Downtown Parking

[ljbab728]

The new parking garage next to the Civic Center is moving forward and it sounds like they have some good ideas.

Architects will be tasked with creating a garage that fits into the historic context of the area. Discussions are ongoing as to whether to add additional residential floors above the garage.

“This project represents an excellent opportunity to provide spaces on the street level that create an active street,” McDermid said. “And the context is somewhat historic. You have the old Harbour Longmire building at 420 W Main, the Hightower building and some traditional early retail store buildings on Main. I'm sure we'll use some of that context for inspiration. … This is a fantastic project. We will be changing the streetscape — dramatically.

http://newsok.com/architect-hired-to...rticle/3686163

[dankrutka]

It be awesome if there was residential on top and some street level retail...

[Spartan]

Awesome!!

Kudos to the City. My hopes are especially spiked by McDermid, possibly my favorite OKC architect and a super nice guy, referring to the importance of the historic context. I don't think he would do that if he knew it was politically DOA to be saving those buildings.

I think Devon raised the profile and opportunities for the western side of downtown, ie., "would Film Row be where it is today if not for the shadow cast by Devon?" I think we're about to see another development that once again causes a rise in the tide for downtown's west side, in conjunction with Preftakes' plans.

In 1995 everybody was pointing east. In 2005 everybody was pointing south. I can't say enough, in 2015, everybody could be pointing west in addition to all of those directions. Downtown's west side is going to come up huge.

Especially if we can get the Market Circle proposal..

[ljbab728]

Especially if we can get the Market Circle proposal..

Let's don't turn this into another traffic circle debate, Spartan. Pretty please?

[G.Walker]

Nice, 7 story garage, and if they add 5 floors of residential would be even better, good deal.

[Spartan]

They could almost make this a significantly tall building. The floorplates won't be very large, so if they want to get a few hundred apartment units or whatever, they will have to go way up.

[Larry OKC]

Awesome!!

Kudos to the City. My hopes are especially spiked by McDermid, possibly my favorite OKC architect and a super nice guy, referring to the importance of the historic context. I don't think he would do that if he knew it was politically DOA to be saving those buildings.

I think Devon raised the profile and opportunities for the western side of downtown, ie., "would Film Row be where it is today if not for the shadow cast by Devon?" I think we're about to see another development that once again causes a rise in the tide for downtown's west side, in conjunction with Preftakes' plans.

In 1995 everybody was pointing east. In 2005 everybody was pointing south. I can't say enough, in 2015, everybody could be pointing west in addition to all of those directions. Downtown's west side is going to come up huge.

Especially if we can get the Market Circle proposal..

Careful Spartan...that could almost be read as a positive post or certainly an "enthusiastic" one...

[Spartan]

And here's the garage sites being recommended for consideration.

"Future Development" shown in purple also includes vacant space they expect to fill, such as the Century Center.

I'm fascinated that the Alliance has sites shaded for "future development" such as the thermal energy plant on EKG, the whole Century Center block, and the whole FNC block including the Main Street Garage.

[HangryHippo]

In a good way?

[mcca7596]

How would it work with residential if the city owns the building? Would they use a property management firm; is there a precedent for this in other cities?

[Pete]

I'm fascinated that the Alliance has sites shaded for "future development" such as the thermal energy plant on EKG, the whole Century Center block, and the whole FNC block including the Main Street Garage.

I wouldn't read too much into that.

I remember looking through the document from which this graphic was extracted and they were basically talking about absorption of office space, such as Continental moving into the old Devon Tower, all the vacancy at FNC and the Century Center, etc.

If you look closely, they weren't very accurate with their purple shading.

[kevinpate]

Also the Century Center is already slated for some renovation work if I recall the article correctly.

As to residential on top of the 7 story garage, how many units could be added before they either need to add additional parking for the units or end up with only 5 floors of replacement parking with a floor or so for the new residents?

[ljbab728]

Also the Century Center is already slated for some renovation work if I recall the article correctly.

As to residential on top of the 7 story garage, how many units could be added before they either need to add additional parking for the units or end up with only 5 floors of replacement parking with a floor or so for the new residents?

