Mayfair Shopping Center

[stlokc]

I get it, and I don't want to argue. I am at a disadvantage in the argument because I live 500 miles away and even when I lived 10 miles away I was rarely there. But the fast food restaurants have not been built yet, literally the picture still shows dirt lots, which means they wouldn't have to tear up any existing parking lots. The Aldi looks essentially brand new, the CVS looks quite new.

I have seen Aldis that are not "the typical block design" including a couple of the ones closest to my house. Aldi just wanted to "plug and play" an existing design they already had on file because it was cheaper and easier for them and nobody cared enough to worry about it.

I also want to emphasize that I don't know anything about who owns all these properties. Maybe it's a lot of individual people that don't care about looking like a community. It all just looks like the far-flung suburbs, cut, paste, drop down, move on. I had hoped that the more established parts of OKC would think about things a little differently. But it's not my fight.

Now my rant is really over LOL.

[stlokc]

By the way, Pete, my last reply was in response to Travelers. I didn't see your latest post before writing that last one.

[stlokc]

Really this is my last post...

I don't think I am getting my point across very well. I am not sentimental about the old Mayfair. I was almost never at the old Mayfair. OAK is a huge improvement over the Salvation Army. I fully understand how retail has changed.

I still maintain that you can build gas stations, grocery stores and large restaurants while at the same time holding yourself to architectural standards. It is done all the time. Aldi didn't do it in this instance because they didn't care, and it wasn't important to the community that this area look cohesive and inviting. This strip of May will thrive and probably see more commerce than before. I get it, it just doesn't look any different at all from the same strip of things 20 minutes north. And that's just kind of depressing since this really did used to be a focal point for that part of town.

[Pete]

Just so you know, the Aldi and CVS lots were not part of the properties the current owners purchased. Those parcels had long been sold off.

Was Aldi to build in the style of the center when they constructed their store? Or to the original architecture of the center? Or should the new redevelopment be built in the same style as Aldi? Should the previous owner have held onto empty, ugly buildings for decades without any revenue when the entire center was mostly empty?


I will be 62 in just over a week. A big part of what drives my interest in OKC and this site are 60 years of fond memories.

But I also know that change is not only inevitable, change is almost a universally positive force. And in the context of this discussion, any of us can eat out any time we want, something my family did maybe a couple of times a year in the Mayfair era and we were dead-center middle class. If we took a trip back then, there were 7 people crammed in a station wagon, staying with friends or relatives and eating bologna sandwiches out of a cooler.

I could go on but our standard of living is exponentially higher than when Mayfair was full of small tenants. And a big part of our current high living standard was retail changing to become way, way more affordable to the common man.

[TheTravellers]

I get it, and I don't want to argue. I am at a disadvantage in the argument because I live 500 miles away and even when I lived 10 miles away I was rarely there. But the fast food restaurants have not been built yet, literally the picture still shows dirt lots, which means they wouldn't have to tear up any existing parking lots. The Aldi looks essentially brand new, the CVS looks quite new.

I have seen Aldis that are not "the typical block design" including a couple of the ones closest to my house. Aldi just wanted to "plug and play" an existing design they already had on file because it was cheaper and easier for them and nobody cared enough to worry about it.

I also want to emphasize that I don't know anything about who owns all these properties. Maybe it's a lot of individual people that don't care about looking like a community. It all just looks like the far-flung suburbs, cut, paste, drop down, move on. I had hoped that the more established parts of OKC would think about things a little differently. But it's not my fight.

Now my rant is really over LOL.

Sure, the existing lots that are still dirt *could* be built to the street, but they most likely won't (I can't remember what, if anything besides the c-store/gas station, is being built on the newly completely-cleared lots).

I believe the owners are one small group of people (3-4, I think), but Pete can say for certain, or it's upthread somewhere that I'm too lazy to find. I believe they're just doing what they can to get tenants in there, and no, it will not be a unified style, and even if it was unified, the current style isn't that great, it's just generic. The old, original Mayfair was a unified style, but it also wasn't some architecturally wondrous thing that people marveled at, it was just "there", and that's the way it pretty much has been during its whole existence (I went there as a kid and adult - OTASCO, Streets, drugstore, etc., I'm 57).

