Professional follow-up on Medical District

A week or so ago I did a pictoral update on Medical District progress, which featured updates on OBI's new building, as well as several projects in the Oklahoma Health Center, such as the OU Children's Hospital, OMRF Research Tower, OU Cancer Institute, and more. I stressed the magnitude of the construction underway, a lot of which, people don't really notice..even people who talk about downtown a lot. This weekend, Steve Lackmeyer had a story run in the paper on the progress.. and obviously he did a much more professional job covering the same thing. More facts and research, quotes from people who actually know what they're talking about, and less pictures (the only downsize to professional caliber coverage, as it doesn't have the same flexibility where you can do a photo essay).

I completely missed getting pics of what is going on with the Embassy Suites. According to Joe Van Bullard in Steve's article, construction is set to start on the $25 million hotel. Same with the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association headquarters, which will be a $4 million HQ addition. The new OIPA project, which has largely flown under the radar, will be 3 stories tall and 20,000 sf large, pictured on the left. It broke ground November 18 (last year) at NE 4th and Lincoln, right across I-235 from the Block 42 development.

Steve's article hints to several new projects in the planning phase. The OHC Foundation's CEO, Hershel Lamirand, hinted to 3 new medical projects, and suggested that 8th Street (which is largely undeveloped at the moment) is going to become the new hot area for developments. Facts that back up the momentous occasion of the current building phase: 5 of the projects alone (Dean McGee Eye Institute, OBI, OMRF, and OU's Children's Hospital and Cancer Institute) come to a total price tag of $534 million. If someone had said there would be 5 new buildings built in Bricktown, totaling over half a billion dollars, there would be a parade (either that, or in the case of Bob Funk two years ago, someone would subvert it at City Hall).

The $534 million does not include the Embassy Suites, the OU College of Allied Health, OIPA, or any other projects that haven't been announced yet. This is the largest construction phase the OHC or the entire Medical District for that matter has seen since the 1970's, when OU first built the medical center. It's quite possible the pricetag could top $1 billion within a year, especially when you consider that parking is at a premium. Lamirand suggested more parking garages are to come, as well.

Jane Jenkins, president of Downtown OKC Inc., also cited some really cool facts in the article. 12,500 people are currently employed at the OHC, and we already know OMRF plans on adding 500-800 jobs when their research tower goes up. That's compared to about 40,000 people that work in the CBD, or in context of other medical centers.. the Texas Medical Center in Houston, world's largest concentration of research jobs, employs 75,000 people (guess I'm not capable of writing a post without mentioning Houston). The TMC always has billions of dollars in new construction underway at any given moment..in fact the Houston version of "Keep Austin Weird" is "Keep Houston Under Construction." In Raleigh-Durham's Research Triangle Park, 39,000 people are employed, spread across 157 different organizations. The South Texas Medical Center in San Antonio employs 27,000 people. Around 30,000 people work at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. The OHC is quite possibly a top 15 medical center, but it has a long ways to go in order to catch up.

What makes it a valuable tool, more so than the Research Triangle Park or South Texas Medical Center, is that the OHC is not located 10-15 miles from downtown, but rather just 1. It is a 5 minute walk from from the CBD to the OHC. In fact the Underground connects the two (the Capitol Complex segment that few people know about). It is this that makes the OHC more comparable to the Mayo complex or the TMC, even if only in city planning context. As the OHC grows, its presence will be a major contributor to Downtown OKC. People often say the only reason Rochester, MN even exists, and has a nice skyline, is the Mayo Clinic. The TMC is probably the best argument to bring up when people say Houston is dominated by oil. And so on. OKC will become more and more dependent on the OHC, which is a very good thing, in the long run.

A canal extension that works

Well, it's not really a canal extension..but rather a Riverwalk extension. San Antonio's recently-finished 1 and 1/3rd-mile extension of the Riverwalk, extends north out of Downtown San Antonio and cuts through a dense area lined with some mixed-use development and the San Antonio Museum of Art. The entire new extension of the Riverwalk is a work of art though, in how underpasses that posed a risk as a potential eyesore were brightened up with public art. A few highlights are.. adorning the Lexington Street underpass are shimmering tiles that catch the light and sort of flitter, colored metal panels under another underpass, a new landscaped landing abutting the San Antonio Museum of Art, and under the I-35 bridge are hanging fish to take away the marr of a highway bridge, and a "grotto" theme at the Camden/Newell intersection. The entire 1.33 mile extension is heavily landscaped, which goes without saying. You can learn a lot more about the Museum Reach segment by checking out this interactive map on the San Antonio Express-News' website.

Here are some pictures taken by popnfresh on SkyscraperCity:






Why was this project a success: The reason that the Museum Reach urban segment of the Riverwalk is such a success is that the right-of-way already existed. The urban fabric already developed around the San Antonio River, and the City of San Antonio is just coming in and giving major aesthetic upgrades to an existing riverfront. The design is innovative and does two things: it incorporates existing "landmarks" along the path, such as the art museum and the Pearl Brewery, which has become a large mixed-use redevelopment project, AND the second reason is that it is innovative in covering up eyesores, such as bridges, and brightening up these dull spaces.

Why copying this would fail in OKC: OKC does not have an existing river that flows through the heart of downtown. There is no neighborhood or even single city block that matured framing a water right of way. The Bricktown Canal is an absolutely brilliant conversion of an alley way into a canal. Where dumpsters, vagrants, and utility lines once were is now an area lined with upscale restaurants, clubs, and the Bricktown haunted house. This is why future planning involving the Bricktown Canal MUST be taken from an "opposite-of-San Antonio" perspective in order to be successful. We have to look for existing right-of-ways that we can easily adapt to become a thin sliver of waterway, and truthfully it isn't a good idea to delve into Core to Shore with the Canal and expect to create a space that matures framing an urban canal. It won't work.