Midtown

[skanaly]

I didn't know North West Expressway was considered Midtown....
I know it's not, but am I wrong in saying this used to be Tiffany apartments?

[Pete]

I didn't know they had renamed that building, which was always known as Lakeshore Tower.

[shawnw]

In my experience there is a non-trivial swath of people that almost never visit downtown so their concept of what "midtown" (and even downtown) means is very amorphous... had an unintentional argument with someone once because we were both using the term midtown but neither of us meant the same thing, at all. In fact, our conceptual boundaries didn't even overlap. When I told him what I meant he was like "oh, well that's DOWNtown, not MIDtown". He considered all the way up to 23rd "downtown" incidentally.

[skanaly]

^Same thing happened with me the other day too. My boss said he was moving and that he wanted to move into Level Apartments, but he said his roommate wanted to live more in midtown. I said "oh well Midtown is still pretty close to downtown" and he said "not really, I don't want to live next to Penn Square"
*face palm. Left it at that haha

[HOT ROD]

MidTown is a neighborhood of Downtown OKC, midtown Oklahoma City would be near the Penn Square and NWX area.

We adopted a name for a downtown district but really midtown would be further away from downtown than we have it in most other major cities.

[Spartan]

No no no. Midtown, regardless of cheesy capitalization and whatnot (that most people don't use), is NW 10th.

There is no well-known identity for mid-city OKC, unfortunately. I think that there should be. I've always been a big fan of creating a CDC like maybe a "Mid-City Neighborhood Development Corporation" that focuses on streetscapes and catalytic urban design for the area around Chesapeake, Penn Square, Classen Curve, Nichols Hills, et al. If we create better connections around that area (right now the NWX/Classen/I-44 urban planning cluster is a big impediment) then OKC would have a pretty decent "Galleria" type area that can provide another viable urban environment for the market.

[bchris02]

No no no. Midtown, regardless of cheesy capitalization and whatnot (that most people don't use), is NW 10th.

There is no well-known identity for mid-city OKC, unfortunately. I think that there should be. I've always been a big fan of creating a CDC like maybe a "Mid-City Neighborhood Development Corporation" that focuses on streetscapes and catalytic urban design for the area around Chesapeake, Penn Square, Classen Curve, Nichols Hills, et al. If we create better connections around that area (right now the NWX/Classen/I-44 urban planning cluster is a big impediment) then OKC would have a pretty decent "Galleria" type area that can provide another viable urban environment for the market.

I agree with this completely. I would love it if the area around Glimcher and the Chesapeake campus would see streetscape improvements to help give the neighborhood an identity. Western in that area is in embarrassingly bad shape. My car suffered a bent rim the other night on Western because I hit a huge pothole.

[Spartan]

There needs to be a stronger East/West link between Penn Square and Chesapeake. Really, it's the Belle Isle redevelopment fail that is holding the entire mid-city region behind. Choppy/spikey land use, with good real estate separated by gulfs of crap. A CDC that could leverage some public and private funds to fill in the gaps could create a ton of value for everyone.

I think this region of OKC is by far the coolest urban area in the state. I've lately become obsessed with mid-century modern, which no other area in the state can match. Midtown Tulsa's architectural gems are much more visible, while a lot of OKC's quirky architectural assets are hidden like Mosteller, Hipster Triangle, NW 59th Terrace, Meadowbrook, Founders Tower/entire campus, etc. The entire NW 63rd corridor has a ton of potential, too.

Pete - maybe split these posts into a new thread? Sorry for changing the topic of this thread..

[bchris02]

There needs to be a stronger East/West link between Penn Square and Chesapeake. Really, it's the Belle Isle redevelopment fail that is holding the entire mid-city region behind.

I agree. If it would have been built as the lifestyle center that it was originally proposed to be, it would have really strengthened the connection between Penn Square and Nichols Hills. As is though, its a barrier.

[BBatesokc]

A few drone pics from this afternoon taken from Midtown....

[Spartan]

Wow, there is such a stark difference between each corner of Midtown. Harvey & 9th is still the epicenter of abandonment, you can even see the ghosts of foundations and curb cuts. We don't think about it anymore, but the bombing's impact on this area of downtown is still breathtaking.

[kevinpate]

Nice images Brian. Thanks for sharing.

[Spartan]

Btw Brian - your aerials are phenomenal. Do you have a site where you market them, or do you just do this on a consulting basis for developers and/or Pete?

[BBatesokc]

Btw Brian - your aerials are phenomenal. Do you have a site where you market them, or do you just do this on a consulting basis for developers and/or Pete?

