The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

I tried searching but couldn't find anything, but does anyone know what they are installing at I-44 & Riverside? So far its just two tall metal type structures on both sides of the highway..

any ideas?

Art towers due for I-44 at river

The dual 60-foot monuments will be funded privately, Step Up Tulsa members are told.'

The Interstate 44 expansion through Tulsa will include a $5 million beautification project with an art deco design and two 60-foot towers that will act as a gateway to the city, according to plans announced Wednesday.

The announcement was one of several made by Tulsa philanthropic leaders at a Step Up Tulsa meeting.

Step Up Tulsa, founded in 2005, is an initiative to give the public a unified voice to bring about change in Tulsa, working with the Funders Roundtable — a network of the region's largest grantmaking foundations — and the Tulsa Community Foundation.

The meeting also included several progress reports, speeches by community leaders, including Mayor Kathy Taylor, and a panel discussion on health care with Tulsa and state leaders.

Phil Lakin, executive director of the Tulsa Community Foundation, spoke at the meeting about the details of an art deco design plan for key intersections of the I-44 project.

The plan is to be officially announced next week.

Two monuments 60 feet tall will flank I-44 from the Riverside Parkway median to act as a gateway to introduce Tulsa to eastbound drivers, he said.

Landscaping and art deco design on the highway and sound-reduction walls are planned at I-44's intersections with Riverside Drive and Peoria, Lewis and Harvard avenues.

The enhancements will reflect similar highway beautification efforts in Dallas, Phoenix and Santa Fe, N.M., Lakin said.

"It has life, and it's something we can be proud of," he said.

The Oklahoma Department of Transportation and the George Kaiser Family Foundation have each pledged about $1.5 million to the project, and the Tulsa Community Foundation will help raise the rest of the roughly $5 million needed, Lakin said.

He also announced a $500,000 fund to enforce the city's sign administration program, which was created in 2001 to regulate outdoor advertising but has not been enforced.

The fund will allow for the hiring of city employees to enforce sign regulations for five years, after which time the city would pay their salaries, Lakin said.

David Greer, executive director of the University of Tulsa's Institute for Information Security, announced a partnership between the city and TU to create the Oklahoma Innovation Institute, which will work with professionals to patent and commercialize ideas that are found through research.

Sam Combs, co-chairman of Step Up Tulsa, said the group was formed "to identify the areas that Tulsa should focus on in the future."

"It's impressive what Tulsa has done in three short years," he said. "There is a commitment and a great amount of energy in the city."

Or replace the bridge with one like this!
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Obukhovsky_Bridge

Here's a rendering. Two are planned for Riverside. Four are planned for Lewis once it's completed.

(http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/tulsaworld.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/3/da/3daad535-ebb4-5873-aa31-8f019d362053/524c6e6c385f6.image.jpg)

The mountains in the background were too cost prohibitive.

Here's a rendering. Two are planned for Riverside. Four are planned for Lewis once it's completed.

(http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/tulsaworld.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/3/da/3daad535-ebb4-5873-aa31-8f019d362053/524c6e6c385f6.image.jpg)

It's been closed so long that people are actually merging ahead of time and not cutting each other off.  It's madness.

I call BS, this is Tulsa after all.

Does anyone have any idea why one tower (north one on Riverside) is lighted with blue lights but not the other one across from it?

(http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/tulsaworld.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/3/da/3daad535-ebb4-5873-aa31-8f019d362053/524c6e6c385f6.image.jpg)

How odd that the rendering wasnt honest enough show all the floodlights at the bottom, aimed straight up.   :(

More sedate internal lighting was too much of a challenge?