Aloft Hotel

[Architect2010]

Steve. Could you do us all a big favor? Could you get the site plans and conceptual drawings from the Urban Renewal Authority meeting for us? For some reason, that particular organization under the meeting minutes on OKC.gov aren't accessible like the DDRC or the Urban Design Commission. I know some of us like to dig into that site and look at stuff and two of the most hyped projects, the apartment complex and the aLOFT are inaccessible!

[Urban Pioneer]

Steve. Could you do us all a big favor? Could you get the site plans and conceptual drawings from the Urban Renewal Authority meeting for us? For some reason, that particular organization under the meeting minutes on OKC.gov aren't accessible like the DDRC or the Urban Design Commission. I know some of us like to dig into that site and look at stuff and two of the most hyped projects, the apartment complex and the aLOFT are inaccessible!

Is Urban Renewal involved in this in some way? I thought they purchased the property directly from the private owners- or are you referring to the Detox? Apparently, the next few DDRC meetings are supposed to be pretty interesting though.

[Architect2010]

I'm actually not sure. I just know the property is located in the Walnut-Harrison Urban Renewal Plan boundaries. I've been looking through the DDRC and the agenda for the Urban Renewal Authority and the development so far has been handled by the latter. Hopefully you're right so I can snoop through the DDRC minutes to get more info!

[Steve]

Aloft is partially on Urban Renewal land. The apartment complex is not. I'd be glad to post what I get on Aloft.

[Architect2010]

Sorry for the bad info! And thanks Steve! I'd appreciate it!

[Larry OKC]

At the most recent Council meeting they were voting on closing an alley adjacent to the detox center and part of the hotel project. It was brought up that the assessed value (IIRC) of the detox was $150,000 and was currently owned by the City (it is a former fire station). They said that the property would be "sold" to urban renewal or whomever and then in turn sold to the hotel developer for the same $150,000. Not sure why the shell game but probably for some legal reason. Also mentioned that the new detox center could be at least a year from opening and they can't begin construction on the hotel until detox is moved out and demo'd. Though the City said that they were very near completing the design stage for the detox and could see it opened within 6 months?

[Spartan]

I am unsure if OCURA is required to comply with Open Meetings Act and putting all their agendas online because they may fall under a completely different category of quasi-government entities. Different from say, the Planning Commission.

[Architect2010]

Regardless if they're required to or not, OCURA should allow some transparency and ease of access to interested citizens. I actually sent them an email in regards to this, being to maybe consider an open agenda, they very bluntly told me to contact respective developers to get the information I wanted. Their reputation exceeds their less-than expected developments I would say. Not a good thing.

[Spartan]

It probably is time to change out the leadership on OCURA... some of which have been on it their entire life. Those are the ones that you always hear of being applauded for their ridiculously long-term service..

[Pete]

Just walked around this site (I'm in town for a few days) and this project will really tie the Deep Deuce / Hill area with Maywood and Bricktown.

I'm having a beer right now at Deep Deuce Grill and I really think Aloft will put the area over the top and make it a true urban neighborhood.

[Steve]

Pete, while you are in Oklahoma City, be sure to do the following:
- Check out Ludevine in MidTown
- Walk into the lobby of the Sieber if you haven't already
- Visit the Red Dirt Marketplace
- Hit the Oklahoma River and see the progress on the Devon Boathouse and finishline tower
- See a Thunder game if you can

[Pete]

Thanks for the recommendations, Steve. I have done or will do pretty much everything you mentioned.


I was posting on my iPhone earlier but wanted to elaborate or my previous post...

For the first time since I moved away 20 years ago, I got the feeling of a true urban neighborhood while walking around Maywood/Bricktown/Deep Deuce. There is now a critical mass of housing in that area and if/when the ALoft goes in, it will fill a big gap right in the middle and add more density, life and foot traffic. Added to what is already there (DD Grill, Sage, The Wedge, etc.) and I think at least one area of town will have reached the tipping point where there is finally a close to fully-functional urban life.

Yes, I know threre is still a need for a market and more retail but there are store fronts already in existence (at the Maywood Lofts, for example) and when the need catches up, this area is really going to blossom.

I was really, really impressed by not only what is already there but what that area will become. And it bodes well for the other areas surrounding downtown.

[SkyWestOKC]

Don't forget, Pete, that across the street from Aloft will be some infill. I think 200 or 300 upscale apartments (is that correct?). I do remember reading that will have a grocery store on the ground level. Deep Deuce really is looking good. I think we all here complain (myself included) at the progress of downtown from our keyboards, yet everytime I am downtown I ask myself why I complain. It's an absolutely great place to be. Sure surface parking is abundant, but it is still for the most part walkable and a good image of OKC.