Thanks! Glad to share. Per FAA overreach, this is purely a hobby at the moment. That said, I very much want to keep up with the technology and forthcoming requirements so that I can commercialize as soon as legally viable. I will be going out of state in the near future to attend some college/tech classes on drone technology and I'm working with some people locally who have been doing this for awhile with much larger drones that can carry up to a 10 pound payload. They've been great at directing me on getting started and where to go next and they've proposed a business concept they'd like to do with me. I've told Pete I'm happy to consider a list of shots that would be of general interest to the forum if he wants to come up with one. If I also find the locations interesting then I'll give it a try.

I'm actually putting up for sale this initial drone so that I can go ahead and order a larger and quite a bit more expensive one.

[Pete]

OKCTalk - Entire Midtown block to get makeover

[turnpup]

Ha ha there was an ad for Kegerators at the bottom of my screen in that link.

[jccouger]

Looks like its getting the Santa Fe garage treatment.

[metro]

OKCTalk - Entire Midtown block to get makeover

Not sure I like this proposal. Usually remodeling older architecture bones to blend with modern doesn't go well, and ends up going back to original decades later. I'd rather then remove some landscaping that encourages better street interactions, put new paint where needed, and amenity upgrades. If they want to gut the interior to modern standards that's cool, but messing with the architectural lines of the outside doesn't seem like a bold move for the hospital and it's subsidiaries. I also extremely dislike that they're "modernizing" the beautiful gem of a mid-century architecture on the small parking garage. I love the gold 70's look. I think it's the only example of that era that we have left in our urban core other than Gold Dome and The Classen. Tulsa has tons of it (i.e. Oral Roberts University and several other places downtown).

[Pete]

Will be interesting to see what the Downtown Design Review Committee has to say and how the architect/owner may respond.

I agree, the mid-century stuff is important and can be quite cool.

[metro]

I didn't know North West Expressway was considered Midtown....
I know it's not, but am I wrong in saying this used to be Tiffany apartments?

I didn't know they had renamed that building, which was always known as Lakeshore Tower.

This was renamed a year or so ago, and no it's NOT Midtown.

MidTown is a neighborhood of Downtown OKC, midtown Oklahoma City would be near the Penn Square and NWX area.

We adopted a name for a downtown district but really midtown would be further away from downtown than we have it in most other major cities.

Not true, MidTown, Midtown or however you want to spell it has always historically been the area we refer to now, it isn't a modern phenomenon. Historically speaking it was always Midtown and 23rd was considered Uptown. Keep in mind most of the modern "mid portion" of the City, was farmland decades ago, NW Expressway used to be old dirt farm roads. Yes in larger, more dense cities, "MidTown" or "Mid City" is further out, but historically speaking that was not the case in OKC.

No no no. Midtown, regardless of cheesy capitalization and whatnot (that most people don't use), is NW 10th.

There is no well-known identity for mid-city OKC, unfortunately. I think that there should be. I've always been a big fan of creating a CDC like maybe a "Mid-City Neighborhood Development Corporation" that focuses on streetscapes and catalytic urban design for the area around Chesapeake, Penn Square, Classen Curve, Nichols Hills, et al. If we create better connections around that area (right now the NWX/Classen/I-44 urban planning cluster is a big impediment) then OKC would have a pretty decent "Galleria" type area that can provide another viable urban environment for the market.

Agree with Spartan, our "mid City" never had a true identity both historically or even currently sadly enough. I agree that there should be an area of town we refer to as Mid City or "Inner Loop" but that never has been the case. I think identities as such happens organically over time, and the more population a city has, the more it happens organically. Keep in mind citizens decades ago were used to going downtown or inner core for almost all services so they were more educated or more "conditioned" to urban principles, we had decades worth of sprawl and over time that was taught out of the majority of the population. The modern revival is going back to the old roots.

[adaniel]

Didn't know where else to post this:

More than 30,000 people attended H&8th Friday, organizers say | News OK

[shawnw]

Husdson between 6th to 10th street pretty much completely full of people, plus spilling over onto 7th and into Industry Flea and Bleu Garten, plus over to OCU Law...

[Urbanized]

Seriously, it was mayhem over there. I don't doubt the number.

[AP]

Yeah with how big and stretched out it was this year with Bleu Garten and Industry Flea, I can definitely see that number.

[Teo9969]

Yeah, it was an absolute ton of people

…And it was a little bit chilly…Had the weather been about 10 degrees warmer…I think April is going to be insane.

The Food Trucks must have killed it, I've never seen so many ridiculous lines.