The Yard

[Pete]

The shipping container craze is set to continue in Oklahoma City, with firm plans to bring a mixed-use development to the east side of Automobile Alley near downtown.

A local group has leased two vacant lots on the north side of NW 7th between Broadway and the railroad tracks.

Similar to the popular OKSea project in Deep Deuce, the 7th Street project (a final name has yet to be selected) will be even more elaborate and on a larger scale. A residential development made from containers, Squirrel Park, is currently planned for the Classen corridor.

Featured will be an area for food trucks and a dedicated kitchen / restaurant with indoor and outdoor space which will allow year-round operation.

In addition to a large amount of outdoor space and a full bar, container space will be leased to small offices and retail tenants.

The project has multiple levels which adapt to various grade changes on the parcels.

David Ledbetter is the designer and work should commence soon.

The area between Broadway and the railroad tracks is seeing quite a bit of activity, with the massive 330-unit Metropolitan Apartments set to open in the next few months.

[Pete]

BTW, they already have an operator for the full-time kitchen and bar. Should be a great concept.

[CaptDave]

Cool - I really like these types of projects. I wonder how much a small office space with utilities and internet will run.

[Pete]

I love that it is great infill of just parking lots, of which there are far too many between Broadway and the tracks.

[Urbanized]

David Ledbetter?

[Uptowner]

Not an architect. But does a lot of design work for restaurants. If anyone local could navigate the code f***ery needed to pull off something like this in OKC it's him. At this stage the city doesn't consider conex boxes, albeit plumbed and wired, a permanent installation. So maybe there's loopholes to exploit there...in a good way.

[Urbanized]

Yeah, I know who he is.

[Anonymous.]

This reminds me a lot of the one in Austin, TX. Literally called the "Container Bar".

[LakeEffect]

Yeah, I know who he is.

David was surprisingly involved in a ton of stuff when I was OKC staff. He's interesting, isn't he?

Is David on his own completely? When I met him, he quasi-worked for Sam Gresham.

[TechArch]

I have been told he works with one other person who does most of the SketchUp work for their clients.

[Urbanized]

I don't know about the status of his relationship with Gresham. My main interaction with him was when he provided drawings for permitting on a business in which I was a partner. I wasn't a fan by the time we were done, but in fairness he was low on the list of about a thousand things that were wrong with that business and partnership.

[Spartan]

Well if he's been involved in the architectural design of this, then he ain't half bad. I like it a lot.

[Pete]

More images:

[shawnw]

I like these, but I hope this one is it for awhile. I think very many more might be too much. With OK Contemporary, perch'd, OKSEA and this in a relatively small area we're good. Maybe a couple in West downtown eventually would be okay. But we don't want to be known as the container city...

[Spartan]

When you add the container housing project, Squirrel Park, we have definitely become a leader in something...

OK Sea is very well designed, and as long as these turn out the same, I'm all for it.

[Pete]

This project is now called The Yard and they are seeking formal approval from the Downtown Design Review Committee in their next meeting.

Some new renderings:

[Canoe]

So about 10 parking spaces on the plans?

[sooner88]

So about 10 parking spaces on the plans?

Looks like close to 50 spots in the adjacent lot.

[OKCisOK4me]

So about 10 parking spaces on the plans?

Gotta think outside the box! This place is intended to serve the many people which will be living in the area who can simply walk. This isn't the mall in the suburbs surrounded by a sea of parking. Think urban. Four years from now you can park over by St. Anthony's, hop on the streetcar and catch a ride over to this place and back.

You've gotta think fourth dimensionally ;-)

[jccouger]

Does anybody know which cities these type of developments are most popular in? Anybody have any pictures from other cities? Any chance we could become the capital of the world of box car buildings? Not joking, I actually think it would be pretty cool. It would have been even better if we kept the Stage Center because that architecture goes along perfect with these.

[hoya]

Does anybody know which cities these type of developments are most popular in? Anybody have any pictures from other cities? Any chance we could become the capital of the world of box car buildings? Not joking, I actually think it would be pretty cool. It would have been even better if we kept the Stage Center because that architecture goes along perfect with these.

It's cool until it's not cool. Then people are like "man, why do they have so many crappy box car buildings?" I think having some container buildings can be kind of neat, but I wouldn't want to see it become even 1% of our downtown area.

[Bellaboo]

Does anybody know which cities these type of developments are most popular in? Anybody have any pictures from other cities? Any chance we could become the capital of the world of box car buildings? Not joking, I actually think it would be pretty cool. It would have been even better if we kept the Stage Center because that architecture goes along perfect with these.

Las Vegas has a bunch -

http://downtowncontainerpark.com/

[gman11695]

Austin has the Container Bar, which reminds me a lot of this development too. Been to the Container Bar a few times and it's a really neat venue and bar!

Home - Container BarContainer Bar | America's First Shipping Container Bar

[Anonymous.]

The Austin one is great and this OKC proposal is almost a mirror of it.

One thing I noticed at the Austin location is cooling fans installed throughout, I think that could be big here in OKC on patios, more places need misters/cooling fans.

[Pete]

They've started work: