Saturday spottings (available light)
Yours truly, about this time last fall:
I live in one of those districts with fairly strict [building and zoning] requirements; I’m thinking that it wouldn’t hurt this town, and might help it, to try a little experiment with Almost Anything Goes. I’ve visited the Okasian House — it was on the 2007 Architecture Tour — and I’d love to see other contemporary homes cheek by jowl with Craftsman houses, just for sheer jaw-dropping variety.
Here’s something you’ll see on the 2010 Architecture Tour:
By no particular coincidence, Brian Fitzsimmons, who designed the Okasian House, is responsible for this one as well, a block away at 7th and Francis. The Urban Planning Commission hashed over the plans for several sessions before finally giving design approval: the sticking point, apparently, was that cantilevered upper section, which played hell with the definition of “setback.” More interesting to me, though, is the construction technique for those concrete walls: instead of relying on the usual Styrofoam forms, they poured these directly in place. (Out back, in fact, there’s a test wall, used as proof of concept.) The view from that upper section is fabulous. For now, we’re calling this the Lovallo House, after owner Bill Lovallo.
Farther northwest, the tried-and-failed, tried-and-failed-again Windsor Hills moviehouse is being tried again, this time operated by B&B Theatres, the small Missouri-based chain that operates the Reno 8 cinema in El Reno. Ten screens are promised. This stretch of 23rd Street, west of Meridian, is becoming increasingly Latino, which makes me wonder if maybe they’ll run some Mexican films now and then; the young ladies handing out flyers couldn’t say.
Construction on the Northwest Distressway between Blackwelder and Pennsylvania continues, and not being sure exactly what they’re doing, I can’t tell you whether they’ll be done in time for the Black Friday debacle that usually takes place on the way to Penn Square. They’ve added a second left-turn lane into the mall, opposite the 50 Penn Place entrance eastbound, and at the moment they seem to be widening the westbound roadway for the benefit of traffic entering I-44 west. Traffic exiting I-44 at the Distressway, however, is facing the same set of hurdles as always: there’s apparently nothing that can be done about that other than what I do already, which is (1) exit at Classen and (2) pray.
Oklahoma City’s Glory Days | OKC Central »
14 November 2009 · 6:46 pm
[...] to catch up with Dustbury blogger Charles Hill, but you can catch up with his take about the house here. Andrew Boatman spins a piece of glass in what is a very, very hot oven at Blue Sage [...]
Kay Dennison »
14 November 2009 · 9:30 pm
It looks like someone built a basement above ground. I love craftsman house.