SITE LAYOUT

Pioneer Courthouse Square is rated as one of the top public spaces in the country by both the Project for Public Spaces and the American Planning Association.



URBAN CONTEXT

The Square is located just northeast of the heart of downtown Portland, in close proximity to much of Portland’s downtown retail.

PIONEER COURTHOUSE

The beautiful courthouse is just over 50,000 square feet in size. It was first completed circa 1875, and is listed as a National Register of Historic Places Landmark Structure. Its stately presence frames in the square, while in return, the open space contributes to the courthouse’s visual prominence.



VISITOR’S INFORMATION CENTER

A visitor’s information center is built right into the side of the square and surrounded by a large water feature.



“PORTLAND’S LIVING ROOM”

Providing not only a great destination, but also the perfect place to stroll while passing through

Whether you are catching a concert, eating lunch, or just people watching; the space’s flexible design provides plenty of seating.

The layout provides an excellent space for community festivals, performances, and movie nights!

The Square is considered the nerve center of downtown Portland—with some 26,000 residents, workers, and tourists interacting with it daily. And holds as many as 191 events in a single year!



MAX Light Rail

Pioneer Courthouse Square’s success was in many ways buoyed by a partnership with the local transit authority. Planned concurrently with the MAX light rail system, the Square functions as a vibrant transit hub.



HISTORY

The Square sits on a site that was once occupied by the “glorious Portland Hotel”, but that building was torn-down in 1951 to make way for a new surface parking lot. Pioneer Courthouse Square was officially opened on April 6, 1984 after years of planning and fundraising – including the sale of thousands of personalized bricks with which the Square was ultimately constructed.

sources:

• Portland Spaces: Pioneer Courthouse Square
• The Project for Public Space: Pioneer Courthouse Square

FEEDBACK

What do you think? Would people in Oklahoma City use a public space like Pioneer Courthouse Square? Do you think we already have a downtown public space of this caliber? If we did try to build such a space, where should it go? What should it be near? Could it be built alongside the transit being considered for Maps3?

A New Headquarters Building

The expanding paper outgrew its previous building, and in 1909 began construction of a new 5-story headquarters at the corner of 4th and Broadway. Designed by Layton & Smith, the same firm credited with the design of the Oklahoma State Capitol building,  the Oklahoman Building offers a majestic neo-classical facade that’s beauty endures to the present day. The paper continued to thrive and by 1923 was considering its future facility needs, buying up a series of lots between the Oklahoman Building and the Santa Fe tracks. This is the land that would become Oklahoma City’s first great public space!

On March 18, 1923, Edward King Gaylord offered company land to serve as Oklahoma City’s first downtown park (click to read)

A CLOSE IN PARK

In the 1920s Oklahoma City’s population doubled from 91,295 to 185,389 – moving up from the 80th to the 43rd largest city in the United States.  Despite the addition of large parks on the edge of town constructed as part of the 1910 Parks and Boulevard Plan and the existence of other quality open spaces, such as Belle Isle Amusement Park north of the city and Wheeler Park on the banks of the North Canadian River, the city still failed to provide the adequate public space for people living and working downtown.  This fact was not lost on E.K. Gaylord.  On March 18, 1923 he made this announcement on the front page of his paper:

“One of Oklahoma City’s greatest needs is a close in park.”

A search of the files of The Daily Oklahoman disclosed the fact that that statement had been published editorially more than a score of times in the last ten years.

And in order to “practice what it preaches,” The Oklahoma Publishing company has decided to help establish teh first down town park immediately

The park was located on the half block behind the Oklahoman building, starting at the alley on the west and extending east 275 feet to the publisher’s warehouse along the Santa Fe tracks. The depth of the park, from 4th street on the south to what used to be an alley running east-west through the center of the block on the north, was 140 feet, resulting in a park just under one acre in size.

This rendering shows the location of Oklahoman Park and the surrounding development (based on 1922 Sanborn Map – PDF).

Over the next six years Oklahoman Park greatly enhanced the quality of life in downtown, serving residents as an everyday park, and also as a central meeting place that hosted numerous downtown events, such as: sports broadcast, concerts, memorial services, and more.  It was so popular in fact that it once attracted more than 15,000 people for a single event, with crowds overflowing into the streets and blocking traffic.

