There is no other location in the entire city that would be as enjoyable to live without a car as this one - that alone can probably fill up 100 units.
Classen Curve really is one of the best located parts of town. I say this as a twenty-something.
Lots of grocery, restaurant, and bars in the immediate neighborhood. Going both north and south, western avenue has tons of shops, coffee and restaurants. Extending further south by bike (on shartel) you can reach paseo/uptown, and even downtown. If you're into nature, taking Grand Blvd northwest by bike you can get to the Lake Hefner trails.
It's honestly better located than film row which has tons of high-end apartments.
Why on earth is there so much credence given to a local news report with no substantiation? Last night News 4 said "clues arise in cause of fire". Then the report actually said that they were going to look for clues! This is why I never watch local news unless its something like this or weather!
You should read the comments on the FB post from Channel 9 and try to not feel dumber afterwards
https://www.facebook.com/25961704221...8536376242212/
^^
No thanks, Richard! TBH, channel 9 seems to have the dumbest audience of the three major local TV stations.
Sounds like a chicken or egg discussion that oklip955 alluded to. End result is the same. The fire also made new "drain" holes for the water to escape the roof.
Update on structure. Building was 80 percent demollshed when I drove by today. Large pile of rubble to clean up. The parking garage was black all the way down.
If you want a good laugh for 5-10 minutes, the Google reviews for this complex are great.
Those hurt to look at. It’ll be nice when they can get this going again. Wishful thinking but maybe they might reconsider just the giant residential apartment and actually build a mixed use village with a street going through it.
I was with a volunteer dept back in Ohio from 99-2004 and am a huge fire buff. I've gone to see a number of fires in Oklahoma City since I moved here in 2013. To be honest, this fire has been a huge downer for me. I can't tell you how many times I drove up there to see that huge apartment building being built over the past 1-2 years. Only for it to be consumed by fire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDplQNVfbq4&t=3366s Here's something some people may find interesting. It's fireground audio from the fire. It starts with the initial incident and lasts for a couple/few hours into the incident. It's been condensed down in time by getting rid of unrelated and useless radio traffic.
Just total conjecture on my part, but I’ll bet most if not all of the garage can be retailed. The X factor will be the scorched wall. Not sure if a structural engineer would trust that the rebar inside wasn’t compromised. That said, it could probably be jigsawed apart and back together in that location by removing various deck sections. I don’t think they’ll demolish the whole thing (unless they are going to cut bait).
Not sure about the stairwells (the small standing towers) but I’d bet they’re toast. Preserving the garage would definitely allow them to rebuild much more quickly (and inexpensively). Structured parking is $$$$$.
I am sure they will have to do some thinking about how to move forward though. It's a terrible advertisement for their structure. I would feel 100% safe in it rebuilt exactly as it was. But will the average renter recognize and understand that the sprinklers were not active? Would they feel safe in this? How will the affect sales when it is time to start signing leases again?
Man, that’s a really good point, catch.
I think anything can be overcome with marketing spin, but even if rebuilt to a higher standard it will still be seen as damaged goods. This made national news, I heard about it where I live. People need to be able to sleep at night, and I think they would have to offer some heavy discounts on the first few years of leases to get it out of people's minds. So you mix in a potentially reduced income, on top of increased cost to beef up the structure so you can bring it back as "far exceeding the building codes in fire protection" you might end up tipping the scale on the economic willingness of the owner to abandon the idea.
If this is proven to be arson (not conspiratorial - but instead a homeless fire, or reckless teenagers, etc.) they could probably play victim and get away with a carbon copy rebuild with no issues.... This isn't my field of expertise but just some thoughts.
It’d be really nice if we could get this
But with a few more stories and the parking garage built underground with a park built on top of it.
https://www.okctalk.com/showthread.p...72#post1096972
I like to believe that I have a talent for looking down the road and seeing potential outcomes, and I also usually think about things through a marketing and comms lens (because I’ve been around PR and marketing my whole career), but I didn’t think about that angle at all, I’m almost surprised and a bit disappointed to say. I really do think you’ve hit on something that would give me great pause if I were the developer.
It’s just that the news footprint and saturation on this thing was wide-reaching in a way that is really unusual these days. And the public has become so unsophisticated when it comes to news consumption. I’ll bet 9/10 people in this city have no idea about the state of the fire suppression system or would have even to think about it to that extent. They’d just know that was the place that burned down.
And even the ones who know enough to shrug it off would be hearing about it to no end from family members and co-workers. “YOU’RE MOVING TO THAT FIRE TRAP?! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING?!?” Plus any other online news comment section conspiracies.
It really does seem to potentially be a legit PR and sales challenge.
There are currently 20 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 20 guests)
Bookmarks