Favorite Skyline Shots

[ChrisHayes]

It'd be nice to see something someday on all that parking that is wrapped around the U-Haul building.

You read my mind! That's the first thing my eye was drawn to when I looked at the picture. We need to get that developed nicely and finally the old Ford lot between the parks.

[Bunty]

So many amazing pictures. A couple of years ago I saw an interesting picture on channel 4 that looked like it was taken from a drone above Hefner Lake. So the lake was in the foreground and it looked like Oklahoma City had two downtowns and a sea side. My suggestion for someone with a drone.

[HOT ROD]

amazing difference!

by the way, OKC does have two downtowns. ...

[baralheia]

Why is it never in any discussion for development?

I'm unsure of what Pete is referencing, but I do know that in some of the planning around turning Santa Fe Station into an intermodal transit hub has included converting the big lot to the west of U-Haul to a parking garage with a bus terminal on the bottom level. AFAIK those plans were only ever conceptual so likely not the same as what Pete knows.

[Pete]

Every single parking/empty lot in the core is constantly being evaluated for development.

OKC now has 2-3 dozen developers who are always, always actively looking to do more.

Often, the time is just not right and the lot between the Myriad Gardens and Scissortail Park is the perfect case in point. That is in the hands of two groups with fantastic track records and very deep pockets: Midtown Renaissance and Hall Capital. At some point -- and it may take another 10 years but probably not that long -- there will be a great development on that site.

It's not so straightforward for other properties like the old Producer's Coop or Strawberry Fields. More needs to happen in both places before the current owners can move things forward. And even with these two examples, there are lots of motivated people working on things, it just takes time and bringing in other parties and the property may even need to be sold to other entities before development of significance occurs.

It often takes years or even a decade of work behind the scenes before we see any hard movement. And even then, there will always be stops, starts and restructuring. By the time someone is ready to reveal renderings and we can actually start to visualize a project, there have been years and years of work by brokers, buyers, sellers, engineers, banks, architects, tenants and more.

Long way of saying there are tons of things going on but you won't see evidence of it until the people involved are ready.

I know I feed this impatience because I am good at finding the beginnings of movement, like a sale or rezoning. And then right away people want a project started and completed.

[Teo9969]

Every single parking/empty lot in the core is constantly being evaluated for development.

OKC now has 2-3 dozen developers who are always, always actively looking to do more.

Often, the time is just not right and the lot between the Myriad Gardens and Scissortail Park is the perfect case in point. That is in the hands of two groups with fantastic track records and very deep pockets: Midtown Renaissance and Hall Capital. At some point -- and it may take another 10 years but probably not that long -- there will be a great development on that site.

It's not so straightforward for other properties like the old Producer's Coop or Strawberry Fields. More needs to happen in both places before the current owners can move things forward. And even with these two examples, there are lots of motivated people working on things, it just takes time and bringing in other parties and the property may even need to be sold to other entities before development of significance occurs.

It often takes years or even a decade of work behind the scenes before we see any hard movement. And even then, there will always be stops, starts and restructuring. By the time someone is ready to reveal renderings and we can actually start to visualize a project, there have been years and years of work by brokers, buyers, sellers, engineers, banks, architects, tenants and more.

Long way of saying there are tons of things going on but you won't see evidence of it until the people involved are ready.

I know I feed this impatience because I am good at finding the beginnings of movement, like a sale or rezoning. And then right away people want a project started and completed.

I'm thinking of building an addition onto my home and my wife and mother (who would likely come live with us if we do the addition) are constantly on my case - bu there's just so much that goes into construction and development that people don't understand. Even if you have the resources like our city's top developers, time is ruthless - you can only do so much in a day. I'm super excited, for example, that Gary Brooks hasn't really done anything major for, what, 5 years now, while he focuses on First National. I'd rather things be done right the 1st time, especially on the most important sites. Everything within a 5 block radius of Santa Fe station should only get 2 types of development: low-investment activation (think Bleu Garten or the basketball court on the old Bob Howard lot) or the high-quality, multi-generational developments (likely) costing hundreds of millions of dollars.

[Pete]

First shot is from 1970; second shot was taken today.

[PoliSciGuy]

Wowza, what a transformation. Hopefully we can do something with those parking lots in between Myriad and Scissortail....

[Pete]

That photo from 1970 was at the tail-end of what was considered a big downtown boom.

Liberty Tower (now BancFirst) was newly completed, Kerr McGee Tower was under construction as was the Myriad.

Most everything else was abandoned or nearly abandoned.

[KayneMo]

Cinco de Mayo (21 of 21) by Tony Gaeddert, on Flickr


Drone_Night_Downtown (13 of 17) by Tony Gaeddert, on Flickr

[Pete]

Took this today and you can see the progress of the glass on BancFirst Tower:

[Oski]

Cinco de Mayo (21 of 21) by Tony Gaeddert, on Flickr



Drone_Night_Downtown (13 of 17) by Tony Gaeddert, on Flickr

Beautiful shots!

[Kemotblue]

Question? First I noticed the nighttime skyline has changed? Did some of the towers update their exterior lights? Devon tower will they ever turn back on their night exterior lights. The first National when do they re light that crown? Thanks

[Merman]

Has anyone got a picture of the skyline from the turnpike in between N Rockwell and N MacArthur? Driving into the City in the morning and you can see all of NW expressway building that blend into the downtown skyline. Looks like it would be a great shot if you had the right equipment.

[poe]

That is a great view of the whole city.

[Merman]

That is a great view of the whole city.

I think you can also see the Capitol and 50 Penn area as well. Great elevated view of the whole city skyline

[Pete]

Took this one tonight (Tuesday).

[PoliSciGuy]

Gorgeous - did the winds die down enough in the evening or is your drone just solid enough to deal with the wind?

[Pete]

Gorgeous - did the winds die down enough in the evening or is your drone just solid enough to deal with the wind?

The drone does pretty well unless things are crazy windy.

The key is flying into the wind, otherwise you may never get it to return! I've only had that happen once and it was a terrible feeling to try and chase it down in my car. Fortunately, it all worked out but I learned a valuable lesson.

[therhett17]

Cinco de Mayo (21 of 21) by Tony Gaeddert, on Flickr


Drone_Night_Downtown (13 of 17) by Tony Gaeddert, on Flickr

Beautiful shots! Someone should retake the second one now that the Paycom Center is illuminated

[ChrisHayes]

It'll suck for parking at the park, but it'll be so nice when that parking lot on the other side of Hudson, across from the park, is developed. Fill in those big open areas.

[Pete]

Took this one last night:

[bucktalk]

Looks great. Love how often you post pics. Thanks!!

[HOT ROD]

curious why broadway has those dark patches. Are we really not even serious about street lighting even downtown?

Light up the darn streets for heavens sake, especially downtown!

[Pete]