[Pete]

Right, forgot about those proposed apartments!


The infrastructure is there and with these new projects I'll think you see more and more of the condos in that area start to sell.

Would be nice to get the Flatiron project moving forward again as well.

Really stunning views of downtown for that entire neighborhood and easy access to Bricktown and the river beyond.

[okclee]

There has also been a rumor/mention of another Bricktown hotel for the corner of Sheridan and Stiles. This would continue to tie together Bricktown and The Hill area just up the street to the north.

[Pete]

Yesterday I walked from Bricktown up and over the Walnut Bridge to the ALoft location, and it was a really cool little trek.

They had the foresight to put in nice pedestrian-only stairways and sidewalks on both sides of the bridge which really ties the two areas together. And of course, fantastic vistas as you walk in the other direction.

[OKC@heart]

Has anything been taking place on this project in terms of construction or is it still in the design stages? Does anyone know when the project is due to kick off? This would be a fun project to follow, hopefully the contractor will install a construction cam like some of the other notable projects and make it public.

[soonerguru]

Yesterday I walked from Bricktown up and over the Walnut Bridge to the ALoft location, and it was a really cool little trek.

They had the foresight to put in nice pedestrian-only stairways and sidewalks on both sides of the bridge which really ties the two areas together. And of course, fantastic vistas as you walk in the other direction.

Those pedestrian features on the bridge were on the original bridge, which the city wanted to tear down. The rebirth of citizen activism in this town -- followed thereafter by the "Save the Dome" campaign -- was people getting absolutely up in arms over the proposed demolition of the Walnut Street Bridge.

Those pedestrian features would probably not exist today were it not for the citizens of this city standing up to the city and telling them, "No!"

[Steve]

Soonerguru, I can guarantee you that bridge would be an at grade rail crossing today if not for the likes of Randy Floyd and others.

[OKC@heart]

Good point Soonerguru, I remember well the controversy surrounding the effort to just erase the pedestrian connection that had always existed from the deep deuce neigborhood and Bricktown. It was a tremendous thing to see the community come alive and realize that nothing will change unless the citizens take an active role in helping guide what takes place to thier city. Great point to bring up as we become a more civicly aware populous. Cities absolutely require the combined effort of invested individuals to let the council and other sitting committies know what is and is not acceptable, otherwise we will see a contiunation or return to decisions being made based on the limited and narrow sets of experience of whom ever sits in the post at the time. Not that they mean any ill, but without weighing all sides and hearing ballanced viewpoints they are left to what they know and that is not always a pretty outcome.

[Pete]

It's a beautiful and very cool structure... And the staircases and walkways on each side are unique.

Thank goodness all this was largely preserved. For those that haven't done it, it's a great little walk between Bricktown and the Deep Deuce / Triangle area. It's the sort of urban experience you just can't create with completely new elements.

And you wonder if projects like this Aloft would have been proposed if they had done away with any of this.

[betts]

I saw them doing core testing today on the site. But I would guess that everything still hinges on when the Inebriate Alternative is moving.

[metro]

Has anything been taking place on this project in terms of construction or is it still in the design stages? Does anyone know when the project is due to kick off? This would be a fun project to follow, hopefully the contractor will install a construction cam like some of the other notable projects and make it public.

As was originally indicated, work won't really kick off until the spring.

[soonerguru]

It's a beautiful and very cool structure... And the staircases and walkways on each side are unique.

Thank goodness all this was largely preserved. For those that haven't done it, it's a great little walk between Bricktown and the Deep Deuce / Triangle area. It's the sort of urban experience you just can't create with completely new elements.

And you wonder if projects like this Aloft would have been proposed if they had done away with any of this.

Pete, I agree with you 100%. As a former resident in the area, I made that walk many times -- before and after the bridge was repaired. And Steve, I remember there were others involved in meetings regarding the bridge, such as Willa Johnson, and I remember Jeff Bezdek organizing some people in the area as well (which didn't make Paul Brum very happy at the time).

[Steve]

I don't remember Jeff Bezdek being involved in that fight. It was Randy Floyd who forced it to go to the corporation commission and got the project so badly stalled that they were able to get Brum overruled.
Hearing ends on plans to replace Walnut bridge Ruling on City request no expected until July
By Paul English
Senior Business Writer
Tuesday, June 12, 2001
Edition: SUBURBAN, Section: NEWS, Page 3-A
A hearing that could help decide the fate of the Walnut Avenue Bridge near Bricktown ended Monday, but a ruling is not expected until July.

Administrative Law Judge Charles Dudley, an employee of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, set a June 22 deadline for filing of evidence summaries.

Dudley said that when his decision is issued, attorneys will have 10 days to appeal to the three-member commission.

