Gathering Place for Tulsa will be world-class park

[Swake]

Phase II of the Gathering Place is getting underway.

First up is the new facility for Tulsa's children's museum/science center Discovery Lab, which broke ground at the south end of the Gathering Place this week.

https://www.kjrh.com/news/local-news...aking-ceremony

The new low water dam is slated to start construction in July. The new dam will increase the level of the river 3' from the current dam and will include a white water rafting section below the Gathering Place.


The new pedestrian bridge will start construction at the same time as the dam.

[soonerfan_in_okc]

Best thing about this park is the $100 million endowment to fund upkeep & staff. Any wear & tear issues will be fixed, unlike
Your average city park.

[Swake]

[BG918]

Update on the adjacent Zink Dam and pedestrian bridge project:

The key elements of the Zink Dam reconstruction project include replacing and increasing the number of gates, from three to 15. The gates will range in height from 3 feet to 10 feet. The tallest gates in the existing dam are 7 feet high. A 1,000-foot-long flume for kayaking and other water activities will be built along the east bank of the Arkansas River south of the pedestrian bridge. And Tulsans will finally get a true Zink Lake, with water backing up to well north of the 21st Street Bridge.

Zachary said he is hopeful that construction can begin in September and be completed in 2023. Work on the new pedestrian bridge over the Arkansas River is expected to begin at about the same time and be completed in late 2022.

https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/zink...aeb4170c8.html

[Plutonic Panda]

https://tulsaworld.com/news/local/ga...7e4e61513.html

Demo on the old pedestrian bridge will begin in a month or so and construction will take 28 months. Beautiful bridge to be built!

[BG918]

Renderings of the new bridge that will start construction by the end of this year




This will replace the existing bridge that will be demolished. Once complete the new bridge will connect to the east bank river hike/bike trail and Midland Valley trail to Cherry St and downtown

[Plutonic Panda]

https://tulsaworld.com/entertainment...me-top-story-1

[shawnw]

Transit Authority Approves Funds for Gathering Place Shuttle
https://www.publicradiotulsa.org/pos...-place-shuttle

[Plutonic Panda]

The pedestrian bridge’s arches are arriving:

https://tulsaworld.com/news/local/go...e69b98ff7.html

[Dustin]

I was in tulsa yesterday and decided to drive by. Landscaping is looking rough... The deep freeze really did a number on this place. Lots of dead shrubs and trees. I wonder if there is a plan to replant a lot of it? If there is, it's going to be a big endeavor.

[BG918]

I was in tulsa yesterday and decided to drive by. Landscaping is looking rough... The deep freeze really did a number on this place. Lots of dead shrubs and trees. I wonder if there is a plan to replant a lot of it? If there is, it's going to be a big endeavor.

There was an article about the freeze damage and they mentioned the Gathering Place was replacing damaged trees and shrubs but as you said it will take time. What’s interesting is that they intentionally planted native flora and even it was damaged by that freeze. Though funny enough I noticed the palms by the rock canyons are all in good shape (they are native to SE OK)

[shavethewhales]

One of the design flaws of GP is that the landscaping is designed to look "wild" while also requiring a tremendous amount of care to not look terrible. A lot of the "native" plant areas fill up with weeds pretty quickly. They have to replace a huge number of plants each year and do a lot of seasonal planting. It's extremely expensive, but George Kaiser did leave a large endowment to pay for it for a generation or so.

Here's an update on the bridge from a few weeks ago. It is slowly coming along. The west side is more or less "complete" in the sense that the dam is in place and the structural elements of the bridge are done. They are now into the much more intensive eastern side including the portion that will connect to GP.

[dcsooner]

Is this a bridge to Oil Storage tankers or is there something meaningful on the other side?

[BoulderSooner]

Is this a bridge to Oil Storage tankers or is there something meaningful on the other side?

will connect to the river parks trail ..

[BG918]

Here's an update on the bridge from a few weeks ago. It is slowly coming along. The west side is more or less "complete" in the sense that the dam is in place and the structural elements of the bridge are done. They are now into the much more intensive eastern side including the portion that will connect to GP.

This phase includes tearing down the rest of the old dam and bridge and building the remainder of the new dam and bridge along with an island for the whitewater flume on the east side. Once the new dam and flume are complete next year the Gathering Place will finish its portion of the riverfront allowing the chain link construction fencing to finally come down.

