COLORFUL IMPRESSION
Colorful first impression will greet new convention center visitors
OKC is taking steps to create a colorful and lively atmosphere around the new convention center
As president of the city's convention and visitors bureau, Mike Carrier may be among the most vested in the new convention center set to open later this year.
From the very start, he urged everyone to forget the outdated Cox Convention Center design, one with stilt-up concrete walls, very few windows and almost no interaction with the streets.
This new venue, he pledged, would represent a new era of convention center design, one that will be lively and colorful.
The city is taking yet another step in fulfilling that vision with a proposal to create the “4th Street Experience” along the road that extends between the future Oklahoma City Convention Center and the 17-story Omni Hotel.
It's a critical path between the two destinations, one where trade shows might spill out onto the street thanks to garage-style doors on the north side of the convention center that will open out onto SW 4 just east of Robinson Avenue.
Designers and folks at City Hall initially hoped to simply build a skywalk over SW 4, but executives at Omni balked saying they preferred to create a more active presence out on the adjoining streets and sidewalks.
With a lower than expected construction bid for the convention center, the city then was able to tackle the challenge of making sure SW 4 isn't just a narrow street overshadowed by two large buildings.
The result is a series of louvered shade structures, somewhat similar to trees, that create a virtual canopy over the street. They will be built at varying heights, providing shade during the day and protection during rainy days. At night colored lights place atop and underneath the structures will create the so-called “experience.”
Crews, meanwhile, are installing the support structures for “Virtual Sky,” a series of slender, sleek anodized titanium forms that will be suspended by aircraft cables in each of the two multistory atriums facing west across Robinson Avenue.
The gleaming forms will capture the natural light pouring in across the downtown skyline. Small LED lights will be added that can be programmed for specific patterns, and can also reflect the changing sky.
One more step toward making the best impression on visitors may be possible once the city constructs a traffic circle at SW 7 and Robinson Avenue just south of the convention center. The center island of a similar traffic circle at NW 10 and Walker Avenue turned into a landscaped gateway for Midtown.
Oklahoma City Arts and Cultural Affairs Liaison Robbie Kienzle admits it's a tempting target. For now she's holding off on seeking any artist proposals. The area is changing rapidly and Kienzle wants to see the full picture completed before going any further.
Regardless, the picture already in focus is set to create a very different gateway not just to the convention center and adjoining Scissortail Park, but to downtown as a whole.