The city wants to know how the Corporation Commission stands on replacing the overpass with a street-level crossing before the Oklahoma City Council votes on what to do about the bridge.

City officials say rebuilding the bridge would cost about $900,000 more than replacing it with an "at-grade" crossing.

An attorney for several railroads said Monday that the railroads are opposed to the city's plan for a street-level crossing on Walnut Avenue.

G.R. "Buddy" Combs, manager of the commission's railroad section, said there was no way he could endorse a street-level railroad crossing to replace the overpass.

With 35 years of experience in the railroad business, Combs said his opinion is based on safety concerns.

Asked about the city's proposal to build a street with an 8 percent grade approaching the crossing, Combs said, "As far as I'm concerned it would be like dropping off a short mountain road."

Combs said he has seen each of the 4,300 crossings in Oklahoma "many times over" and none has a 6 to 8 percent grade.

Roadside signs warn truck drivers starting to head down mountain roads that have a 6 percent grade, he said.

"Approximately 50 percent of all accidents at signal crossings are a result of the person in the automobile," Combs said.

Civil engineer Mathew Smith, whose office is in Bricktown, said the steep, hill-like bridge has a very significant sight hazard.

"If you are northbound, you can be within 50 feet of the top of that 'mountain' and not be able to see oncoming vehicles that are southbound," Smith said.

Motorists don't always stay right of the road's center line, and with both oncoming vehicles traveling 30 mph, each has "less than a second to react" when they meet at the top of the bridge, he said.

"To me that is a great safety concern," Smith said.

During a four-hour hearing Friday, architect Randy L. Floyd said that tall retaining walls proposed by the city would restrict the vision of motorists going downhill toward the street crossing.

Oklahoma City Assistant Municipal Counselor Craig Keith said Monday that the city could make design changes to lower the retaining walls.

Tom Daniel, attorney for the Oklahoma City Historical and Landmark Preservation Commission, said the city should have given consideration to redesigning the plan for the bridge before submitting the proposal to the Corporation Commission.
Groups lobby to save bridge
By Robyn Lydick
Staff Writer
Sunday, January 14, 2001
Edition: CITY, Section: NEWS, Page 12-A
Oklahoma City's Walnut Avenue bridge is a little down-in-the-heels these days. Concrete railings are crumbling, lights are missing and the road is pockmarked with potholes and asphalt patches.

Like a grand dame, the bridge linking Deep Deuce and Bricktown is revered for what it is rather than its appearance. To some, it is historic, and some citizens want to keep the bridge open and restore it to its former glory.

At an emergency town meeting Saturday, a coalition of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Preservation Oklahoma urged supporters to commit to bringing three additional people to the Jan. 23 city council meeting where the bridge's fate could be decided.

The estimated restoration cost is $3.4 million.

Some Bricktown property owners and city engineers favor tearing down the bridge and replacing it with a street-level, three-lane, brick-paved road - a project that with period lighting, landscaping and brick walls would cost $2.5 million.

Ward 7 Councilwoman Willa Johnson, who represents Deep Deuce and Bricktown, said she is taking into consideration all the facts and historical perspectives before she makes her decision.

"I'm not married to or against the bridge," Johnson said Saturday evening. "I'm looking for the best use of the corridor and what is best for Oklahoma City."

Johnson said though she has lived in northeast Oklahoma City for 53 years, she has no emotional attachment to the bridge, which was built in the mid-1930s. Supporters at Saturday's meeting, however, argued the bridge is significant.

They recalled graduates from the old Douglass High School walking over the bridge to Calvary Baptist Church for graduation ceremonies since the school did not have an auditorium.

The bridge was also a focal point in the city's civil rights movement.

"The meetings were held at Calvary," said Paul Thompson, co-chair of the coalition working to keep the bridge.

"The marchers went over the Walnut bridge from Calvary, then down to Katz's (drug store) on the southwest corner of Robinson and Main."

The Walnut Avenue bridge also has pedestrian lanes, which preservationists say makes it a rarity in Oklahoma.

Randy Floyd, of Preservation Oklahoma is the architectural consultant for the coalition. She called the walkway a "defining characteristic" of the bridge.

She said she did not know of another bridge with pedestrian walkways in Oklahoma City.

Floyd also noted other architectural oddities of the bridge including blast shields, flanges of metal extending out from under the bridge.

"They are designed to keep steam from locomotive engines from corroding the metal supports of the bridge," Floyd said.

The bridge is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, Floyd said. Preservationists are working to make sure the renovated bridge would still qualify.

"What we would have is a structure with all the characteristics of the original bridge, but with some new parts," Floyd said.

"Look at the Civic Center, we're gutting the inside of the building, but it will still be the Civic Center."