Arena talk: Wichita

I was browsing competing urban chat boards; one that I frequently browse and have about 500 posts at is KCRag.com, which specializes mostly in the proper method to get away with smoking a joint in public in Vancouver. Which is funny because I would never have imagined it to be that hard! But for those of you that are normal (the rest of us), you'd probably find some of the details of Wichita's slowly progressing arena project to be the most interesting thing. The reason you'd be interested in this is because if you've read Steve Lackmeyer's blog you saw how Wichita is a model of downtown accessability that OKC can follow. Although to be fair, Steve did mention the crime problem in Wichita's Old Town. What's recently surfaced is this:


The above are perfectly decent historic buildings. They're beautiful in my opinion, and could be anything. "OKC logic" tells us that these 2 buildings would make perfect lofts, offices, or a night club with a coffee shop on the street (or not). And I checked in the Wichita Eagle archives, the buildings are not structurally defficient. However, "Wichita logic" is telling them that the land would be best used for the right mix of grass that is absolutely necessary to complete this beauty of public works:


Perhaps the ugliest arena project I've seen about to break ground ever. Anyway, if you'll notice in the back they've saved a historic building and incorporated it into the site plan. Those are lofts that are already restored. On that street corner right next door to the lofts are where these two buildings are that are being bulldozed for the arena project. They are indeed bulldozing these beautiful historic buildings to replace them with grass, and nothing to do with an actual arena. I just thought it was interesting how another city is about to commit a travesty that they'll probably regret in the future, especially in light of both Oklahoma's cities putting a lot of focus on their downtown arenas.

Some intangible benefits to consider

It seems odd that the proper way to develop a downtown is through intangibles rather than concretes. What I mean by this, is in response to a recent thought-provoking post of Michael Bates' where he visited Des Moines to look at how a downtown arena there has 'transformed' their downtown area. In fact, it has not. The Iowa Events Center is a top-notch facility (though considerably smaller than the Ford Center or BOK) that hosts major concerts, some sports games, and some conventions. In a way, it serves the exact same purpose for Des Moines that the Ford Center had served OKC until the NBA came to town. The argument is that in one prime example cited as a reason we need the BOK Center (Des Moines), their arena has done little to pump life into the part of downtown in which it was built:

"The nearby area was as dead as can be -- parking ramps, parking lots, office buildings. The arena sits near the river, but turns its back to it."

This isn't just something that has happened in Des Moines. One of my favorite all-time small towns is Sioux City, IA, with a population around 85,000. It's a very well-educated, yet somewhat gritty and urban small town nestled in the steep bluffs along the Missouri River, which creates a lot of interesting urban environments. Imagine the hills of San Francisco covered by a quaint Midwestern city. One of Sioux City's most impressive qualities is the amenities it has for a city of 85,000--such as an Art-Deco downtown arena almost as big as the Iowa Events Center. Here is a photo I took of it a few winters ago when I was spending the Holidays with family:

As you can see, the area surrounding it is also dead. And if you've ever been to the Qwest Center in Omaha, you also have the same problem--an arena envisioned to pump life into an area, but cut off from that area. Here in Sioux City, the arena is surrounded by parking on 3 sides. The back of it is what faces downtown, but that's irrelevant because it's cut off by railroad tracks. On the west and north sides it faces a bend in I-29 which essentially cuts Sioux City off from their significant civic investments along the Missouri River riverfront. As your driving down I-29, there is the arena and downtown beyond that on the right, and to the left is the Mighty Mo lined with a Casino and trails and parks that go all the way through the city, even up into South Dakota. If Sioux City were to find an alternative to the sea of parking on that site, you could almost have a development firm come in and redevelop around the arena similarly to the Ballpark Village in St Louis or the Power & Light District in KC.