If you compare it to Level, they have about 300 parking spaces for 228 apartments. Adding a similar number of apartments would provide a net gain of about 400 parking spaces. Of course there is always the possibility that people who might live in those apartments currently drive in from the suburbs and are already taking up parking spaces so that number might not be completely accurate in gaging the gain in numbers.

[Spartan]

LEVEL's floorplates are enormous, as that building sprawls the entire block. This structure will have considerably smaller floorplates, so 5 floors of apartments here would not be equivalent to 5 floors of LEVEL apartments for example. Although I'm unsure how you'd adjust for the parking structure that those units are wrapped around.

It may end up being that the housing is wrapped around the parking structure similarly as that would make some sense; it would make a lot of sense if the site were larger.

There are some illustrations of parking structures along the "boulevard" we were promised that were in the SkylineInk animation of C2S that I think could serve as really cool inspiration for this project, although they certainly weren't historically sensitive (as if that had a place in C2S).

[ljbab728]

LEVEL's floorplates are enormous, as that building sprawls the entire block. This structure will have considerably smaller floorplates, so 5 floors of apartments here would not be equivalent to 5 floors of LEVEL apartments for example. Although I'm unsure how you'd adjust for the parking structure that those units are wrapped around.

It may end up being that the housing is wrapped around the parking structure similarly as that would make some sense; it would make a lot of sense if the site were larger.

There are some illustrations of parking structures along the "boulevard" we were promised that were in the SkylineInk animation of C2S that I think could serve as really cool inspiration for this project, although they certainly weren't historically sensitive (as if that had a place in C2S).

The area covered by the Level apartments probably only takes up about half of that land area.

http://www.levelokc.com/phases

[Spartan]

Oh noooo.... the mol space may be comparable if you take out the garage in the middle, but I still think the LEVEL apartments take up more land. We're talking about a quarter block (the deviation from the grid is due to the Bicentennial Park oval) without frontage on either Walker or Hudson.

[ljbab728]

Oh noooo.... the mol space may be comparable if you take out the garage in the middle, but I still think the LEVEL apartments take up more land. We're talking about a quarter block (the deviation from the grid is due to the Bicentennial Park oval) without frontage on either Walker or Hudson.

You're misunderstanding me, Spartan. I meant that the apartment area of the Level takes up only about half of the land area allotted for that development.

[Spartan]

Ohh, right now I'm with you. Sorry lj.

[Just the facts]

nm

[1972ford]

When are city leaders going to wise up and put a public garage underground maybe under the new park it would double up as a storm shelter for the immeadiate area. Sooner or later downtown will be hit with a tornado and all them people at the park on the streets and the river will have nowhere to go

[Larry OKC]

They were going to put parking under the Park but decided it would be cost prohibitive (but that was also at a time when they insisted we didn't have a parking problem)

[1972ford]

I don't see why they should deviate from that idea even if it costs more upfront that is less land owned by the city thus more land in the most expensive area of OKC can be assessed property taxes not to mention its the ideal location for a garage being close to event centers, businesses, and the streetcar plan would have access to the boulavard thus slowing traffic where it would need to be slowed the most and at the times when the traffic would NEED to be slowed. maybe we could get ODOT to fund it since slowing traffic on it is part of the mission lol.

[ljbab728]

1972, if it costs more upfront where would you suggest that they get that extra money?

[ljbab728]

New parking meters going in with an interesting concept.

“Users either choose coins or credit to enter their time, print a receipt and put the receipt on the front driver’s side windshield of their car. The receipt must be visible to avoid a parking violation.”

If the purchaser of parking returns to their vehicle before their chosen time has expired, they will be able to leave the receipt on the dashboard and move their vehicle to any other curbside parking space with the “pay and display” meters without having to pay again.

The pay and display receipts will not be valid for spaces in Bricktown and elsewhere downtown with older meters.

“You’re now paying for time, not for a specific space,” Holtzclaw said of the new system. “Users of curbside parking downtown will no longer have to leave unused time for the next driver; they can take it with them.”

Now they need to figure out a way that you could use the unused time on another day.


http://newsok.com/pay-and-display-pa...rticle/3686970

[1972ford]

I know where 1.3 million of it could come from lol

IF the city collects any of the property taxes they could in theory use "creative accounting" allocating a certain property's taxes to the garage indefinatly or take a bond against future garage revenues