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OKC: The pinnacle of my urban activism in my hometown

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eurokie:
While I've finished the move and gotten settled down in Lakewood, a political brouhaha for the ages was boiling back home that I had to go throw myself into, since it was an issue I have been following closely for a long time involving an at-grade boulevard replacing the elevated I-40 viaduct that was promised to be our "Champs d'Elysees" in OKC. ODOT (Oklahoma's DOT) ended up instead proposing just 5 blocks at ground-level and the rest of its entirety up on an earthen ramp, so our urban community has been outraged.

In addition to that, we're just really tired of having to give up entire Tuesday mornings every other week to battle with City Hall on another issue - so we have really amassed some troops to give them a good beating this time. We're tired of trying to save historic buildings, or trying to prevent all of our money going to a convention center, or having to scramble to defend transit at the 11th hour, etc. When ODOT and City Hall in concert promised Champs d'Elysees and instead unveiled earthen ramp, that has been the last straw. It doesn't matter that the project will cost $100 million no matter what, and at $120 per cubic square foot, elevated urban freeways don't come cheap. They are very expensive mistakes to make.

Today we had our first big showdown at City Hall, with the local press all over it. I myself was interviewed by News9 (metro's main news outlet) and also featured on Channel 4 and Channel 5, though 4 chose the much-more eloquent councilman Ed Shadid (a true urbanist) for their interviewee.

Here are the renderings (drafted by a talented young architect named Andrew Stewart, who's also a part of our group) of our alternate proposal to the earthen ramp.

Market Circle, on downtown's western side, integrating a tricky convergence of several major avenues







This is a masterplan for the historic Farmer's Market area that we're trying to protect from being cut off from the rest of downtown by this elevated urban freeway plan. Here you see the historic mission-style market with a green for an outdoor farmer's market.



Thunder Circle, anchoring the Boulevard in front of the renovated Chesapeake Arena/"Thunderdome," the new convention center (the tower is a $40 million convention hotel the city is finding a way to subsidize) and downtown central park both approved by voters, and you can also see the edge of the fabulously renovated Myriad Gardens in the first site overview

surfohio:
Looks really great. Go tell that "earthen ramp" to go to hell!

NorthAndre:
Wow this is really great.  When Detroit implemented something similar to this it was an extreme success.  It also reminds me a bit of the circle in Indianapolis which is a great public space.

eurokie:
Andre, what is in Detroit that is similar? So far we're sending delegations to Ben Franklin Pkwy in Philly, the Park East project in Milwaukee, and I've been tasked to do reconnaissance in Indy and Carmel. I think here we also have a similar narrative to the Shoreway redesign in Cleveland...which I understand there are issues.

On a side note, I will be on a local talk radio station next week to talk urban design and the boulevard controversy. I'm pumped.

OTR:
Way to go! Looks like a great improvement - boulevards should replace urban elevated highways whenever possible.

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