any news?

I believe they did not get approval for their design and are reworking some things, notably increasing the amount of brick in the facade and hopefully changing the site plan so that hotel comes right up to Lincoln/Reno. Anyone know anything different?

PLEASE tell me they really are changing the awful site plan.

hoefully!

Hotel design finally gets kudos from Bricktown panel
by Kelley Chambers

The Journal Record November 13, 2008

OKLAHOMA CITY – A proposed hotel project received a much warmer reception Wednesday than when it came before the Bricktown Urban Design Committee in October.

The plan calls for a Candlewood Suites Hotel on land owned by the developers, Dihren and Amit Patel, the Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority and the Oklahoma Department of Transportation.

Committee Chairwoman Avis Scaramucci criticized the design offered at the October meeting for its sparse use of brick. That was the fourth time the committee denied a design proposal for the hotel.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Fred Quinn, of architecture firm Quinn & Associates, returned with a new design.

“This building is about 80-percent brick masonry,” he said.
A staff report for the project prepared by the Oklahoma City Planning Department showed the developers are requesting construction of three buildings on about 3.1 acres at the northeast corner of Lincoln Boulevard and Reno Avenue.

The proposal includes a seven-story hotel clad in dark-red brick, contrasting brown brick and some light-brown EFIS.

“Technically they are starting over with the committee’s process, although it is for the same items as before,” said John Calhoun with the planning department.

Quinn said details still need to be worked out on the specifics of the two additional retail buildings along Lincoln Boulevard.

The committee praised the plan, and the developer’s willingness to work with the committee and the community for a product that will please all parties.

Quinn said the approval process through Bricktown and the city will take about six months. He said that if everything goes as planned, the developers hope to break ground in about six months and have the project completed about a year after that.

The site plan was approved in concept, and the developers will return to the committee in January for further review of more specific details for the project.

The proposed hotel has been referred to by some as the bookend for Bricktown on the district’s east side. The site is bordered to the east by Interstate 235.

“It’s a great anchor,” said Bob Bright, a member of the Bricktown Urban Design Committee.

I'm curious if there are any new renderings of the project? Steve..............? I'd like to see the two retail buildings. I'm betting they are suburban in design similar to the small ones in front of hotels on Memorial Rd.

Well at least progress has been made. I guessing for a spring 2010 opening.

I'd like to see the new renderings and site plan.

Dark red + brown = blech!