As they get closer to completion there they will turn their attention to the third and final phase where the gravel parking lots are located on the south side of the park. That will be redeveloped into mixed-use housing, potentially up to 400 units, and the trail extension to Brookside.

[shartel_ave]

IMO, Scissortail Park is an urban park in the city center, which I prefer, and The Gathering Place is a big playground with some good attractions plus OKC has the boathouse district with a huge playground. I like The Gathering Place but it doesn't feel like an urban park in anyway compared to Scissortail Park especially with live from the lawn for outside concerts with a capacity of at least 28k people. And having the Omni and convention center across the street adds even more to the park.

Both are great I just prefer Scissortail Park overall it has more of a central park/golden gate park feel. As far as my playground comment; Tulsa's Gathering Place was named National Geographic's list of 12 Mind-Bending Playgrounds Around the World,

[PhiAlpha]

IMO, Scissortail Park is an urban park in the city center, which I prefer, and The Gathering Place is a big playground with some good attractions plus OKC has the boathouse district with a huge playground. I like The Gathering Place but it doesn't feel like an urban park in anyway compared to Scissortail Park especially with live from the lawn for outside concerts with a capacity of at least 28k people. And having the Omni and convention center across the street adds even more to the park.

Both are great I just prefer Scissortail Park overall it has more of a central park/golden gate park feel. As far as my playground comment; Tulsa's Gathering Place was named National Geographic's list of 12 Mind-Bending Playgrounds Around the World,

Yeah I really think Tulsa could use a downtown park somewhere between the size of MBG and scissortail in the massive sea of parking lots south of downtown. It would get rid of a bunch of surface parking that wouldn’t be developed for a awhile anyway with most surface development being closer to the core and pushing north/east and bridge the gap between downtown and Midtown (cherry st, riverside trails and the surrounding neighborhoods). The Gathering place is awesome but there’s a pretty decent lack of green space downtown outside of Guthrie green and a few other really small parks.

[Swake]

Yeah I really think Tulsa could use a downtown park somewhere between the size of MBG and scissortail in the massive sea of parking lots south of downtown. It would get rid of a bunch of surface parking that wouldn’t be developed for a awhile anyway with most surface development being closer to the core and pushing north/east and bridge the gap between downtown and Midtown (cherry st, riverside trails and the surrounding neighborhoods). The Gathering place is awesome but there’s a pretty decent lack of green space downtown outside of Guthrie green and a few other really small parks.

There's been a proposal for a "Cathedral Square" park to take up the full block of surface parking to the east of Holy Family Cathedral and north of First Christian Church.

Those surface lots on the south side of downtown are hard to develop because they are almost all owned by the various churches in that part of downtown or Tulsa Community College and they aren't interested in giving up parking.

[PhiAlpha]

There's been a proposal for a "Cathedral Square" park to take up the full block of surface parking to the east of Holy Family Cathedral and north of First Christian Church.

Those surface lots on the south side of downtown are hard to develop because they are almost all owned by the various churches in that part of downtown or Tulsa Community College and they aren't interested in giving up parking.

I would say the churches would be easier to work with on that than private entities who are sitting on them and charging for parking. A few garages would almost entirely solve that problem and it isn’t like there’s not enough empty space for them. Im sure the city could work out something with them.

[BG918]

I would say the churches would be easier to work with on that than private entities who are sitting on them and charging for parking. A few garages would almost entirely solve that problem and it isn’t like there’s not enough empty space for them. Im sure the city could work out something with them.

Now seems to be a good time to start planning something like that for south downtown. All of the focus has been in the Arts District and Blue Dome so as those areas mature over the next 5-10 years the areas of south downtown and the arena district will be the next frontier.

[BG918]

The new bridge lit up at night

[Swake]

Some photos from the TW:






https://tulsaworld.com/news/local/ph...4f0ba3c.html#4

A Sunday Times (UK) article on surfing in Oklahoma at The Gathering Place:
https://www.thetimes.com/world/us-wo...each-rlzxh3gl6

[dankrutka]

It looks great, but there’s a lot of debate about whether the water is actually clean enough for people to be in the water, right?

[Bellaboo]

That is so Good !!!

[Laramie]

Beautiful lighted bridge. I recall fishing off that bridge in the Tulsa River parks area before the renovation. Glad to see all the new improvements. Thanks for sharing Swake.