[Pete]

I'm not even sure the original Mayfair was architecturally unified.

The building that now houses Summer Moon was completely different than anything else, and I don't think Stone's IGA (now CVS) on the corner matched anything, either. Ditto for the bank.

Somewhere along the line, the owners put on that horrible facade across most the buildings, but not all.

Those huge parking lots with the big setbacks date back to the new construction and it was nothing special. And nobody was walking across May Avenue from one business to another.

[turnpup]

Here are a couple of shots of the exterior, from 1958 and from sometime in the 1960s (undated photo but the cars look like '60s models, I think).

[Pete]

^

Those are awesome! Thank you.

One thing you can see in that second photo is that the bank always had its own architecture, as it does today.

[turnpup]

You're welcome. The Gateway to Oklahoma History is an excellent resource: https://gateway.okhistory.org.

[PaddyShack]

Here are a couple of shots of the exterior, from 1958 and from sometime in the 1960s (undated photo but the cars look like '60s models, I think).

Personally, I liked this facade more than the faux dormers... Haha

[Pete]

The steel is up on the Domino C-Store:

[Pete]

The contractor (Shellback) just posted that Empire is scheduled to open in Mayfair sometime in November.

[bombermwc]

Personally, I liked this facade more than the faux dormers... Haha

I'm not old enough to remember the pre-dormer view, but i've always hated the dormers and the whole add-on in general. The amount of wasted material and space to just slap on a "thing" on the front always drives me nuts. If you add space, at least make it alive and DO something for you. In this case, it could have been opened up for a high ceiling with natural lighting. The side views as they started tearing up this stuff, just shows how ridiculously oversized the space was compared to the building itself. They spent a whole lotta money on that. It's just my view of course, but i think they could have gotten away with an add-on about half the height and saved a ton of money. But hey, that was how many decades ago? Obviously way moot at this point.

[Rover]

Really this is my last post...

I don't think I am getting my point across very well. I am not sentimental about the old Mayfair. I was almost never at the old Mayfair. OAK is a huge improvement over the Salvation Army. I fully understand how retail has changed.

I still maintain that you can build gas stations, grocery stores and large restaurants while at the same time holding yourself to architectural standards. It is done all the time. Aldi didn't do it in this instance because they didn't care, and it wasn't important to the community that this area look cohesive and inviting. This strip of May will thrive and probably see more commerce than before. I get it, it just doesn't look any different at all from the same strip of things 20 minutes north. And that's just kind of depressing since this really did used to be a focal point for that part of town.

As per Aldi, lots of stand alones reflect the brand identity. Visual identity is part of their marketing approach. They are also very value conscious, which means they prefer to save in costs and pass the savings to the consumers (community) they share. Architecture doesn't drive their business model or ethos at the expense of costs. It isn't always they don't care, though I understand that is your interpretation. Sometimes it is that they care about other things more... like delivering value to customers.

[Pete]

[Pete]

Bricks going up on the Domino C-store:

[clz46]

curious about the tri -wheel bike in the lower right in that picture.

[Ward]

Do I remember correctly that Harbor Freight was supposed to open in Mayfair?

[Pete]

Do I remember correctly that Harbor Freight was supposed to open in Mayfair?

Yes, on the west side next to the bank but that deal fell through and now a medical imaging company is building out most that space.

[soonergooner]

Are there firm plans for the Otasco lot?

[Pete]

Are there firm plans for the Otasco lot?

Panda Express is taking one of three lots; the one closest to Michael's.

The other two are for sale.

[Pete]

[Pete]

Domino has filed its sign permits:

[Pete]

Empire Slice Shop is coming along.

They have a 'now hiring' sign and hope to open in November. The interior will be very similar to the Nichols Hills location.

[Brett]

I noticed yesterday that the landscaping vegetation has been installed for the retail space that connects to InterBank just north of ALDI's.