Chase Bank

[Pete]

9/9/14 Update

The renderings -- but not the site plan -- have been revised and submitted to the Downtown Design Review Committee in advance of their meeting to be held on Sept. 18th.

Background

Chase Bank has submitted an application to the Downtown Design Review Committee to rebuild on the triangular property they own at 3rd & Brodway.

The existing structures -- a small bank building and two large banks of drive-through lanes -- were built in 1972 by Liberty Bank. At that time, Oklahoma Banking laws prohibited banks to have more than one location and any ancillary facilities were required to be within a few blocks of the headquarters. This is one of several old banking drive-through facilities around the periphery of downtown, all remnants of failed downtown banks and defunct laws.

The proposal calls for a 4,000 square foot bank building on the far north end of the property and a few drive-through lanes to the south. The one-story building has a very suburban design with a large parking lot; the building only covers 12% of the .877 acres.

Before Tom Ward left SandRidge, there were preliminary plans to acquire this property and expand the parking garage they own immediately south. However, SandRidge has shifted into a much more conservative way of operating and those plans were scrapped.

The design and plan are bound to meet resistance from the review committee, although the current buildings also do not meet current urban design standards on this very visible corner.[/SIZE]

Existing Structures

Original Proposal

Revised Proposal

[Pete]

This project will be heard at the September 19th meeting of the Downtown Design Review Committee.

[Richard at Remax]

Booooooooooooooooooooo

[Martin]

so they're replacing one suburban design with another suburban design? makes no sense to me. -M

[Pete]

This project presents a similar issue to that of the Dowell Garage...

How does the City deal with legacy properties that don't fit current design standards?

You may recall that the the first phase of the Dowell Garage was renovated before the current standards. Subsequently, Dowell wanted to expand that same structure and use the same approach and materials, which would almost certainly have been rejected as a stand-alone proposal. But the committee agreed and now we'll soon have a very ugly structure that has double in size.

In this instance, you already there are already buildings in almost the exact same layout as proposed. So, how does the various decision making bodies handle this?

I would hope they just tell Chase that unless you want to build to current standards, they need to leave this as are. Of course, that would represent the same poor use of a key downtown property.

[Anonymous.]

Yup this is a tough one. Build it out to the street and put the "drive thru" lanes inside. It isn't hard - it is just not a design they already have.

For these cookie cutter suburban bank branches, all you have to do is have one design made and plop it down on a piece of land where it will fit.

[Pete]

But, there are streets on three sides: north, west and east.

So, not easy to adhere to the urban short setback principle.

[Anonymous.]

Actually on second thought. This is a giant piece of prime real estate for a bank branch. What about persuading Chase to sell it?

[NWOKCGuy]

Oh hell no.

[Chitty]

Lol, "comfort zone". As opposed to "space where you awkwardly sit for hours".

[catch22]

Please no.

[shawnw]

I hate that these exist downtown, but I love that RCB has their inside their building and would like to see more of that if we had to have them.

[s00nr1]

Honestly, this is almost too ridiculous to consider it to be a serious proposal. Chase should know better -- or maybe they just think they can get DDRC to look the other way.

I guess it would be too much to ask for something like this (Brooklyn):



http://new.pentagram.com/2010/09/new...rolls-out-new/

[metro]

Dislike

[Pete]

Chase isn't a local company and they are using an architect out of Dallas, so they are probably thinking, "Hey, this is already what is there -- just an updated version".

[catch22]

Just because a mistake was allowed in the past, does not mean we should make the mistake again.

So, with that said, this will be approved with overwhelming praise from the DDRC.

[hoya]

What we really need in OKC is a civic minded arsonist.

[Just the facts]

This is one big no-go and should be dismissed from serious consideration by the downtown design committee. Clearly Chase has more land here than they need and should consider cutting the lot in half and selling off part. I have a hard time believing they need 33 parking spaces for a business with 5 offices and 2 tellers.

Truthfully, Chase should know better. They just built one here in Jacksonville which is built to the sidewalk with parking in back - and it is in a suburban location of all places.

Just for comparison take a look at this Regions Bank here in Jax. It is on a plot of land 130' X 140', has 3 drive-thru lanes, and a by-pass lane. They could almost get 2 of these on this site.

http://maps.google.com/?ll=30.308631...01242&t=h&z=20

[s00nr1]

I like how you think JTF.

[NWOKCGuy]

Or you could tell them to build one like the one on SoCo in Austin.....

[Spartan]

I hope they get chased out of town. That is awful.

[Spartan]

And honestly what they have now is a lot better. That funky mid century stuff is becoming the hot thing now.

[Pete]

And honestly what they have now is a lot better. That funky mid century stuff is becoming the hot thing now.

And, it was built to match then Liberty Tower (now Cotter Ranch) and that's kind of cool.

[Mel]

Isn't that lot more of a trapezoid?

[soonerguru]

Horrible.