urban design
Wichita looks to other cities for arena ideas
Bill Wilson
Twelve years ago, Oklahoma City voters said yes to a sales tax hike to revitalize downtown through nine development projects, several in the city's traditional brick architecture.
The result, says Mayor Mick Cornett, was a publicly financed project that tied Oklahoma City's river, sports venues and downtown shops together into a thriving entertainment and retail area.
Wichita and Sedgwick County residents are weighing options for one of those downtown revitalization elements, a new arena, as plans move toward what Mayor Carlos Mayans calls a "destination downtown" including Old Town, the WaterWalk and the new arena.
Oklahoma City's downtown revitalization efforts mirror the plans being discussed by Wichita and Sedgwick County officials, including the new downtown arena.
All development ideas are on the table, says Assistant Sedgwick County Manager Ron Holt, a member of the redevelopment steering committee. City and county officials collected surveys at an Aug. 4 public meeting that offered up the first specific arena architectural styles for the public to consider. The arena types, outlined on page 31, include:
* Contemporary arenas, such as the Qwest Center in Omaha and the Iowa Special Events Center in Des Moines.
* Icon/Landmark arenas, such as the Pyramid in Memphis, Tenn., and the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Calif.
* Functional arenas, such as the United Center in Chicago and the Palace of Auburn Hills near Detroit.
* Traditional arenas, such as Madison Square Garden in New York City and Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.
The public meeting surveys were "all over the place," Holt says, but with a key theme -- tie the arena and its look to Wichita's downtown and its history.
"Cowtown. Aviation. Use glass and brick. Lots of windows," Holt says. "A number of comments about the importance of the appearance of the facility from Kellogg. Not a lot of steel. No industrial. Blend it in with the rest of the city. Keep it like Old Town -- brick traditional, not contemporary."
Some of the Oklahoma City downtown revitalization took the "Bricktown," or brick traditional architecture form, Cornett says. The work was courtesy of a controversial sales tax issue -- a penny on the dollar sales tax for five years that funded a variety of sports and cultural improvements, including the SBC Bricktown Ballpark and the Ford Center sports arena.
The improvements were the catalyst for a variety of restaurants, shops and clubs around the Bricktown area.
"As a community, our economic development in the late 1980s was trying to pay a large company to come in and create jobs," Cornett says. "We came to the realization that you've got to create a city where these things can happen. One way is raising the quality of life you offer through sports, arts and tourism. You create a city where people want to live."
Stopping travelers
The Metropolitan Area Projects plan was completed on Aug. 17, 2004, with the dedication of the Ronald J. Norick Downtown Library.
"For generations, Oklahoma City had pass-through tourism," the mayor says. "We relied on our three interstates and had people spend the night here on the way to somewhere else."
The city had to find a way to "stop those travelers in town," Cornett says.
"We created a series of tourism-type attractions like you're discussing," he says. "The canal, the ballpark, the arena, the largest series of bronze statues in the world to depict the Oklahoma Land Run.
"What you get in downtown Oklahoma City is an experience. Retail with Bass Pro Shop, sports with the ballpark and the arena, a multi-screen movie theater, nightclubs, family-oriented restaurants, downtown housing. If you're going to create a destination downtown, you need a little bit of everything traditional to feed off each other."
There's a name for multi-function redeveloped downtowns, says John Niemuth, design director for the Kansas City, Mo., architecture firm Ellerbe Becket. It's the "urban design approach."
The approach blends major sports venues such as an arena into a larger area targeted for economic development, primarily restaurants, clubs, shops and housing.
"It's less about the arena and more about the larger development it fits into," Niemuth says.
Blending the arena architecture with surrounding development is an idea on the table at the Wichita-Sedgwick County Metropolitan Area Planning Department, says Dave Barber, advanced plans manager.
And it's a concept that appeals to Mayans.
"I think many of us want something that would complement and tie in with the other venues we're developing," he says. "Part of that is the redevelopment around the new arena that will complement it, the WaterWalk and Old Town and give visitors one big venue with a little bit of everything."
Originally Posted by BDP
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