SandRidge Center & Commons

[Pete]

From Metro:

[UnFrSaKn]

February 25 2012

http://www.flickr.com/photos/william...7629099468434/


















This is not what it looks like...




I Am Legend

[betts]

Is that landscaping complete, or are those trees just parked there, I wonder. They look really odd next to the building like that.

[knightrider]

I am so glad they decided to expose the original red brick. It looks so wonderful. I had no idea the Braniff Building had so much potential. Just beautiful.

[metro]

Is that landscaping complete, or are those trees just parked there, I wonder. They look really odd next to the building like that.

Landscaping is almost completely done. See some of Will and I's pics a few pages back from inside the compound.it is very weird, like an urban forest, and with the wrong type of trees. Wayyyyyyy too many evergreens.

[David Pollard]

Is Sandridge selling Christmas trees to supplement their income?

[Rover]

Landscaping is almost completely done. See some of Will and I's pics a few pages back from inside the compound.it is very weird, like an urban forest, and with the wrong type of trees. Wayyyyyyy too many evergreens.

Wrong, as in they won't grow right in this part of the country, or wrong, as in you just don't like this kind of tree? Are their landscape architects stupid and planted incompatible trees for the soil/climate?

[Popsy]

If a person would read the architects notes on the project you would see that he felt the wind in downtown OKC was a challenge for the small plaza they are creating. The trees planted were his attempt to block some of the wind. Evergreens were what he felt would do the best job and I can't disagree with his thinking.

[metro]

Who says we didn't read it? Just because fancy boy from NYC says it, doesn't mean it's the best use of space.

[kevinpate]

fwiw, pear trees and oaks and such are lousy for organic wind breaks. If that's their intent, evergreens make a lot of sense.

[Pete]

It should be noted the whole reason they are trying to create windbreaks in the first place is they pulled down a bunch of buildings specifically to create a large open plaza.

I'm over the building fight, it's just ironic.

[kevinpate]

I don't disagree Pete, and I'm not a plaza junkie in any form. Yet once a decision was made by the property owner to slap a plaza there, decent windbreaks are about the only way to make it useable instead of being an even greater waste of space.

[Urbanized]

It should be noted the whole reason they are trying to create windbreaks in the first place is they pulled down a bunch of buildings specifically to create a large open plaza.

I'm over the building fight, it's just ironic.

Great point. Also, as excited as I am to see the Braniff come together - along with the inevitable comments from people who "had no idea" it had that much potential under the painted brick and bad windows - I also feel a twinge of pain as I try to imagine its now-departed next door neighbor getting the same treatment, and how great Robinson COULD have been.

[OSUMom]

So is that contraption on the back of the Braniff building some sort of elevator to get supplies to the upper floors durning construction, or is it going to become something more permanate?

[Just the facts]

Great point. Also, as excited as I am to see the Braniff come together - along with the inevitable comments from people who "had no idea" it had that much potential under the painted brick and bad windows - I also feel a twinge of pain as I try to imagine its now-departed next door neighbor getting the same treatment, and how great Robinson COULD have been.

It's best if you try not to think about it.

[Urbanized]

Citywide amnesia regarding the blunders of Urban Renewal is one of the reasons that removal happened so easily. Better to keep it top-of-mind, I think.

[Just the facts]

Good point Urbanized.

[Pete]

So is that contraption on the back of the Braniff building some sort of elevator to get supplies to the upper floors durning construction, or is it going to become something more permanate?

Pretty sure it's just to get materials up to the various floors.

[Oil Capital]

Great point. Also, as excited as I am to see the Braniff come together - along with the inevitable comments from people who "had no idea" it had that much potential under the painted brick and bad windows - I also feel a twinge of pain as I try to imagine its now-departed next door neighbor getting the same treatment, and how great Robinson COULD have been.

But I think it is fair to consider how much money and effort Sandridge is putting into the restoration of the Braniff building. It seems to me they have proven they are willing to go the extra mile for a building that is salvageable. Perhaps a little benefit of the doubt is in order regarding the buildings they say were not salvageable.

[lasomeday]

Citywide amnesia regarding the blunders of Urban Renewal is one of the reasons that removal happened so easily. Better to keep it top-of-mind, I think.

No! You are completely wrong! Its because MONEY TALKS! and the Design Board was paid off! We all know it! The one person that voted against it got the boot!

[lasomeday]

And it looks horrendous!

[LockeDown42]

Personally I am liking the progress. Off course a bunch of young trees and dirt is going to look bad. Still a ton of landscaping work to go and imagine everything will fill in nicely.

I'm really excited to see that ugly building coming down in Kerr Park. The east end was a major eyesore looking west from Deep Duece and the new SandRidge amenities building is going to be a huge improvement. Being younger, I know that it is not as difficult for me to watch some of the old buildings come down in the SandRidge commons...but I feel like any growth or development is a good thing. Sure beats a bunch of empty buildings in my opinion.

[Urbanized]

But I think it is fair to consider how much money and effort Sandridge is putting into the restoration of the Braniff building. It seems to me they have proven they are willing to go the extra mile for a building that is salvageable. Perhaps a little benefit of the doubt is in order regarding the buildings they say were not salvageable.

It was pretty well established that the building on Robinson was equally as salvageable as the Braniff. It just took less fight to tear it down.

A group of partners including a respected architect had plans to convert it to housing until the K-M/Anadarko deal killed it. The main distinction between the two buildings was that one had slipped onto the National Register of Historic Places and the other had not. National Register status doesn't provide legal protection (unless a demo is federally funded), but it would have made for a major preservationist skirmish rather than the minor one we saw. SR chose their battle wisely on that one, sucked up the preservation of the Braniff, and is now doing an admirable job with it, by all indications.

The jury is out on whether the India Shrine (Broadway) was salvageable, and I will give you that the connecting buildings on Kerr were basically trash. Again, that was mostly agreed to by everyone.

But allowing the Braniff to survive while demolishing its next door neighbor was not based on "salvageability" or adaptability. Make no mistake; if the Braniff had no register status, it would be rubble today.

[Just the facts]

The mistake on the Kerr McGee block was made 40 years ago when the tower was built right in the middle of the block instead of at the sidewalk. Everything done since then was to 'correct' that mistake.

[Pete]

Will finds a new perspective to show the emerging SandRidge Forrest:





Look at the huge pile of debris piling up in Kerr Park... Also looks like Dowell is going to put a large sign on the east side of his building: