It just dawned on me this morning that I haven't seen a post about this on here.
SandRidge Energy, the same group that bought Tulsa-based Arena Resources, is planning a downtown OKC campus and if their plans are approved, will result in the destruction of six of Oklahoma City's oldest structures, including the India Temple, the oldest building still standing in downtown. Five of the six buildings will be razed
not for new buildings (and not because they are structurally unsound) but for
landscaped plazas.
Preserve Oklahoma and scores of dedicated citizens and groups like Keep Downtown Urban (
www.keepdowntownurban.com) have made appeals to the Downtown Design Review Committee’s approval of plans by SandRidge Energy to raze the six buildings. Yes, that's right--the plans have already been rubber-stamped. That's where we come in: we all need to take a moment and write a letter to the Oklahoma City Board of Adjustment in opposition of this project.
Early on in the process, the plans called for renovation of buildings instead of demolition, and the lead architect for the project made several statements touting how "green" the project was:
This afternoon, Sandridge will unveil an over $100 million expansion of its downtown headquarters across three city blocks. The plans include a renovated 1960s tower by architect Pietro Belluschi, a restored Braniff Building–built in 1923 by the brothers who started their namesake airline–and a public park recycled from a pair of windswept plazas. The New York-based architecture firm of Rogers Marvel will incorporate features like green roofs, native plantings, and storm-water management to meet LEED standards. Sandridge, which is the youngest and smallest of the city’s gas giants, is touting the project as the largest private downtown development in its history–for the time being, at least.
What’s unusual about the plan by local standards is that Sandridge is reusing existing buildings, rather than relocating to an exurban campus. Part of this has to do with timing–the company acquired a million square feet on the cheap when yet another energy firm, Kerr-McGee, was sold to Anadarko Petroleum in 2007 and immediately left town for Houston. Sandridge CEO Tom Ward had considered a campus, but found it was both too expensive and too inflexible for his plans to grow the company from 600 to 1,500 employees. Ward went against his own employees’ wishes by electing to remain downtown instead. “Their first response was that it was going to be a longer commute, and the idea was not one they embraced originally,” Ward says. “And then the Thunder came to town and a lot of things started changing.” (Ward is also a minority owner in the Oklahoma City Thunder, the city’s two-year-old NBA team.)
“If you’re an urbanist, vacancy of any kind is super tough,” adds Rogers. “So the decision to go downtown and be a part of the city, to redevelop and reuse, is fundamentally about reinvigorating downtown. Everybody talks about being green, but one of the greenest things you can do is simply reuse things.”
Folks, we can't let this happen. I'm probably the last person to ever defend Oklahoma City (especially given the many ways the State Legislature has found to "stick it" to Tulsa over the last 103 year) but this is an entirely different matter. We would be throwing a fit, raising hell and demanding action if this were in our city, and I hope we do the same for our cousin down the road.
The Board of Adjustment has the choice of affirming, reversing or modifying the design committee’s decision. All three actions could then be appealed by either side through district court. The Board of Adjustment can also send the matter back for more deliberation by the design committee.
Write a letter in support of the reversal of the design committee's decision:
Board of Adjustment
c/o Kathe Casula
420 W. Main Street
Ste. 9210
Oklahoma City, OK 73102
email:
kathe.casula@okc.gov
