Myriad Gardens

[ljbab728]

Here is the link to today's flickr photostream. Videos coming soon(ish?).

FritterGirl, those are fascinating behind the scenes construction pictures. I hope they will be preserved so that OKC residents 100 years from now will be able to see how this great space came to be.

[Dustin]

Thanks for the info Frittergirl!

[Doug Loudenback]

Here is the link to today's flickr photostream. Videos coming soon(ish?).

Amazing, FritterGirl, simply just amazing.

[dcsooner]

Amazing, FritterGirl, simply just amazing.

This renovation is simply amazing!! All you can say is WOW! I am very proud of my home States Capital City! I have one questioin. Is there a threat of errosion of the sloped areas due to recurrent rain?

[Thunder]

Did they raise the sidewalks? It looks like the distance was greatly shortened. I'm 6'5" and wonder if I will leave the place with serious head injury. :-O

[DelCamino]

Frittergirl, thanks for the tour yesterday! The park looks incredible.

[sroberts24]

Driving down reno yesterday about 11:50 AM saw Larry Nichols walking down the side of the Gardens with a hard hat all by his lonesome.... OKC rockstar moment

[mcca7596]

From Project180's Facebook page:

lit in blue and lit in pink

[FritterGirl]

Took some more photos today during a very abbreviated tour. West side areas are really starting to look cleaned up. Of note are the wave fountain and the children's interactive fountain. The children's interactive fountain will NOT be operational by Festival time, but the new wave fountain should be.

I'll likely get skinned for this, but we need rain - badly - just not sure when the right time is... maybe a bit this Friday night and Saturday night to help cool everything off. Still, things are greening up despite the drought conditions. Amazing what a difference a few weeks - and a lot of leaves - makes.

Link to new photostream is HERE.

[Dustin]

Thanks for the photos FritterGirl!!!!

Is the childrens interactive fountain one of a kind? That thing is going to be awesome!

[kevinpate]

Fear not FritterGirl. Rain is coming, just as surely as the Festival is almost upon us, rain is coming.
Why, they'll as likely as not arrive at the same time <snickers & ducks>

[okclee]

I have a question;

Are bicycles/skateboards/roller blades permitted in the Myriad gardens areas?

[metro]

Fritter, thanks for the pics.

Can you explain the children's interactive fountain more? What is the green skin? are they also still building the treehouse thing?

Also, why did they decide on an open air bandshell? Seems like they lose the acoustic and weather proofing benefits of a traditional design.

[ljbab728]

I have a question;

Are bicycles/skateboards/roller blades permitted in the Myriad gardens areas?

I certainly hope not. I do appreciate how the walkways and and stairs are not just poured concrete and have some texture and interest.

[Thunder]

I have a question;

Are bicycles/skateboards/roller blades permitted in the Myriad gardens areas?

I do not know why you would want any of those.... Its a gardens place. Not a thrill place. We have a grand central park under construction and when that is done, I am sure you can enjoy those thrills over there.

I will not be happy if you were to ride a bike and suddenly swerve out of the walkers' way only to crash into the precious pond. That will frighten the fishies in there.

[FritterGirl]

I have a question;

Are bicycles/skateboards/roller blades permitted in the Myriad gardens areas?

Hi Lee,

Thanks for your question. The answer at this point is no, and really it is for safety concerned. You are certainly welcome to bike or blade TO the Gardens, but only walking is permissible once inside.

We encourage all of our BMXers and boarders to go to the Matt Hoffman Action Sports Park, or check out our South Lakes or Route 66 skate courts.

[Spartan]

Would it be possible to add a bike loop around the park or something to accommodate local residents on bike?

When I was in Amsterdam, one of the nicest things was that all the park pathways, in all the parks, were extremely wide to allow lots of different people through the parks, lots of walkers and joggers, tons of bicycles being Amsterdam of course, and a surprising number of roller blades.

But obviously you want widen a park pathway like you can a road, and I'm not saying we should make major alterations to the park, but maybe one pathway that isn't necessary for flow could be converted to bicycle traffic.

That's exactly the kind of flexible community programming that would have been cool, and just when you thought this Myriad Gardens design thought of everything. I hope it is integrated into the new C2S park and all other future parks.

[okclee]

Hi Lee,

Thanks for your question. The answer at this point is no, and really it is for safety concerned. You are certainly welcome to bike or blade TO the Gardens, but only walking is permissible once inside.

We encourage all of our BMXers and boarders to go to the Matt Hoffman Action Sports Park, or check out our South Lakes or Route 66 skate courts.

I have to say that is a little disappointing. Thanks for answering my question.

Two other questions;
#1 Will there be bicycle racks for chain lock, nearby the park?

#2 Do you know if the MAPS3 Central Park will be incorporating bicycle paths throughout the park?