Oklahoman Park Time Line

To give you an idea of how this park space served Oklahoma City over the years, I have put together a time line of some notable events.

OPENING DAY / July 11, 1923

On Wednesday, July 11, 1923 at 4:00pm, Oklahoman Park officially opened and treated those in attendance to a play-by-play presentation of the Oklahoma City Indians game versus Wichita, on a large “magnetic baseball board” that relayed the movement of the game from information provided by direct wire service.  The park was an instant success, as demonstrated by this photo of the crowd that was published in the next days paper.

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MEMORIAL SERVICE / August 10, 1923

On this day Oklahoma Citians gathered in Oklahoman Park to pay tribute to President Warren G. Harding following his death.

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BEDLAM FOOTBALL BROADCAST / October 27, 1923

The introduction of a new Football Gridgraph, a magnetic football board that displayed the game between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State to the sound of the radio broadcast.  The Football Gridgraph (see below) was  used to display all of the college football games for the fans that couldn’t catch the train to Norman.

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DRAPED IN WINTER REMNANTS / January 11, 1925

Oklahoman Park covered in snow.  This is only the second picture I have found of the park and gives some sense of how it fit behind the OPUBCO headquarters.

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WORLD SERIES / October 6, 1926

Each year fans would gather to watch and listen to the broadcast of the World Series.  On this day they got a special treat as Babe Ruth set a World Series record by hitting three home runs in Game 4 of the series.

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THE BATTLE OF THE LONG COUNT / September 22, 1927

On this day, crowds of Oklahoma City residents – between fifteen and sixteen thousand – turned out to listen to a broadcast of what would be known as The Battle of the Long Count, a boxing rematch between Heavyweight champion Gene Tunney and former champion Jack Dempsey, that was broadcast live from Soldier Field in Chicago.  The crowd was so large in fact that “long before the gong sounded on the first round, the crowds had overflowed across the streets,” blocking traffic on surround streets.  “It was an outing for Oklahoma City.”

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THE END OF OKLAHOMAN PARK / July 7, 1929

From the start Mr. Gaylord knew that as some point the Oklahoman would need the land for the expansion of their facilities.  In 1929 that day finally came when the paper announced that construction of a new modern publishing plant was set to take place on the site of Oklahoman Park.  Oklahoman Park served the City’s residents for six years thanks to the generosity and vision of a great city leader.

A GREAT NEW PUBLIC SPACE

This great public space was a major amenity to downtown Oklahoma City.  It was more than just another park.   It helped meet the public space needs for surrounding residents and broader Oklahoma City community.  Just as E.K. Gaylord noted of the city in 1923, today Oklahoma City lacks high quality urban spaces like the Oklahoman Park. While we may no longer gather for radio broadcast or magnetic board displays, a small urban park at the corner of 4th and Broadway would be a welcome amenity to this area of downtown and would be utilized both on a daily basis and for numerous events and festivals.

Thankfully, the construction of the new Chamber Building provides the perfect opportunity to create a great new public space.  We can create a place that helps us meet our planning objectives and captures the essence of OKC’s first urban public space.  This public space will not compete with the planned Core 2 Shore park as it is quite some distance away and much, much smaller in scale.  What this place can do is improve pedestrian connectivity, provide a gathering place for festivals and events and offer a great place to eat lunch for CBD workers. This park would redefine this portion of downtown and enhance the potential for new development in all of the adjoining districts – especially Automobile Alley!

To get a better idea of how public spaces of this size can benefit urban communities today, we will next take a look at one of the United State’s great public spaces.

