Convention Center

[Pete]

^

The elevator banks were the only place I saw this treatment.

[Celebrator]

That’s not tile, and it’s not a farmhouse aesthetic. It appears to be formed concrete, or at least made to look that way (I haven’t been inside the cc yet). The woodgrain you see was historically imparted by the boards used in the building of the forms. Not certain of the exact technique used here; may have been very straightforward or it might be stamped or stimulated in some other way.

It’s a pretty old building technique, and can often be found in turn of the twentieth century warehouse buildings like those that once stood in the immediate vicinity, or in nearby Bricktown, etc. Most often seen in ceilings of these buildings, where planks were used to form the concrete for the floor above, then stripped away once the concrete cured. A really good local example off the top of my head is in the home of Antioch Energy on the Bricktown Canal.

In the case of the convention center this gives it an urban/industrial look which is pretty appropriate for the location in my opinion.

Agreed, this is a rather old, and in my opinion classic, aesthetic. I like it.

[Urbanized]

It's hard to compare based on cities. Indianapolis is 50% bigger than OKC and has WAY more population within 200 miles. Lots more visitors to Indy to support larger luxury full service hotels. .

And even more importantly Indianapolis has a more well-established and more active convention and meetings industry (though ours has certainly gained ground on everyone and should go to another level with this facility and the attached Omni).

There is without question a “build it and they will come” aspect to the cc and the Omni, BUT - as I’ve mentioned before in both threads - the size of the hotel was driven by realities and hard math, not speculation.

Here’s how it works (during non-pandemic times): the Omni on its own is expected to draw X number of business and leisure guests per night on average simply drawn to that flag. This number is based on a number of factors, including market size and demographics, documented industry and business travel, interstate proximity and other elements.

I don’t have specific inside knowledge about what that number was for OKC, but suspect it’s likely to have been around 150-300. Meaning if Omni was simply going to build a non-convention-center-adjacent hotel, that’s how many rooms would be profitable.

Any rooms over that amount exist solely to support the convention center. And even during non-pandemic times they would very often be empty. It would be bad business on the part of Omni to build those excess rooms. This is where the City’s subsidy comes in.

The City (and more specifically the City-affiliated convention and visitors bureau) HAS to have an adjacent HQ hotel to make the publicly-funded CC viable. Beyond that, they HAVE to be able to offer blocks of rooms at a set rate (generally below market) and bundle those rooms to attract the conventions the CC is designed to host. And they have to be able to do so without asking the hotel’s permission to do so every time, negotiating rate, or finding out that the rooms were booked out from under them.

In other words, those rooms are “bad” business for the hotel. They theoretically lose the hotel money, the hotel can’t sell them at a market rate (unless the CVB doesn’t have them blocked) and yet they still have upkeep, housekeeping, utilities, HVAC, personnel on site at larger scale, whether the rooms or booked or not, etc, etc.

So, as long as the extra rooms are (intentionally) not profitable, the number of those rooms HAS to be driven by a single factor: how many below market blockable rooms must be available to support a convention center of that size. It’s simple math. If the convention center is expanded at some point, that will drive more adjacent hotel rooms. But that could be a decade or more from now.

The simple fact is that if the hotel was overbuilt speculatively those extra rooms would almost NEVER be utilized, period. And taxpayers would be on the hook for massive subsidy that benefitted literally nobody. At that point the hotel would be a guaranteed boondoggle, and instead of wistfully fantasizing about more rooms and a taller hotel, posters here would be grumbling about what a failure the project was.

I totally get that it’s appealing to have even bigger and shinier things, but we have to keep in mind that there are actual math and economics involved here. We now have a tremendous, first-rate CC and incredible hotel property attached. Once we (hopefully) get to the other side of the pandemic, we should be dramatically more competitive for meetings and conventions, which should have a dramatic impact on our city economically and otherwise.

Our hope should be that the CC is such a runaway success that a few years from now we are working on an expansion to the CC, and more nearby rooms to support it.

[Pete]

[Plutonic Panda]

I guess Oklahomans can’t handle multi lane roundabouts.

[Pete]

^

A big design consideration was the big semi-trailers that will be coming and going from the convention center.

[Plutonic Panda]

It looks ready to open any time now.

