Main Street Arcade

[Pete]

The First National Center sized hole smack dab in the middle of the CBD along with the empty Dowell Center down the street aren't helping things. If First National can become a living and breathing part of the CBD again as a mixed use development and Dowell was converted to residential, I think the street life would greatly improve.

This is true.

Parkside Building opening will help as well.

[Plutonic Panda]

While it's not the end of the world, it's just a shame because it didn't have to be that way. I see this as the PEI plan of this millenium. We've torn down almost every vintage building left in the CBD as well as the Stage Center. And we're replacing them with a bunch of glass boxes with no interaction with the street or pedestrians. I just don't see empty at night as a good thing personally.

I understand and I actually agree with you.

[kevinpate]

...
3. Tens of thousands of people who work in the district generally just get in their car and leave after work instead of staying, spending money, creating life.

True, as far as it goes. A fair number of those people do however hit other nearby dining or entertainment or shopping venues on the way home, or while it doesn't benefit OKC proper, do the same sort of spending once they return to the community where they sleep.

When I worked in south OKC for a couple of years, I tried to split up my spending. Felt a bit of obligation to contribute both to the community where the work hours were spent, but also had my obligation to where I resided and still had one child in school.

[Pete]

Looks like they are kicking things into gear. Thanks to Will for the photo.

[ljbab728]

And thanks to Steve for his video interview with David Wanzer about this project.

OKC Central blog player

[Pete]

From https://twitter.com/dtOKCbuilds:

[OkieNate]

Walked by this yesterday. It is going to look so great with the glass front! Cannot wait for this! Main street is on a roll!

[Pete]

The facade already looks beautiful.

Note the horrible P180 painted sidewalks that have *still* not be fixed.

[hfry]

Hey Pete now that you mention it I was going to post a while back but it wasn't only p180 crosswalks they messed up. There were multiple roads on the north side that the same thing happened and my dates could be wrong but I think it was still being applied after they knew the mix up on p180. Specifically at 150 and MacArthur they widened it and it finished almost 2 years now and the segment that had concert the paint compeletly chipped away. They just repainted it about two weeks ago, another road widening for 164th between May and penn you can barley see the middle stripe because the same thing has happened for a road that is only a few years. Again I could be wrong but I don't think they ever admitted this wasn't just a p180 mix up but something that happened all over the city.

[David]

Oh wow, that looks nice.

It's interesting how much seeing the before and after of pictures like this over the six years I've been reading this site have changed my opinion on historic preservation version demolition. Once you recognize what is possible, it becomes hard to see the valid arguments for tearing down buildings like the Film Exchange when you see what could otherwise be accomplished.

[HangryHippo]

Looks fantastic.

[Teo9969]

I always forget the name of the types of fireplaces that were popular in 1920s eras homes all around the city, but I was lucky that none of my previous owners ever painted over the tile, which has several tiles which are just gorgeous. I've never understood how you can paint something that looks so good as it is.

I don't know, perhaps in the case of some of these older buildings, it ended up being a god-send because otherwise the building would have deteriorated much quicker…but it ultimately is amazing to see such an "ugly" building clean-up into something quite beautiful.

[Urbanized]

Usually painting brick is a very bad idea and offers no protection. In fact it often causes spalling, which is when moisture gets between the paint and the brick, and then through the freeze-thaw process in winter expands to crack the face off of the brick. Paint also requires upkeep, whereas brick is mostly maintenance-free for many, many decades, only requiring grout tuck pointing every 50-75 years or so. If paint isn't re-applied every few years the building takes on the appearance of decline and/or failure, so applying paint locks you into a vicious cycle. You're creating a long-term maintenance need where one did not exist previously. A terrible idea, and an expensive one too.

Paint also necessitates paint REMOVAL further down the road, and this is sometimes done too harshly by inexperienced sandblasters who permanently damage the brick's protective kiln-fired glaze, again hastening damage to the brick.

This building was probably painted in the fifties or sixties during a widespread movement to "modernize", as old brick buildings were at that point looked upon as hopelessly dated and crummy. It should be a lesson as to the intrinsic value of historic buildings vs a current trend, but unfortunately it isn't for many.

[soonerguru]

The facade already looks beautiful.

Note the horrible P180 painted sidewalks that have *still* not be fixed.

RE: bolded part. I find this infuriating. What is the story here? What are Jim Couch / Eric Wenger saying about this? This is the kind of unaccountable mediocrity that defines so much of OKC. No reason to sugar coat it.

[Pete]

Some new-ish renderings from Gardner Architects:

[Teo9969]

Classy!!

[GoldFire]

I've always loved this building, glad to see it is getting the type of restoration it deserves!

[Dustin]

Beautiful.

[Pete]

This building is completely gutted now.

Will be fun to watch it start to be reconstructed from this point forward.

[shawnw]

Since we have recently discussed the perils of painting brick, what process was used to remove the paint from this building, does anyone know?

[David]

You know, I was wondering that over the weekend.

[Spartan]

We need more of this.

Oh wait, we are demo'ing most of Main Street.. Progress y'all..

[Eddie1]

I'd settle for just "building" where were demo'ing at this point.

[Spartan]

I don't mean to bring up every demo in every thread, but I just wanted to connect the dots here between this project and that block we lost: Main Street used to be a thing in OKC. It was an incredible urban shopping street. It was always still possible up until Devon Tower was built, and it still remained in significant yet fragmented pieces up until 2015.

[Pete]