BURNISHING BRICKTOWN
Towering flagpole to move, gas lamps to disappear
Bricktown’s iconic flagpole is set to move and the gas lamps that once lit its streets are set to disappear as part of sweeping changes underway in the state’s premier urban entertainment district.
The gas lamps, which quit working in 1999, will be torn out as part of a second phase of improvements being funded through the downtown tax increment finance district. In their heyday, the lamps, part of the original Bricktown vision of its founder, Neal Horton, created an ambience for a historic warehouse district that was largely undeveloped.
The flag, meanwhile, is a legacy of Jim Brewer, who transformed Bricktown into an entertainment district. In a move typical of Brewer’s background in promotions and the oil business, he convinced local businesses and KFOR-TV to help pay for the giant flagpole as part of a July Fourth celebration in 1991. He used oil piping to create the flagpole in a short amount of time leading up to the festivities.
At least one of the gas lamps, now considered a part of Bricktown’s early history, will be saved for possible future display. Mallory O’Neill, district manager with the Bricktown Association, said talks are underway with area property owners and Brewer’s sons, Brent and Brett, to find a new location for the flag.
The streetlamp removal is part of an overhaul of Bricktown sidewalks and replacement of broken elevators with ramps along the Bricktown Canal. The first phase of the project painted railings along the canal, fixed landscaping lighting and replaced missing sidewalk bricks. Work is set to start in October.
Renaissance in Bricktown
The flagpole, meanwhile, is being moved to make way for a 10-story, 182-room Renaissance Hotel at the southeast corner of Oklahoma and Sheridan Avenues. The project won approval Wednesday from the Bricktown Urban
Design Committee and construction is set to start in May.
The project represents the largest development yet in the heart of the original Bricktown started by Horton in 1979. The surrounding streets are torn up as part of yet another project — construction of a streetcar route that will connect passengers in Bricktown, east Bricktown and Lower Bricktown with the new convention center, MAPS 3 park, the Central Business District, Automobile Alley and Midtown.
No resurfacing, however, is planned for Sheridan and Reno Avenues, the two most heavily traveled streets in Bricktown. Eric Wenger, director of the city’s public works department, said any such resurfacing beyond what will happen with the lanes torn up for the streetcar tracks will depend on partnerships with private developers in the area or a possibility of being included on a bond issue to be submitted to voters in September.
The next major project to impact Bricktown will be the start of construction on the next segment of the new Oklahoma City Boulevard, extending it from where it deadends at E.K. Gaylord west to Walker Avenue. That project is expected to start this summer.
Negotiations, meanwhile, continue with owners of the U-Haul warehouse in Lower Bricktown to buy the property’s east easement to connect Oklahoma Avenue with the boulevard.
Wenger said similar negotiations will be needed before the final segment of the boulevard can be built with a new elevated section to go through the south parking lot of a McDonald’s at Sheridan and Western Avenues. Wenger said the final segment of the boulevard, between Western and Walker Avenues, is expected to start in 2018 and take about one year.