The only really prominent building that immediately comes to mind here in Oklahoma City is, of course, the U.S. Federal Building and associated campus designed by Carol Ross Barney that replaced the 1995 bombed Murrah Building. You may have driven by it several times and not really noticed how much exposed concrete is there because there are a variety of surface materials from metal to glass to stone that was cast into masonary panels that run along the street flanking the main pedestrian entrance on 6th.

I think the building is interesting, but it is'nt one of my real favorite examples of exposed concrete construction. I do like the way that some of the elements come together though. The way the architectural firm's site is set up, it didn't provide a direct link to any photos, but here is the link to the Ross Barney + Jankowski site.

http://www.rbjarchitects.com/

Look up the U.S. Federal Building through their "Places" A-Z listing to see several photos of the building. The west facade that faces Hudson Avenue has the greatest mass of exposed concrete; actually, it's nothing much but exposed concrete. I think the north elevation is the most interesting though. Lots of soaring curved steel and glass and not much concrete. This 185,000 square foot building was completed in 2004 so I guess it is responsive to your question of:

The company has done some world class buildings and I think their site is definitely worth a tour if you have an interest in large scale commercial architecture.

Enjoy

Why not river parks? Why not other parks? Why does this park have to be expanded to eat up more valuable space that free enterprise would have otherwise taken care of?

Having visited the Kimbell at least two dozen times, I assure you that its concrete structure has not been coated with anything other than a sealer. Perhaps what you preceive as stucco is actually travertine. There are travertien panels inset on the closed ends of the building. Here is a link to a photographic tour of the building.

http://www.kimbellart.org/building/building_tour1.cfm

Obviously, the concete roof is covered with a roofing system. The interior is totally exposed concrete walls and ceilings with a wood floor.

A great weekend is taking the train to Fort Worth then taking a trolley from the train station to a downtown hotel. Fort Worth's downtown residential environment and street life is a few years ahead of OKC.

The trolley system can be used to visit all of their fabulous museums, the stockyards district and zoo. It's quite easy to spend three or four days there and never use a car. Pretty good for a city in the middle of Texas.

Here is a link to the Fort Worth Modern Museum of Art. Another fabulous public building that features simple lines and unadorned materials.

http://www.themodern.org/new_modern.html

Well because expanding the park over the top of prime land will CREATE even more prime land. There is no more magnificent park in all of OKC than the gardens save perhaps Will Rogers Park up on 36th. Those rose fields are really something!

But the gardens are an unprecedented opportunity to create an expansive green space which downtown can develop around, which would make our downtown more unique than many other downtowns in the nation. It would really add a lot to the environment, to have a large, expansive park in the middle of downtown.

Expanding the downtown park lands to the south in a way that connects the existing Myriad Botanical Garden to development at the river, which is only a mile or so away, doesn't mean that there will be a two block wide swath of green from Sheridan to South 15th Street. The boundaries and foot print of the expansive new downtown park will ebb and flow as it heads south; narrower at some points and wider at others, creating a variety of usable spaces. The important element is that it be continuous so that there are uninterrupted pedestrian pathways all the way from downtown to the river.

Though, I don't agree that the "B" alignment was the best choice to deal with I-40, and hope that there is still an opportunity to modify and improve the highway design around the Union Station that would not destroy one of the most remarkable existing pieces of rail infrastructure in the US, the opportunity to more than double the footprint of downtown and rebuild the existing I-40 elevated section into a ground level boulevard, is an exciting prospect for the future of Oklahoma City. An opportunity that could be the key to propelling development into the 22nd Century.

There is little doubt that development sprawl will continue at the OKC suburban fringe, but it seems to me that having all of those reclaimed acres to build on downtown is vital to recreating a sustainable urban core for Oklahoma City. And, building the anchor provided by an expansive urban park is an excellent means to define the future development patterns.

Very well said! I've never really understood why everybody says there's no way it can be saved. ODOT says gosh darnit, there's nothing we can do but our current design saves plenty. Tom Elmore says it's gonna be trashed.

Here is a map of what I've always thought should be done regarding.