No one has ever contacted me about a GARAGE GOING IN HERE AT RENO AND WALKER..
No one has ever contacted me about a GARAGE GOING IN HERE AT RENO AND WALKER..
The tower height is like the stock market... Rising and falling every day.
Today I heard the number is 33 -- but that's certainly not final.
I don't disagree with any of this - and in fact I'm one of the few fans of Stage Center left apparently - but separately only want to point out that vista terminations, plazas or other elements that provide interesting relief from monotonous repeating street wall are only necessary when, well, when there is existing monotonous street wall. We are so far from having that problem that it is funny to even think about. We need about a generation's-worth of focus on rebuilding the urban fabric using tried-and-true urban design principles before we worry TOO much about getting fancy with the street wall.
I know , why don't we just take the average of what we heard so far form reliable sources, 20, 28, 33, and 35. That would make it 29 stories, lol....
Or, we can take our "Plätze" and develop around them...In Germany/Austria it would be called "Bühnezentrumplatz" (literally Stage Center Place), and everything on Hudson/Reno/Walker/Sheridan would be associated with and draw their identity from Stage Center. Street walls do not inherently create an urban fabric and they are not the most effective route to good urbanism. Places/Destinations are the best route. They draw people in from all places and prompt development in proximity to the place.
I would love to save the SC but realize there is <.0001% chance of that happening. I'm not really arguing to save SC...it's the reasoning presented that has me troubled because it demonstrates a possibility that we'll overlook future opportunities for similar reasons.
After listening to Bradley Winn at last night's get-together and seeing his video urging that we save the original Film Exchange (over on Robinson) from C2S demolition and turn it into an Oklahoma City Museum, I think perhaps we should turn our attention away from what appears to be a lost cause, and toward backing that effort -- it's exactly the sort of future opportunity that you mention, and would create a Destination for the area!
That's a good observation. The reality is that even if this development incorporates good street interaction with retail and dining services, it will still feel pretty isolated from a walk-ability standpoint, at least initially. It will be surrounded by a park, a garage along with a lot of surface lots, a school, and Devon, which was not built with street interaction in mind. Devon looks pretty, but there's really nothing to do there for a non-employee except look at it. The block to north could change that and a repurposed Century Center could create more flow into the area. Stage Center, when active, along with the park, was really the only thing that would draw people who did not have business in the area to this intersection and, obviously, community theater is not much of a draw in OKC.
Who knows how much the developer intends to do and whether or not the Preftakes block will add to the block in a similar way, but taken on its own, initially it will be at least a block in every direction before a pedestrian will encounter other services. It will be surrounded by an urban "moat", if you will. To some extent, it could have a negative effect on establishing a dense collection of retail in downtown, as it will essentially add square footage but only in the fragmented way we have seen so far. Granted, there are a ton of moving parts and variables to all of this, but it's certainly possible that this will be more of the same when it comes to creating a contiguously walkable city center. Certainly this development won't do it on its own. I think what happens on the Preftakes block and Century Center will be just as important. With Devon, the Convention Center, and Cox being neighbors, it's going to remain fragmented for some time and every new development in the area will have to fully contribute to street interaction before there is any real improvement in the walk-ability for this quarter of downtown.
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