Issue over canal access design ramps up
City engineers and the Bricktown Design Review Committee have hit a stalemate over plans for a steel ramp to replace a broken elevator lift along the Bricktown Canal.
Committee members, whose approval is required before such a project can commence, have delayed voting on the designs for the past few months as they’ve asked for renderings that will show how the ramp would appear next to the 110-year-old Kingman Building, 100 E California Ave.
Jim Lewellyn, a project manager overseeing repairs and maintenance of sidewalks, railings and canal access, made his first appearance with the committee on Tuesday as construction crews were already well into working on another ramp across from the Kingman Building.
“We’ve had issues with lifts throughout the city,” Lewellyn said. “Even with elevators, we have maintenance issues. With the amount of funds available, I don’t think there is a better option. We have a limited amount of space and requirements to get from one elevation to another in a certain distance.”
‘We have to try harder'
Committee member Richard McKown, who restored the nearby Rock Island Plow Building, responded that the ramp is a poor match for the canal, will detract from the historic architecture of the Kingman Building and will not help the Bricktown Canal meet its “full potential.”
McKown challenged Lewellyn to start over with designs that might be less obtrusive and possibly create a link between both the water level and street level of the canal walkways.
“It’s about experience, delight and surprise,” McKown said. “That’s why 6 million come down to visit the canal. I hate to be difficult about this, but we have to try harder.”
Committee member Kasha Egan, also an engineer, challenged Lewellyn to look at designing the ramp in a gap between the Oklahoma Avenue bridge and
the Yucatan Taco Stand patio that overlooks the canal.
“Possibly wrap it around the patio,” Egan said. “If we push it back from this corner, we will have a much higher level of visual success. We’re talking about trying to not make it look like it was an afterthought, like something we stabbed on to the side of the bridge.”
Committee members also questioned whether the project couldn’t be improved with the involvement of an architect or landscape designer.
“We need an additional discipline that brings a design solution,” committee chairman Brent Wall said. “What we’re seeing is a technical solution rather than an urban design solution.”
Access and accommodation
The ramp is part of a series of improvements funded through Bricktown-area generated tax increment financing that built up with limited requests from developers in the historic entertainment district. The funding was provided after city officials, Bricktown civic leaders and representatives of Downtown Oklahoma City Partnership (formerly known as Downtown Oklahoma City Inc.) concluded repairs and upgrades were needed throughout the district.
The ramps are required to provide Americans with Disabilities Act access and to also accommodate parents with infant strollers.
Lewellyn dismissed requests by the committee to consider increasing funding for the project. Downtown Oklahoma City Partnership is not allowed to use business improvement district money to fund capital improvements, but can use a public art fund to address the utilitarian appearance of the ramp.
“Maybe we need to find a few more dollars in the budget,” McKown said. “If a private developer brought something in like this ... we would have the same consternation and gnashing of teeth.”