For more on the planning of the Chamber site:

1. Re-visioning the Chamber Proposal
2. Re-visioning the Chamber Proposal, part II
3. Re-visioning the Chamber: Defining Objectives
4. Oklahoman Park: OKC’s First Great Public Space

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Sources:

1. “Close In Park Offer of Paper to Citizens,” The Oklahoman, Mar 18, 1923, page 35
2. “Chance to See Ball Game Free is Offered in Daily Oklahoman Park,” The Oklahoman, Jul 11, 1923, page 1
3. “Crowd See Action of Game at Oklahoman Park,” The Oklahoman, Jul 12, 1923, page 1
4. “Heads to Bow for Memorial,” The Oklahoman, Aug 9, 1923, page 1
5. “Something New for Football Fans,” The Oklahoman, Oct 23, 1923, page 12
6. “Draped in Winter Raiments,” The Oklahoman, Jan 11, 1925, page 41
7. “Super-Service For Super-Series,” The Oklahoman, Oct 1, 1926, page 1
8. “Crowd in Park Cheers for Fight Winner,” The Oklahoman, Sep 23, 1927, page 1
9. “Modern Newspaper Home Soon to Rise in Oklahoman Park,” The Oklahoman, Jul 7, 1929, page 1

III. PLAYGROUNDS

In Olmsted and Nolen’s third category of open space they stress the importance of playgrounds as part of the open space network and describe how different types of playgrounds are required to serve different age groups of users.

Small children

An Oklahoma City “tot-lot” operated by the Parks and Recreation Department in The Greens neighborhood

Whether in connection with school grounds or elsewhere, there should be in each neighborhood, a space not open to the hurly burly of the larger children. where mothers may take little tots, mostly under the school age, to get quiet, out-of-door pleasure and exercise.

Experts recommend that these small playgrounds – or “tot-lots” as they are commonly called – should be available within 800 feet of every home.  In Oklahoma City a number of tot-lots of this size are incorporated into the development of subdivisions and also you will find plenty of back yards with enough area and play equipment to qualify as a suitable tot-lot.  Still, in order to meet this guideline, the city would need thousands of new tot-lots spread through the city’s neighborhoods.


School-aged children

But perhaps the most important playgrounds are for the children of the school age and these can best be arranged and used in connection with the schools.

The purpose…is to give opportunity for exercise and active play near the children’s homes and preferably next to the school, so that it can be used during the recesses as well as after hours.

This seems to be the most typical way in which we think of playgrounds.  The equipment has advanced some over the years, going from a swingset and monkey bars to more elaborate play systems. Of Oklahoma City’s 114 public parks, listed on the Parks and Recreation Department’s website, 97 or approximately 85% have play equipment for school-aged children.   In Oklahoma City they are usually part of the programming offered at a larger neighborhood park, and as mentioned in the article can be found in on the site of a local school.  Unfortunately, newer schools tend to be on larger sites and less accessible to neighbor kids – this is just wasteful and unnecessary development.


Youths and young adults

Grounds of this class should include ball fields, running tracks, places for jumping, vaulting, throwing the hammer and quoits, bowling and the like, and convenient accommodations for bathing and dressing.

Unfortunately many of these sports require considerable area in proportion to the numbers engaged in them and for these the grounds must generally be at a greater distance from the people’s homes than is reasonable for the other playgrounds.

Obviously, the sports have changed some. I don’t many people throwing quoits these days (but I love washers and would like to see some places to play). Ballfields can be found throughout the city, though the majority are baseball fields which are often nothing more than a backstop.  There seems to be a real shortage of public soccer fields – only 15 OKC parks have soccer fields according to the OKC Parks Dept.

And I know that it is really hard to find a public park with a good pick-up basketball game; at least in the north inner-city area.  A couple of years ago I searched in vain for a free place to play, finding that all the public gyms were reserved for youth (which is great for them, but didn’t help me) and that there weren’t many good outdoor courts with lights to be found.  Eventually I ended up spending some money to join the OU Health Sciences Center gym which has great pickup games, but was pretty pricey if you are only using it for basketball.  I have to add, growing up around 50th and Portland I played year after year in a league at the Satellite gym founded by the late Carroll Cornett – Mayor Cornett’s father.  I have many fond memories of playing basketball there and really hope we can make sure kids in every part of the city have a place to be active through the winter.  So my thanks to Mr. Cornett for making this a part of my childhood.

Again, the trends seems to make these facilities more and more segregated from other uses in the city with large specialized facilities.  For instance, instead of creating a plan that would distribute baseball and softball facilities throughout the city – providing a local place to play that is quickly accessible – we have allowed them to be clustered into large facilities like Dolese, Boomtown, Wheeler Park, etc, which almost always require a car to access.

