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metro
02-13-2007, 08:47 AM
Spring cleaning polishes Big 12 open

By Steve Lackmeyer
Business Writer

Call it an early spring cleaning.
When the Big 12 Men's and Women's Basketball tournaments come next month, their fans will discover a downtown Oklahoma City that has undergone an extensive cleanup and repair job unrivaled in the past decade.

At the Cox Convention Center and Ford Center, the city has spent $8.2 million making improvements that didn't make the cut with the Metropolitan Area Projects program a few years ago. Much of the love went into the convention center, where 35-year-old escalators were replaced. The worn carpet is gone, and crumbling canopies at the entrance are being replaced.

Even meeting rooms surrounding the old Myriad arena that were abandoned more than a decade ago have been spruced up and reopened.

The lighting fixtures in front of the convention center, erected in the early 1970s, also are getting updated. The downtown information kiosks are getting updates, too — some of their maps literally are crumbling from the glare of the hot Oklahoma sun.

The very last boarded up building in the central business district — the Skirvin hotel — is racing toward a Feb. 26 opening.

And the Central Oklahoma Transportation and Parking Authority is awarding a contract to repaint the lobby tower of the adjoining Santa Fe Parking Garage.

Some of the work may indeed be just a coincidence.

The iconic First National Tower clock at Park and Robinson is lit and working after being broken at least the last decade. Automobile Alley is looking pretty sharp as work finishes on the old Greenlease Moore Cadillac building at 920 N Broadway.

Where construction still is under way, it indicates a city moving forward. At least a half-dozen construction cranes dot the skyline, with steel rising in the air at Block 42 in Deep Deuce, the Oklahoma City Community Foundation on Broadway, The Centennial in Lower Bricktown and the Presbyterian Health Foundation Research Park.

Downtown Oklahoma City Inc. promises extra contingents of ambassadors will greet the thousands of basketball fans expected to arrive March 6, while cleaning teams will be making extra sweeps.

Banners and window decals welcoming the tournament will be displayed by businesses throughout downtown.

So what's left?

Some eyesores remain. Improvements continue at First National Tower, but broken windows are visible on the landmark's second and third floors.

Bricktown property owners Jim Brewer and Walter Gillespie spent months resisting city requests to remove large graffiti reading "Germ True” on the second story of the Wormy Dog Saloon, 311 E Sheridan.

Gillespie agreed last month to remove the graffiti after initially arguing the graffiti could have been a historic sign worthy of preservation.

Dozens, if not hundreds, of wads of used gum also remain stuck to the side of Brewer's Haunted Warehouse building along the Bricktown Canal — a sight that has greeted visitors since the waterway opened in 1999.

An old trailer has been parked for weeks in the recently rechristened Flaming Lips Alley — named after hometown boys who just won their second and third Grammys.

And more than two dozen dumpsters remain in the open in the entertainment district despite warnings by city code inspectors.

Such distractions may annoy locals. But I'm betting first-time visitors will like what they see.

jbrown84
02-13-2007, 10:56 AM
The very last boarded up building in the central business district — the Skirvin hotel —

Is that true? I thought several of the buildings on the Kerr-McGee property were empty.

Glad to hear about the Cox improvements. Long overdue.

And what's going on with the blue pylons they are putting in in front of the Ford Center? There are already brick ones.

Steve
02-13-2007, 12:07 PM
Kerr McGee buidings are empty, but not boarded up.

fsusurfer
02-13-2007, 12:30 PM
Is that true? I thought several of the buildings on the Kerr-McGee property were empty.

Glad to hear about the Cox improvements. Long overdue.

And what's going on with the blue pylons they are putting in in front of the Ford Center? There are already brick ones.

My good friend works at the ford center. She told me they are for extra protection from bombings to make sure cars cant get up close enough to the building.

jbrown84
02-13-2007, 12:39 PM
Kerr McGee buidings are empty, but not boarded up.

semantics...




My good friend works at the ford center. She told me they are for extra protection from bombings to make sure cars cant get up close enough to the building.

Shouldn't the new ones match the ones already there?

John
02-13-2007, 01:18 PM
Bricktown property owners Jim Brewer and Walter Gillespie spent months resisting city requests to remove large graffiti reading "Germ True” on the second story of the Wormy Dog Saloon, 311 E Sheridan.

Gillespie agreed last month to remove the graffiti after initially arguing the graffiti could have been a historic sign worthy of preservation.

Is he serious?

ETL
02-13-2007, 09:04 PM
Spring cleaning polishes Big 12 open
The iconic First National Tower clock at Park and Robinson is lit and working after being broken at least the last decade.

I thought it was long gone. Could this be our icon again?

floater
02-13-2007, 09:10 PM
The blue bollards are hideous and cheap-looking IMO. Should have stuck with brick and/or concrete.

jbrown84
02-13-2007, 09:25 PM
I thought it was long gone. Could this be our icon again?

It's not really big enough to be an icon. Just a clock on the corner of the building lit up at night.

It is cool though, like everything about that building.

AFCM
02-13-2007, 09:36 PM
It's not really big enough to be an icon. Just a clock on the corner of the building lit up at night.

It is cool though, like everything about that building.


I concur. While it's nothing to break your neck about, it's certainly an improvement.