Dowell Garage

[Spartan]

I agree. But come on, nothing will ever be as ugly as the Santa Fe Parking Garage. Or the Main Street Parking Garage. Or that really bizarre one that they just repainted across from the County office building.

[bluedogok]

How about a parking garage like this?

Contemporist - Mission Bay Block 27 Parking Structure by WRNS Studio

[Spartan]

Still dead space.

[metro]

Yeah, not digging it, it's too super block looking

[bluedogok]

I wasn't talking about the size of it, just that it has a different style to it instead of Dowell's current garage or the painted concrete Bricktown garage.

[metro]

I know, that's why I said looking, didn't mention the size

[Steve]

Do you know if this is going to be a requirement for all future parking garages, Steve?

I think this is where things are going... it was required by Bricktown Urban Design for when Harding & Shelton was looking at building a garage along Reno Avenue (the project was scrapped when the economy crashed in 2008). Not sure if Dowell was hit with the same thing on his garage planned for Hudson Avenue - I suspect he wasn't because Urban Design had previously approved his designs several years ago

[Pete]

The addition to the Dowell garage will definitely not have retail.

[Spartan]

But has that addition made it through the urban design regulatory process yet? I was under the impression that it hasn't yet.

[Pete]

Yes, they approved that hideous structure without discussion on 8/18/11.

[Steve]

Not sure they really had a choice - it had been approved by a previous incarnation of the Urban Design Committee about a decade ago. There are those who say the committee was weaker than the current one, but of course, there are also those, including some on this site, who say the current committee has failed to hold up on some key cases.

[jbrown84]

He made that known a LONG time ago. Welcome to the party. ;-) lol

I've been in and out. Can't keep up with things as well anymore.

Yes, they approved that hideous structure without discussion on 8/18/11.

Is there a rendering anywhere?

[Spartan]

Yes, they approved that hideous structure without discussion on 8/18/11.

God dammit. Wow.

[Pete]

The Dowell garage is just an extension of what is already there (first pic):

[BDK]

Have we gotten that guerrilla ivy campaign going...?

[kevinpate]

Paint it bright white and it'll somewhat resemble OSP.
Paint it a bland beige and it'll somewhat resemble the new armory/training center in north norman.
Cover it in ivy and it'd be dang near tolerable

[MDot]

God dammit. Wow.

Yeah, my thoughts exactly.

[BDK]

Paint it bright white and it'll somewhat resemble OSP.

If it were painted white, it'd bear quite the resemblance to the Legacy apartments.

[edcrunk]

Yes, they approved that hideous structure without discussion on 8/18/11.

i prefer this to the trashy shed look it previously had.

[Steve]

The Dowell garage is just an extension of what is already there (first pic):

Pete, I'm having trouble finding Dowell's original plans - does this extension go straight to Walker Avenue, or does it stop short of the surface parking lot?

[Just the facts]

I would be leary parking in that garage for 2 reasons

1) It doesn't look finished.
2) It looks like a fire department training structure.

[Urban Pioneer]

"Pete, I'm having trouble finding Dowell's original plans - does this extension go straight to Walker Avenue, or does it stop short of the surface parking lot?"

Steve, I don't think it makes it to Hudson. Rick was complaining to me that Mr. Cheek wouldn't sell... or at least sell at Rick pricing. Lol

[Pete]

Urban Pioneer is correct. There is a small surface lot between the garage extension and Hudson.

I suppose that is a good thing so that property will eventually be developed by someone else and hopefully much differently.

[Spartan]

This garage is a case-in-point example of how our downtown design review process is still totally worthless. This is not a development that should have been allowed. This is absolutely insane. And we're backing down serving the Arts District with streetcar because Rick Dowell doesn't like WIRES?

This is insane: So the public good can't "clutter" his district with catenary wires, but while he builds colossal eyesores like this parking garage?

And we wonder why this city is so screwed up. It's hard to count on the design review process when it doesn't even have any clout and credibility. To bring it back on topic for this thread, why wouldn't Preftakes just look at his bottom line and realize that there's not much standing in the way of him bulldozing an entire block to replace it with all-new revenue streams if he prefers to do that??

We've already established that he's not doing this for charity. We know that the downtown design review process is worthless. How can you not worry anytime you hear rumors for big development on a historic block like this?? Alarms should be blaring.

[Urban Pioneer]

This garage is a case-in-point example of how our downtown design review process is still totally worthless.

I think as Steve pointed out, the "precedent" was set years ago. There is quite a "back story" to Dowell's garage in downtown politics as well from the past.

And we're backing down serving the Arts District with streetcar because Rick Dowell doesn't like WIRES?

No. Not true. Rick doesn't want wires yes, but we are awaiting the verdict on the costs to do the first 4 miles (the main spine) before making a "solid" recommendation on the rest of it as of yet.


Rick does have influence. His influence is real. But many of the recent developments in the NW 4th area are the result of things that he has had in "the works" for years.