Two projects significant to the rapidly-changing face of downtown Oklahoma City were received by the Downtown Design Review Committee or DDRC Thursday.
Omni Hotel
The committee reviewed final plans for the Omni Hotel at Oklahoma Boulevard and S. Robinson Avenue next to the new convention center.
Both will be east across from the new Scissortail Park under construction and south of Chesapeake Arena.
There are two distinct parts of the project: the tall, slender guest room tower containing around 600 rooms and then the two-story segment for events and meeting spaces.
The pool and lounge areas will be on top of the two-story meeting section, making full use of the relatively small footprint of the whole project.
For those who have lived in Oklahoma for the past several years of regular triple-digit temperatures in the warm months, the orientation of having that part of the hotel on the south side of the tower may raise questions about usability.
The southern exposure along with reflected heat from the tower itself will make it plenty warm for guests.
Residential development
Developer Richard McKown’s new project, The Bower at 4th and Lee, came up for review and was accepted.
The condominium project will come in at around $12 million and will take about a year to complete McKown told us afterward. The project will add about 70 people to the neighborhood when full.
The committee seemed to like the presentation with member Anthony Blatt referring to the project twice in his comments as “an excellent project.”
Earlier projects in the core of the city have established McKown as a developer who does his homework and comes to the DDRC with extensive plans and ready answers for the committee.
Level Apartments just up the hill from Bricktown at Walnut and NW 2nd, and The Plow office building at Reno and Oklahoma in Bricktown are two big projects McKown has completed in the core in recent years.
You may view and download PDFs of these presentations in our share folder.
Committee members:
Cory Baitz, Chair
Nathaniel Harding, Vice-Chair
Charles Ainsworth
Anthony J. Blatt
Julie Kriegel
Deborah Richards
Connie Scothorn
City staff:
Lisa Chronister, Principal Planner
Laura Griggs, Associate Planner
Susan Randall, Municipal Counselor
Founder, publisher, and editor of Oklahoma City Free Press. Brett continues to contribute reports and photography to this site as he runs the business.
