BOK Park Plaza

[Village]

Not sure if this is anything new, but i snapped a few pictures of its fall.

[turnpup]

There were so many drones overhead this morning. It was crazy! I wonder how shredded up those Midwest Wrecking banners got after the blast.

Also saw quite a few people with their dogs. Seems to me like that'd be frightening to a dog.

[Teo9969]

10 years from now, the city of Oklahoma City will look back on this day like people look back at the demolition of the Baum Building, Biltmore Hotel, and Criterion Theater. People will ask "what were they thinking?"

The Baum and Criterion will always be on a whole different level than this demolition. Yes Hotel Black and (for my money) the Motor Hotel were nice…1. They weren't jewels, and 2. They are being immediately replaced with something that, while is not anybody here's favorite, is at least something that can have value in the long run.

I think we can all agree that the Century Center is probably the single most unfortunate development to ever happen to downtown OKC considering what came down and what was put in its place. Even today it's kind of meh. It at least is not a complete abomination…but it's still a big waste of space…especially considering the main tenant (okay…that was pretty harsh…but true)

[NWOKCGuy]

10 years from now, the city of Oklahoma City will look back on this day like people look back at the demolition of the Baum Building, Biltmore Hotel, and Criterion Theater. People will ask "what were they thinking?"

Highly unlikely.

[OKCRT]

The Criterion could have been a show palace.

[Spartan]

Hotel Black and Motor Hotel could have been great, too. This whole block was fantastic. It's a shame that Preftakes shut it down and boarded up every building for a decade before this finally got moving. If land assembly hadn't begun so soon, this unfortunate deal would have still happened, but would have faced more pressure to integrate into revitalized surroundings. We would have both a better block and a better 2nd Devon tower "BOK Tower".

This is actually the opposite of revitalization. Swapping businesses that packed people in, and room for plenty more just like them, for more parking garages and monolithic office towers. We had a historic district that surrounded our civic amenities, and now we have turned Walker into another EK Gaylord. Huge leadership void is to blame.

[SOONER8693]

Hotel Black and Motor Hotel could have been great, too. This whole block was fantastic. It's a shame that Preftakes shut it down and boarded up every building for a decade before this finally got moving. If land assembly hadn't begun so soon, this unfortunate deal would have still happened, but would have faced more pressure to integrate into revitalized surroundings. We would have both a better block and a better 2nd Devon tower "BOK Tower".

This is actually the opposite of revitalization. Swapping businesses that packed people in, and room for plenty more just like them, for more parking garages and monolithic office towers. We had a historic district that surrounded our civic amenities, and now we have turned Walker into another EK Gaylord. Huge leadership void is to blame.

YAWN. Some old, same old.

[Spartan]

What's wrong with that?

[catch22]

Watched a few of the videos. Disappointed to listen to all the cheering as they came down.

This is nothing to celebrate. But Oklahoma will never change, I lose hope for OKC by the day.

[soonerguru]

Watched a few of the videos. Disappointed to listen to all the cheering as they came down.

This is nothing to celebrate. But Oklahoma will never change, I lose hope for OKC by the day.

Yep. I think our oil overlords want OKC to be a bad version of Houston. I'm sick of all of the ass-kissing BS that leads to atrocities like this.

[gopokes88]

Self loathing is strong today

[kwhey]

Okc's downtown just became more bland and uninteresting to look at.

[bchris02]

Okc's downtown just became more bland and uninteresting to look at.

But the skyline will look better when driving down the Broadway Extension from Edmond, which is all that matters to a lot of people. Don't get me wrong, I am all for skyline improvements but not at the cost of this historic block. It's too late now though.

[bombermwc]

I really don't think we're going to look back and miss one building, Hotel Black. The motor hotel was just a parking garage with absolutely nothing significant to it other than it's size and age. No architectural details that made it stand out, no items we needed to preserve. And Hotel Black had already failed once. As a hotel, it folded long ago and converted to poor office space. You can't tell me that adding on the 70's era sun rooms to the top of the thing added to it's architectural significance. Again, it was another bland building that didn't add much. The rest of the block that went was a bunch of 1 or 2 floor buildings that took up high value land in the CBD.

I'm sure my perspective on why I don't think we'll miss anything has tainted my view on not missing the buildings....but the same can be said for those that have the opposite opinion. Given what we're getting with 499 and the fact that it will be built (not if), makes a big difference here compared to the Stage Center site. I don't miss that building either but I am pissed that we dozed it without a solid plan in place to replace it in a timely manner. And if you are complaining about a parking garage going in, remember this. We just imploded what? A parking garage. A very old parking garage, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think it had ground-floor retail that people here are always so adamant about having.

