Quote Originally Posted by Snowman View Post
The thing about the suburbs of OKC and areas like this are land is cheap, and you can build more space if you make it shorter and wider. Plus many people often prefer to walk horizontally on one level than take more stares and elevator rides. Sure Devon and tall towers look muck cooler but as long as it is built well with jobs that are secure it is a big win. Companies do not blow money to make a skyline look good and if they did then that is dangerous for where they build because it can cause a collapse in the value of the buildings around it when they go under. What suburb are you proposing does not have a library? They all have government too. The historic downtown of the suburb I am in not event the best place for a hub of the current city as what it was then vs now is starkly different, plus their is much better spaces available that could be used for a hub near the current business zone or the major traffic areas for residential travel.
you missed the point, I never said that suburbs of OKC need tall towers - if you read again, I said they need midrises to start new CBD's (instead of office parks) outside of downtown, while the tallest and most exclusive towers would remain in downtown. Dont think this happens in suburbs? See - Bellevue, WA. Clayton, MO. Denver Tech Center (which is a suburb of name Greenwood Village, IIRC).

OKC has the NW Business CBD and I want it to also grow, but I'd like to see some of the suburbs get into CBD development and put some mid-high rise density in their existing or new downtowns. The Boeing development, at 320K sq ft could have made a very nice 10-15 storey tower starting the new MWC CBD, imo. Still close to TIK but creating a new business center (instead of a new office park).

Also, I never said suburbs didn't already have libraries or community centers, I said the 'new' downtowns in suburbs would have NEW libraries/govt buildings and centers to make it a node for the region the suburb sits in as well as transit. Again, this is not a foreign idea if you travel to other cities, peer and larger (and in some cases, smaller).

I think we all agree that downtown obviously needs to be #1 and NW will always probably be #2, but I don't see any reason why Norman, Edmond, Yukon, and MWC couldn't focus on their downtowns (or actually build one in MWC's case) to be urban suburban alternatives with amenities I mentioned.