But do OKC and Tulsa face these problems? I would argue not. While the Ford Center is not in Bricktown, which everyone will tell you is where people go after an event at the Ford Center, it is still smack dab in the heart of downtown. It is not cut off by a river, or a highway, or ground railroad tracks (notice how I specified that). The Ford Center did in fact propel Bricktown past being a fledgling restaurant row on the edge of downtown, into what is definitely an attraction in its own right. Today development in Bricktown is booming because of the demand for the Bricktown scene. It's a district where people badly want to live, work, play, and shop/dine. This is because someone can easily walk from the main Concourse in the Ford Center to a restaurant in Bricktown in less than 4 minutes without risking their life.

Will Tulsa follow the steps of OKC or Des Moines? I also think not. A key difference in what happened in OKC and those other cities is that in OKC there was no pre-established hotspot in downtown. Bricktown became the hotspot of Downtown OKC after the Ford Center was built, whereas before the Iowa Events Center, the Hy-Vee Center in Sioux City, or the Qwest Arena, these cities already had a "Bricktown." Omaha-Old Market, Des Moines-Court Street, Sioux City-4th Street. Downtown Tulsa's building stock is far more mature than Downtown OKC's, but it is still ALL undergoing revitalization--there is no pre-established hotspot in Downtown Tulsa, while there are many fledgling neighborhoods that are beginning to see good growth. The BOK Center is coming just in time to affect the growth of downtown, and not be left out, because downtown is a blank slate that could go in any direction. It could see nothing but growth in Blue Dome and Brady, or it could see new developments on the old City Hall site, or it could continue its growth in a N/S linear fashion and see infill in the TCC (and churches) parking empire that splits downtown and Uptown.

There are already a small handful of businesses on the west side of downtown that are opening up just for the arena buzz. This is how we build momentum, which is the main reason we built the BOK Center. Face it, Tulsa is not without event centers--the Maybee Center has done just fine for concerts and stuff, and everybody loves South Tulsa more than downtown. The goal of the BOK Center was to get people back to looking at downtown, and bring in crowds so that businesses can thrive in the heart of the city. Doesn't that sound like an important civic goal?

Haven't forgotten about the BOK Center

Amidst the rush of Devon Tower euphoria that must be covered on this blog, I have still not forgotten about you, Tulsa. I recommend everyone start following the finishing touches on the BOK Center, because the thing gets more dazzling by the week. And yes, it still has more room to get more razzle dazzle. Just wait for the streetscape to open up completely around surrounding streets (i.e., Denver Avenue, which I'm not sure if it's finished yet or not), or further down the line the hotel/mixed-use redevelopment of the current City Hall site.

But lately, the shine has been put on the metal exterior, the 40,000-foot glass wall is up, and now the nightlighting elements in the glass wall are turned on. Personally I severely underestimated how the arena would look from the back, especially with that view of the Tulsa skyline peering over it. I also underestimated how the glass wall would be visible from all around downtown, especially all lit-up at night. Take a look further down.

For those of you not familiar yet with the BOK Center, get familiar with it. It's going to become one of Oklahoma's premier places to catch a concert or a major event, and potentially down the line, some major league action (just not in the NBA, which went to OKC, but possibly AFL or NHL). To view some more multimedia of the BOK Center, check this Tulsa World site. The Cesar Pelli masterpiece will be a 550,000 SF facility with 18,500 seats for the arena format, and can do over 19,000 for a center-stage concert. For a downtown centerpiece, the project came in well under $200 mil, which is overall less than OKC's Ford Center would be built for (including $121 mil in upgrades). It will at least revolutionize the way in which Tulsans feel about their Downtown.

While Tulsans may have balked at the construction cost increases and the overall cost initially, it is such a small penny to pay for what this arena will do for their city. When OKC's first MAPS project, the Bricktown Ballpark opened, all of OKC completely shifted from being disgusted with MAPS to being completely in love with MAPS and all-things OKC. The pride that Tulsans feel is nothing yet, but as soon as this facility opens, it will give T-Town a new perspective on their city. It will make them realize how much they love their city, how unique it is, and how much potential it has to be great. It will do everything that the Bricktown Ballpark did for OKC and probably more.

-Photos from TulsaOilerFans.net and dscott on Flickr