[LakeEffect]

Watched a few of the videos. Disappointed to listen to all the cheering as they came down.

This is nothing to celebrate. But Oklahoma will never change, I lose hope for OKC by the day.

My understanding is that the cheering was from the wrecking company employees and their friends/family. I'd cheer too if I was hired to do that and did it successfully. I didn't hear any cheering where I was standing. Some oohs and ahhs, but no cheering.

[BDP]

And Hotel Black had already failed once.

Everything in midtown, the Paseo, bricktown, automobile alley, and the plaza district had failed at least once.

Those arguments don't really hold up in Oklahoma City anymore. There's just too many examples of how much renovation and repurposing has improved the city, while the scars of demolition are still apparent all over the place.

[hoya]

I really don't think we're going to look back and miss one building, Hotel Black. The motor hotel was just a parking garage with absolutely nothing significant to it other than it's size and age. No architectural details that made it stand out, no items we needed to preserve. And Hotel Black had already failed once. As a hotel, it folded long ago and converted to poor office space. You can't tell me that adding on the 70's era sun rooms to the top of the thing added to it's architectural significance. Again, it was another bland building that didn't add much. The rest of the block that went was a bunch of 1 or 2 floor buildings that took up high value land in the CBD.

I'm sure my perspective on why I don't think we'll miss anything has tainted my view on not missing the buildings....but the same can be said for those that have the opposite opinion. Given what we're getting with 499 and the fact that it will be built (not if), makes a big difference here compared to the Stage Center site. I don't miss that building either but I am pissed that we dozed it without a solid plan in place to replace it in a timely manner. And if you are complaining about a parking garage going in, remember this. We just imploded what? A parking garage. A very old parking garage, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think it had ground-floor retail that people here are always so adamant about having.

I think the Motor Hotel was a beautiful old building. You're correct that it was a parking garage, and we're just replacing it with a bigger parking garage. It didn't have any ground level retail or anything like that. But the side facing Hudson was beautiful. It had a lot of great architectural details and I'm certainly going to miss that.

As far as the Hotel Black goes, the Skirvin also failed as a hotel. Was there no need to preserve that? Sure the Hotel Black wasn't as ornate or as beautiful, didn't have the same history, but that doesn't mean it was worthless. As far as being bland goes, perhaps you think that, but I don't. I've shown the 499 picture to a lot of non-OKCTalk people. Their response? "Oh, it's a glass box." Seems pretty bland to me.

Look, despite what you may think, I'm excited to see another tower go up in OKC. This will make our skyline look better. It will open up much needed office space. And yes, it will provide more parking so that more companies can move downtown. Overall this is probably a positive. But it's not nearly as positive as it could have been. Look, when they built the original Devon tower, they could have torn down the Colcord building to fit in more parking. It was just an old office building. They didn't tear it down, fortunately, and the Colcord is a real gem now. It adds a lot of character to the block. They could have done the exact same thing with the Hotel Black. It's a shame that they didn't.

[baralheia]

I heard cheering all around me on Hudson, but I do think it was probably more because of the spectacle of it all than anything else. That said, there were a lot of Midwest Wrecking vehicles right there, too, so that may have been employees/etc.

It was an awesome sight, to be sure... but man, it did feel like a punch in the gut watching the Hotel Black come down.

That said... The sooner construction gets underway, the better. Driving in to work this morning along Shields, the gap in the skyline was noticeable.

[soonerguru]

Destroying this urban block to build a marginally interesting highrise is like the nouveau riche building a McMansion with faux Greek colonnade. Look at our new big building! We're a major league city. No. Doesn't work that way; real cities value architectural heritage, culture, and aesthetics. This is a wanna be move.

[Urban Pioneer]

Its done. Lets move on...

There is a great deal to be excited about with our city. Looking at the permits, the planned projects, the opportunities in still yet unappreciated areas such as Farmer's Market and such, gives me hope that the city has enough jewels left to keep it interesting.

Probably the most important change that gives me hope that our city will continue to evolve into something significantly better is the influx of people that seems to be occurring. The economy also seems to be diversifying enough in the city itself to sustain this trend.

Yeah, I'm pissed about Film Exchange, I miss the Lunch Box, these building were interesting texture... but change in mentality seems to only come with new people, new ideas, new leaders, money, and probably youth. Because those factors are changing, OKC has a bright future ahead.