[runOKC]

IIRC the roundabout is supposed to be landscaped, which is great. However, wouldn’t a sculpture or art piece or statue of some kind look pretty great here? It’s big enough that you could do both. Have a centerpiece surrounded by beautiful landscaping. Just a thought.

[David]

Does anyone know if the self-guided tours are over and done with? I dropped by when I was at the park in the middle of the day on Saturday and it was locked up tight.

[Pete]

Does anyone know if the self-guided tours are over and done with? I dropped by when I was at the park in the middle of the day on Saturday and it was locked up tight.

I believe it was just that day/weekend, not an on-going thing.

[catcherinthewry]

I guess Oklahomans can’t handle multi lane roundabouts.

Not a question of if Oklahomans could handle multi lanes. This calls for a single lane given its small circumference and only 3 entrances/exits. This is not a Place de l'Étoile.

[shawnw]

Roundabout is open. Does that mean Robinson is fully open now?

https://twitter.com/cityofokc/status...84665672953858

[Plutonic Panda]

Just checked. The road is fully open now.

[shawnw]

Sweet, been wanting to ride it

[Plutonic Panda]

They did a great job it looks super slick.

[Scott5114]

Not a question of if Oklahomans could handle multi lanes. This calls for a single lane given its small circumference and only 3 entrances/exits. This is not a Place de l'Étoile.

Robinson is 4 lanes going into the roundabout on either side, which means since the roundabout is 1 lane, it creates a pinch point on either side where traffic will have to merge into 1 lane. If the roundabout had 2 lanes, this wouldn't be necessary:


However, I don't know what the traffic on Robinson is like, so it's possible that the lane drops won't cause a problem. I do think it's possible that increased traffic due to the convention center could cause this roundabout to be reworked in the future, however.

[Plutonic Panda]

^^^ thank you for posting that. That’s what I was talking about.

[catcherinthewry]

Robinson is 4 lanes going into the roundabout on either side, which means since the roundabout is 1 lane, it creates a pinch point on either side where traffic will have to merge into 1 lane. If the roundabout had 2 lanes, this wouldn't be necessary:


However, I don't know what the traffic on Robinson is like, so it's possible that the lane drops won't cause a problem. I do think it's possible that increased traffic due to the convention center could cause this roundabout to be reworked in the future, however.

Look at Pete’s photos. Robinson is already reduced to one lane when it enters the round about.

[shawnw]

Look at Pete’s photos. Robinson is already reduced to one lane when it enters the round about.

While true, it's very all the sudden, and you just know folks are going to have issues before they even get to the roundabout.... and then throw a roundabout into that...

[catcherinthewry]

While true, it's very all the sudden, and you just know folks are going to have issues before they even get to the roundabout.... and then throw a roundabout into that...

I think we'll manage somehow.

[Scott5114]

Look at Pete’s photos. Robinson is already reduced to one lane when it enters the round about.

I know. I'm saying I don't think dropping it to one lane to make the roundabout simpler was a good idea.

[catcherinthewry]

It's the same situation for the round about at 10th & Walker, with much higher usage. I haven't heard any complaints there.

[GoGators]

I think the obvious answer is to just make Robinson 2 lane from SW 29th to the boulevard. Do we really need a 4 lane street bordering our brand new city park to move 6,000 cars a day? Hopefully this was part of the reasoning for building the roundabout the way it is.

The city converted S. Walker to two lanes with bike lanes in this area with absolutely zero issues. Walker handles more traffic per day than Robinson. Robinson being 4 lanes makes zero sense.

[catcherinthewry]

I think the obvious answer is to just make Robinson 2 lane from SW 29th to the boulevard. Do we really need a 4 lane street bordering our brand new city park to move 6,000 cars a day? Hopefully this was part of the reasoning for building the roundabout the way it is.

The city converted S. Walker to two lanes with bike lanes in this area with absolutely zero issues. Walker handles more traffic per day than Robinson. Robinson being 4 lanes makes zero sense.

Totally agree.

[shawnw]

I think the obvious answer is to just make Robinson 2 lane from SW 29th to the boulevard. Do we really need a 4 lane street bordering our brand new city park to move 6,000 cars a day? Hopefully this was part of the reasoning for building the roundabout the way it is.

The city converted S. Walker to two lanes with bike lanes in this area with absolutely zero issues. Walker handles more traffic per day than Robinson. Robinson being 4 lanes makes zero sense.

agree