Villa Teresa

[oklip955]

The playground equipment that was taken out was shipped to a mission parish in Peru. I was shown the pictures by the sisters.

[Pete]

Pete, at one point in the late 80's early 90's Villa Teresa owned or rented a lot that was at the southeast corner of 13th and Dewey. Do you know if they owned or just rented this? and when they sold it?

The SE corner of 13th & Dewey is where The Edge is being built.

It's been owned by the old Mercy hospital then OCURA for a while... I imagine they just paid them to park there.

[Buffalo Bill]

Pete, at one point in the late 80's early 90's Villa Teresa owned or rented a lot that was at the southeast corner of 13th and Dewey. Do you know if they owned or just rented this? and when they sold it?

VT used to have a kindergarten(?) facility at that corner. There was a small one story building that they used just north of the old Mercy Hospital parking garage.

[shawnw]

Steve tweeted that the property is under contract to be sold.

[Pete]

Hmm... Now the worrying begins as to what will become of it.

Hopefully it will be in good hands.

[HangryHippo]

Any chance the Midtown Renaissance people got a hold of it? That would be great.

[shawnw]

Steve makes a great point.

[Spartan]

It seems insane to clear a whole block of beautiful old buildings that are all in tact.... Oh wait. That's the MO around here.

RIP Villa Teresa

[Pete]

When I saw the asking price, I started to worry because there is no way to pay that much for the property and then use much of what's there.

Far too little square footage for such a high price.

And unfortunately, the nicest buildings are in the center of the property, which makes it hard to work around them.

[bchris02]

Where there's a will, there's a way. Now is the time for preservationists to gear up for this fight.

[HangryHippo]

Does anyone have any idea who the purchaser is?

[Spartan]

Where there's a will, there's a way. Now is the time for preservationists to gear up for this fight.

Shouldn't have to fight to save this. This is indicative of OKC's present dire straits that we allowed.

[UnFrSaKn]

Future of historic Villa Teresa School may be threatened | News OK

[bchris02]

Future of historic Villa Teresa School may be threatened | News OK

I am all for mixed-use development, but Villa Teresa is special and it's not like Midtown has a shortage of land that could be developed. Hopefully it doesn't get torn down.

[Pete]

I made this point before, but when you ask the type of money they are, there is almost no way to make something work there while maintaining the current structures.

If the owners are really concerned with preservation, they should lower their price and work with a school or something similar.

[Urbanized]

Honestly I would need to see a rendering of the planned replacement before I judged demolition entirely inappropriate. Higher and better use IS possible here (especially with SOME included adaptive re-use), but it would have to be something truly exceptional. As in, nothing currently planned, under construction or recently completed downtown - as good as many of them are - would qualify.

[SoonerDave]

I love how we seemingly, by default, vilify the prospective developer. The current state of the properties involved is hardly their fault.

[Shipwreck]

I got the call last night, asking me, "Are you ready to try and start saving Villa Teresa?" I knew such a call would eventually make it my way. Believe it or not, this is a difficult situation. The sisters who remain, desperately need the sale of the property to go through, regardless of the buyer. That sale will find their future health care and cost of living, a steep price for them. They've earned it after 80+ years of community service, and with only a handful of Carmelites surviving the experience. So, I can't intervene or try in any way to prevent the sale. But afterwards? Who knows?

But there is a reality check here too, re these buildings. I spent a lot of time in them and a lot of time with the sisters and discussing them. The oldest building is the Motherhouse, built in 1917 (i think) so historically, it had the greatest value. The other buildings were added on through the decades. The school buildings could only be used as a school, in my opinion, but they are limiting and everything that may have been grandfathered in over the years would have to be brought to code. Which leads to the Motherhouse, also referred to as the Mansion. The layout of the building would really only offer two viable options. Either a Bed & Breakfast/Residential home (perhaps even something similar to the Ronald McDonald House on the NE side) or as a stand alone office, like for an attorney firm. HOWEVER, bringing the mansion up to code AND making it handicap accessible (one of the many reasons the sisters couldn't stay) would be very costly. The options make use of the Mansuon alone, extremely limiting. The land value is worth what the sisters are asking. It is the land that is its most valuable commodity. Now all of this is just my opinion.

The two year long battle I just went thru with Oklahoma City, in efforts to save the 90 year old Film Exchange building, which left me standing alone before those committees and community, with the exception of the few good friends who struggled with me early on or joined me in a protest outside the building a few months ago, ended in failure, taking the wind from my sails. That loss continues to hurt. The decision was made to tear it down just to open the space for the view. So, taking on trying to save another historic legacy property like Villa Teresa, would be a hard choice.

Villa Teresa is near and dear to my heart, but so too its former residents, of which i owe a huge gratitude. So, let the property be sold. Then come ask me that question.

The following images were all taken inside the Mansion.


The Motherhouse (Mansion)

[Pete]

Honestly I would need to see a rendering of the planned replacement before I judged demolition entirely inappropriate. Higher and better use IS possible here (especially with SOME included adaptive re-use), but it would have to be something truly exceptional. As in, nothing currently planned, under construction or recently completed downtown - as good as many of them are - would qualify.

I completely agree but also expect to be fully disappointed.

[Spartan]

Honestly I would need to see a rendering of the planned replacement before I judged demolition entirely inappropriate. Higher and better use IS possible here (especially with SOME included adaptive re-use), but it would have to be something truly exceptional. As in, nothing currently planned, under construction or recently completed downtown - as good as many of them are - would qualify.

No it isn't. There are some things you don't demo. This is one.

What's happening here in okc is very unique and goes way beyond normal "higher and better use" in other cities. Not saving a site like this is practically going out of your way to tear down any remaining evidence of what OKC used to be.

[bchris02]

No it isn't. There are some things you don't demo. This is one.

What's happening here in okc is very unique and goes way beyond normal "higher and better use" in other cities. Not saving a site like this is practically going out of your way to tear down any remaining evidence of what OKC used to be.

This.

[Spartan]

Very few other cities would be having a legitimate preservation issue over this. I can't think of any, but maybe the Feds have done something like this in Detroit.

This is endemic, wanton destruction and disregard of OKC's potential. This is why OKC will end up never developing a special vibe, although I hope I'm wrong.

I'm mostly disturbed by how many people actually think this could be demo'd, which really can't happen. Right?

[BoulderSooner]

The reality is that with the price the want (maybe need) to get from this property. Keeping/reusing the existing buildings is very likely not economically feasible

This is also a suburban site layout.

A massive multi story mixed use project of resedential and commercial with structures parking would be a much better fit in midtown and would be a better result for Okc

[bchris02]

It would be one thing if OKC didn't have so much surface parking and vacant land in its core. If the core was completely built out, then the higher and better use argument could come into play. As is, there is no reason to continue tearing down so much historic urban fabric. I can think of 5+ lots in the immediate Midtown area that would be a better fit for a mixed-use development and would not require tearing down anything significant.

[CarlessInOKC]

I'd recommend looking at the Downtown Development Framework for this site, and see that what is presently on the site fits the plan better than high-intensity development. The Planning Commission and the City Council adopted this as their guide to downtown development... so this will be a good test of the document, as well as the commitment of our elected officials.

https://www.okc.gov/planning/plannin...FinalDraft.pdf