Myriad Convention Center - Oklahoma City, Oklahoma USA
Posted by: vulture1957
N 35° 27.982 W 097° 30.842
14S E 634828 N 3925777
Part of the Pei Plan - an architectural design plan for downtown Oklahoma City made by IM Pei, the 2014 UIA Gold Award winner. Now named the Cox Convention Center.
1 Myriad Gardens, Oklahoma City, OK 73102
Waymark Code: WM11R7G
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Date Posted: 12/08/2019
Views: 3
Every June the Cox Convention Cneter (formerly the Myriad Convention Center) hosts the Red Earth Festival, a large Native American cultural and arts festival. I came here many times to watch the OKC Blazers hockey team. My son's high school graduation ceremony was here. Event parking is below the arena and more parking is at the adjacent Santa Fe St Parking Garage. There is an above-street walkway from the garage to the convention center.
from Wikipedia:
"The Pei Plan was an urban redevelopment initiative designed for downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, in the 1960s and 1970s. It is the informal name for two related commissions of noted architect and urban planner I. M. Pei — namely the Central Business District General Neighborhood Renewal Plan (design completed 1964) and the Central Business District Project I-A Development Plan (design completed 1966). It was formally adopted in 1965, and implemented in public and private phases throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
The plan called for the demolition of hundreds of antiquated downtown structures in favor of renewed parking, office building, and retail developments, in addition to public projects such as the Myriad Convention Center and the Myriad Botanical Gardens. It was the dominant template for downtown development in Oklahoma City from its inception through the 1970s, supported by Oklahoma City Mayor Patience Latting. The plan generated mixed results and opinion, largely succeeding in re-developing office building and parking infrastructure but failing to attract its anticipated retail and residential development. Public resentment also developed as a result of the destruction of multiple historic structures. As a result, Oklahoma City's leadership avoided large-scale urban planning for downtown throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, until the passage of the Metropolitan Area Projects (MAPS) initiative in 1993."