[BDP]

Its done. Lets move on...

There is a great deal to be excited about with our city. Looking at the permits, the planned projects, the opportunities in still yet unappreciated areas such as Farmer's Market and such, gives me hope that the city has enough jewels left to keep it interesting.

Probably the most important change that gives me hope that our city will continue to evolve into something significantly better is the influx of people that seems to be occurring. The economy also seems to be diversifying enough in the city itself to sustain this trend.

Yeah, I'm pissed about Film Exchange, I miss the Lunch Box, these building were interesting texture... but change in mentality seems to only come with new people, new ideas, new leaders, money, and probably youth. Because those factors are changing, OKC has a bright future ahead.

I understand what you're saying, but despite all the great things that are happening and have happened in and around downtown, we keep seeing this happen. We kind of keep moving on to the next demo for a plaza, or a block of mostly parking garages, while a lot of blank spots from previous demos still just sit there. It really is to the point where its amazing anyone still thinks this is a good idea. But I guess as long as people do, it'll be hard to move on to the next one.

I mean, we do have to move on from the idea that this block will ever be anything special and accept that not all of downtown will be, but until we start seeing major projects focus on our blank spaces instead of disposing of existing assets, it's hard to move on from the fact that OKC and some of its developers still have no problem leveling decades old properties mostly for parking garages.

[baralheia]

It is done, yes. That does not mean that we can not or should not mourn the loss of these buildings. But I do wholeheartedly agree, the future of this city does look bright, and we have a lot to look forward to as we continue to grow and draw more business and people in. It's for that exact reason why I want to see construction begin as soon as is possible. I will miss the Union Bus Station, and the Hotel Black, and Carpenter's Square... but the only thing worse than tearing them down is an empty hole where these buildings used to be. For better or worse, we're committed to this course of action... now let's just get it done so we don't end up with another empty lot downtown.

(I say that knowing full well this project WILL happen - as Pete mentioned earlier, everything is in place for construction to get going once the lot is clear)

[Urban Pioneer]

Look, your preaching to the choir here. However, we just keep re-hashing the debates on a message board. This project had moneyed interests behind it and did not ask for City assistance. In all practicality, there was no ability to stop it short of the owners changing their mind.

I think that the next big debate is preserving the only "real" street wall left in OKC. That is the proposed concept of tearing down half of the bock east of the First National Center for another parking garage. Presumably, that project will require public financial assistance.

If people are serious about urbanity, than First National will probably be your opportunity to get involved and possibly actually change the outcome.

[Laramie]

.

Tribute to Oklahoma City's Hotel Black & the Motor Hotel.

The feeling is all so surreal: This is more about what has already been demolished than the Black & Motel Hotels themselves.

We've got to let go; it's time to move on...

Look, your preaching to the choir here. However, we just keep re-hashing the debates on a message board. This project had moneyed interests behind it and did not ask for City assistance. In all practicality, there was no ability to stop it short of the owners changing their mind.

I think that the next big debate is preserving the only "real" street wall left in OKC. That is the proposed concept of tearing down half of the bock east of the First National Center for another parking garage. Presumably, that project will require public financial assistance.

If people are serious about urbanity, than First National will probably be your opportunity to get involved and possibly actually change the outcome.

Continue to Cherish What Is Dear To You (While It's Near To You): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx8j2mVkuso

[PhiAlpha]

Look, your preaching to the choir here. However, we just keep re-hashing the debates on a message board. This project had moneyed interests behind it and did not ask for City assistance. In all practicality, there was no ability to stop it short of the owners changing their mind.

I think that the next big debate is preserving the only "real" street wall left in OKC. That is the proposed concept of tearing down half of the bock east of the First National Center for another parking garage. Presumably, that project will require public financial assistance.

If people are serious about urbanity, than First National will probably be your opportunity to get involved and possibly actually change the outcome.

At this point that is exactly how I feel as well. We need to move on to the next preservation fight and start developing support for it. While few, including myself, are happy with the results here...rehashing the same arguments about the same buildings that had their fates sealed two months ago is really pointless. There is literally nothing to gain from it. Take that same anger, annoyance, frustration, or whatever you want to call it to the next fight. This is done and fortunately will at least be replaced with a nice building and parking garages that all have retail on the first floor. While the original structures presented much better urbanism and urban fabric...all isn't lost in this case. It could be better, but it could be far worse. Now we can only hope something other than office space ends up in the retail spots.