I am a casual cyclist and I like to cruise on my skateboard at times too, not serious enough for the "action sports parks". Looking at the photos I was imagining cruising around on my bicycle throughout the park, but I can see that won't be happening now. I didn't realize the park wasn't adding widened sidewalks to incorporate walkers and bicycles, hopefully the MAPS3 park will.

[FritterGirl]

Can you explain the children's interactive fountain more? What is the green skin?

The children's interactive fountain is a unique structure that is being completed to go outside the Children's Garden area. Set on a plaza of mosaic gaillardia flowers (glass heat-burned into a specialized concrete mixture), the fountain integrates sound, light and water to provide an interactive experience unlike anything yet seen in Oklahoma. The fountain will be set on a timer, and will mimic an Oklahoma thunderstorm. Children can play under the fountain's canopy where fountains, in the shape of Gallardia flowers, will spray up out of the ground. When the system cycles on, children (and their parents) will be warned by a light misting, and sounds of rolling thunder. The sound will get louder and lights will flash representing lightning. Then the rain will fall not only from the fountain's canopy, but also sluice down the sides which will have "petals" on it.

I've seen the concept drawing for this, but not actual renderings. It's very artistic in its design and is really quite a feat of engineering. I don't want to give away too many more details on this as I do want folks to be surprised when they see it.

I will say that green skin looks to be made of metal tiling of some kind - as far as I could SEE. I do not know the exact material. It is irridescent in nature, in that depending upon the lighting it can look purple to aqua to green-yellow. I believe it is simply a decorative element and does not serve a specific function.

are they also still building the treehouse thing?

As far as I know, yes. They just haven't gotten to that yet. During Festival, people will be able to see the Children's Garden, but as they're still working on the detailed elements inside, public access won't be available likely until June.

Also, why did they decide on an open air bandshell? Seems like they lose the acoustic and weather proofing benefits of a traditional design.

This would be a good question for the steering committee and/or architects. I really don't know the answer to that as I was in on only a few of their meetings.

I have to say that is a little disappointing. Thanks for answering my question.

Two other questions;
#1 Will there be bicycle racks for chain lock, nearby the park?

#2 Do you know if the MAPS3 Central Park will be incorporating bicycle paths throughout the park?

Hi Lee,

I certainly appreciate your concern, and your disappointment. Please keep in mind that throughout the entire process, the idea that remained forefront on the mind of the designers and steering committee members was how to integrate more active participation in the Gardens, while keeping the more tame, botanical aspects of a true botanical gardens, as was the dream of the Gardens' founder Mr. Dean A. McGee.

I don't know to what level bicycles, etc. were considered, but given the way these sidewalks were designed, to provide not only acess in and out of the grounds, but also add an aesthetic element via the way they were lain out as well as the elements used (nothing is just poured concrete), I think you'll see when you are in there why the space is really not suitable for boarding, blading or bicycles inside. Likely some of this is due to the idea that this is the kind of space to be enjoyed at a leisurely place. They want you to savor it and enjoy finding new surprises in the different areas, not just rush through the experience.

That being said, there are bicycle racks where people can chain their bikes to. I don't know the exact locations at this time. I know that one of them is on the north side, not far from the band shell. I'll certainly try to get that information for you.

As for the MAPS3 park, I have heard some preliminary discussions that do include much wider trails, sidewalks, etc. for the design, simply based upon the number of acres involved. There is a wealth of difference between a large 40-50 acre "central" park and a smaller 17-acre urban gardens. The MAPS3 park will likely have many more open spaces for active recreation, and I can only assume it will include bicycles. I have very little information on what has been discussed for this park as far as the design is concerned, so outside of what I've noted above, don't have any information to share.

I hope everyone can wait and hold judgment (tough, I know, for this group) until after you've experienced the new Gardens before worrying too much about things. Give it time. I think it'll grow on you!

[metro]

I second that. Only in Oklahoma would we prohibit users. Especially since our parks are wayyyyyyy underused.

[Spartan]

That's a very salient point, metro.

[betts]

However, the Myriad Gardens are small, and I'm guessing there will be lots of curving paths. Personally, if I'm walking, I don't want to have to go around a curve and worry about a bicyclists coming straight at me. I realize you can make very wide paths and theoretically have a lane for each, but then those take up a significant amount of the space in the park, and wider paths are less aesthetic. I ride bikes and I'd be happy to hop off my bike to walk through the park, as long as there are bike racks, which is an important item for park developers to consider.

[Rover]

I'm with betts on this one. Let's make sure the new grand park has bicycle paths, but I think it is okay to leave this smaller park as a pedestrian zone. Seems like this is more of an event park.

[Spartan]

I'm in agreement with the point that you don't want bikes in a park unless the paths are wide enough to accommodate. Just wish there was maybe one nice broad path that acted like a "spine" that bicycles could cross the park. In the perfect world's Myriad Gardens, it could have been lined with bike racks and people could just lock it up there and venture further into the park.

[Rover]

Is it too late for adding bike racks? Seems a cheap and sensible adjustment.