There are some positive trends as well, like the development of parks that support untraditional, yet popular sports – like the Matt Hoffman Skate Park (pictured above). Or the addition of frisbee golf courses within a few existing parks.  Also, the Parks Department has begun adding spray parks and aquatic centers to provide great fun during the hot summers.


Conclusions

On the whole I think this is one category of open space in which Oklahoma City is doing a pretty good job.  Like many other cities that struggle with sprawl, we could do a better job of distributing resources and developing in a manner that allows for facilities to be shared.  School campuses should definitely be more integrated into our playground planning efforts.

II. CITY SQUARES, COMMONS AND PUBLIC GARDENS

Pioneer Square in Portland, Oregon is a great example of an urban city square.

An opinion prevails very generally that a city can not have too many “squares” or “breathing places”

On account of the almost constant passing through such squares the best arrangement is to provide for reasonably direct and convenient paths along the lines most used. Where this is not done many of those who use the square are likely to be so irritated by the indirectness as to miss much of the pleasure they might otherwise receive.

Shade trees, either as a complete grove or in rows along the paths or grouped in some more complex plan, are almost essential features of such squares.

City Squares are certainly prevalent in many older cities, though they seem to be noticeably absent in Oklahoma City; especially downtown.

The properties adjacent to Bicentennial Park have not attracted the development necessary to integrate this open space into the urban fabric of Oklahoma City.

There are a few that I can think of, most notably Bicentennial Park (or Civic Center Park) which is mostly underutilized, but has found footing as the site of the Downtown in December ice-skating rink. Still, its proximity to the county jail has stymied development in the area and prevented it from being integrated into the broader fabric of downtown. Also, the Myriad Gardens would qualify as a public garden, but the flawed design and poorly related adjacent uses have to this point prevented it from being a effectively utilized by the public. This may all change with the completion of Devon Tower and more development to the south of the park as Core to Shore begins to be developed out.

The Core to Shore plan will also contribute to the urban open space with the addition of a downtown park.  This will provide a much needed “central park”, but the city still needs a truly urban open space, such as that provided to Portland by Pioneer Square, which is referred to as the “City’s Living Room”.  In the end, even if all of the plans for Core to Shore are fully realized, Oklahoma City will continue to lack quality urban open spaces – like Pioneer Square – that are effectively integrated into the fabric of the city.

This actually represents one of the earliest and most complete maps of Oklahoma City.  I have tracked down a couple maps that predate this one, but this is definitely the most complete and absolutely beautifully done.  Keep in mind that this map is a combination of what existed and what was proposed – not all of the ideas came to fruition.

For a higher-resolution image of the map, download the .pdf at the bottom of the page.



GRAND BOULEVARD






















CLASSEN BOULEVARD










DETAILED PLANS FOR NEW PARKS














Northeast Park – what became Lincoln Park

Southeast Park – what became Trosper Park

Southwest Park – what became Woodson Park

DOWNLOAD COMPLETE PLAN

These resources are all made available in .pdf.  These files are quite large (please use right-click Save as…).

• Complete 1910 Dunn Report and Plan in b/w .pdf, 7.5mb – (click here)
• Large general plan color map, 8.9mb – (click here)

Also, I have full-size 300dpi scans of all images available and will consider sharing them – please email me if you are interested.



RELATED RESOURCES

These articles are from journals available for free through google books that reference this planning effort around the time it was carried out.  They are helpful in completing the picture, though you have to take it with a grain of salt as early Oklahoma Citians were always hard at work selling their beloved city. I downloaded each journals complete .pdf and saved only the portion that contains the relevant article.

• “The Park System of Oklahoma City“ by Glenn Marston, appeared in The American City in 1909
• “How Oklahoma City Secured Its Park and Boulevard System“ by Will H. Clark, President of the Oklahoma City Parks Commission, appeared in The American City in 1910
• “The Park and Boulevards of Oklahoma City“ by S.T. Bisbee, appeared in Municipal Engineering in 1911

The “Core to Shore” plan lays out a vision for an over 500 acres area between downtown and the Oklahoma River. This is a long-term plan, intended to shape development for the next 25 years. Much of what is planned will change over time as markets shift and thinking evolves. However, there are a number of public improvements planned that will begin to take shape very soon, when the I-40 relocation nears completion (currently scheduled for 2012). The most significant of these public improvements is undoubtedly the large ‘Central Park’ at the heart of the plan. Oklahoma City’s new downtown park will consists of approx. 32 acres between the new boulevard on the north (replacing current I-40 alignment), SW 7th Street on the south, Hudson Ave. on the west, and Robinson on east. Over $3 million was approved as part of the 2007 Bond election to fund the purchase of the land for the park. In the future, this park will be the symbolic heart of our city, drawing visitors to events from all around while providing future downtown residents recreational amenities and an idyllic escape. With the master plan complete and the funding for the land in place, it is time for us to start visioning what we want the park to be, so I have compiled a list of the ‘Top Ten Must-Haves’ for Oklahoma City’s new park.

To get an idea of what types of amenities and attractions are typically successful at large urban parks, I perused Project for Public Spaces list of the best parks in the world. And here are the results…

#10 Model Sailboats

A pond or fountain for r/c model sailboats is a popular attraction for kids in many parks around the world. In OKC the sailboats will be cruising thanks to winds that average over 11 knots.

#9 Ice Rink

The annual Braum’s ice rink during Downtown in December has proved that an OKC ice rink can not only stay frozen but provide a great winter time destination for people of all ages.

#8 Flower Garden

How can one take time to stop and smell the roses, if there are, in fact, no roses?

#7 A Great Lawn

The perfect place to have a picnic, catch some rays, or throw a frisbee. This flexible space is a key element of many great urban parks.

#6 Beautiful Bridges

Beautiful bridges serve a number of purposes in a great park. They make for picturesque scenes, offer attractive places to sit and converse, and they bridge things – ideally water, but now more often traffic. Oklahoma City will have at least one great pedestrian bridge spanning I-40 and we should hope to have a few more top-notch bridges connecting paths across the parks various water features.

#5 The Crumrine Carousel

The Crumrine Carousel (also referred to as the Oklahoma Centennial Carousel) was an idea floated around a couple of years ago by Bob and Jacqueline Crumrine. The Crumrines were said to have already met with an Italian carousel manufacturer about building the two-level carousel and had even struck a tentative agreement for a location in Bricktown. I haven’t heard much about this project since early 2007, but it is time we revive the idea. Everyone loves a great carousel and it would be a unique feature for our park not found in many places outside of Paris. A Bricktown location wasn’t a bad idea, but it will fit much better in the park.


#4 Public Art

Anish Kapoor’s Cloudgate (first picture) cost $23 million dollars. An absurd amount of money to spend on the piece of public art located in Chicago’s Millennium Park. Yet, the mirrored bean is so loved by the citizens of Chicago and has attracted so many people to the park, that it is considered money well spent. Art can provide something to contemplate, something to remember, or just something to make you smile and it is something our new park must have.

#3 Outdoor Concert Venue

Whether permanent or temporary, having a stage setup ready to accommodate rockstars, symphonies, and everything in between is a definite must-have. Placing this adjacent to the our Great Lawn (see #7) creates an outdoor concert venue to accommodate the masses. In fact, Oklahoma’s very own Garth Brooks set a record when approx. one million people gathered to hear him play in New York City’s Central Park.

#2 World Class Fountain

The popularity of fountains dates back centuries. Romans celebrated their incredible infrastructure with beautiful ornamental fountains (such as Bernini’s Trevi Fountain – third picture). Our park will surely have one fountain, maybe more. Grant Park in Chicago has both the classically designed Buckingham Fountain (first picture) and recently added the more modern – and extremely cool – Crown Fountain (fourth picture) as part of the Millennium Park addition. The fountain will be such an important element of our new park that I recommend holding an international design competition to ensure that our’s is truly world class.

#1 The Oklahoma Land Run Monument

This massive bronze sculpture by Norman artist Paul Moore depicts Oklahoma’s most famous moment. The monument is located south of I-40, near the Bass Pro Shop and spanning the most southern portion of the canal. The current location falls far short of ideal. We need to move this incredible work to a prominent location in our new park where it can get the attention it deserves. The pictures shown are from Doug Loudenback’s extensive overview of the project – worth checking out if you would like to learn more.