RezoneOKC

Now that we know we are getting streetcar in Oklahoma City, about 6 miles of it, I wanted to start looking at other modern streetcar networks in North America to get an idea of how these systems work, what types of routes they take, and what the future expansion plans are. I am getting particularly interested in the debate between loops and spokes, and single-track two-way versus double-track alignments.

Portland is the go-to city for streetcar discussion, and has been discussed a lot, so I decided instead to start in Seattle, which just opened the South Lake Union Streetcar line exactly 2 years ago on December 12, 2007. Originally known as “South Lake Union Trolley – S.L.U.T.,” the streetcar is just 2.6 miles long and runs through an area of new development north of downtown Seattle. It cost close to $50 million, with half paid by various government sources and half by local businesses in a Business Improvement District type situation. It connects to bus lines, monorail lines, and light rail lines.

Seattle has gone with the double-track method, meaning that there are two tracks with two directions of traffic. That means they are able to run three streetcars on the line at once, at fifteen-minute intervals, without worrying about passing lanes. Note that sometimes the tracks are traveling opposite directions on the same street, and sometimes they are separated by one block.

Also note that this is a linear plan rather than a loop. It is part of Seattle’s ambitions for a future multi-linear streetcar network. In the map below, the orange line is the completed SLU Streetcar line, and other colors show future linear expansion areas.

This map of the future expansions shows the benefits of a network of streetcar lines over a loop- you can reach out to multiple neighborhoods and connect them directly to the central focus point- downtown- without looping through or around other outlying areas.

I will be interested to see more professional discussions of the argument between running bi-directional traffic on a single track, and using passing lanes, or keeping bi-directional traffic to two separate tracks. We will get more distance out of using single-track, but I don’t know how single-track might affect the flow of the streetcars and the wait times.

Most importantly, as we lay out our streetcar plan, we must also consider where we will run future streetcar alignments, so that what we put in today is compatible with future expansion.

As the announcement of MAPS 3 lights up the discussions about our new central park that will be the focus of the Core to Shore redevelopment, a lot of park names have been thrown around as possible inspiration for our new public space. The chief idol of modern urban parks is of course Chicago’s Millennium Park, a 25-acre area within the 320 acres of Grant Park. Chicago in 1997 decided to build a parking facility and park above a railyard in the corner of Grant Park, at an estimated cost of $150 million with a completion date of 2000. Once they got started, they apparently couldn’t stop- the final budget approached half a billion dollars and was not completed until 2004.

An aerial view of Millennium Park

What resulted was a new icon for Chicago. The images of Frank Gehry’s Pritzker Pavillion and Anish Kapoor’s “Cloudgate” sculpture (”the Bean”) are already inseperable from the thought of Chicago. The park has captured the attention of cities around the world who want to create a similar interactive, iconic space in their centers. Thus, the name of Millennium Park has come up often in planning for Oklahoma City’s new central park. In no way are we the first ones inspired by Millennium Park. In fact, this phenomenon has been named “The Millennium Park Effect.” Here are some recently planned and opened urban parks that have been compared to Millennium.

Discovery Green- Houston, TX

Discovery Green opened in April of 2008 in downtown Houston. It is of particular interest from Oklahoma City’s perspective because it was designed by Hargreaves Associates, the same firm that has been drawing preliminary plans for our MAPS 3 park. Additionally, this particular space in Houston is adjacent to the George R. Brown Convention Center and large Hilton hotel, making it compare nicely with the location of our future park.

A plan of Houston's Discovery Green.

Discovery Green is similar to Millennium Park in that it is a piece of reclaimed land located within the urban core, and it is a small space that is highly programmed with public art and performance venues. It also features the small 1-acre pond for model boats. The coolest thing I have read about Discovery Green is that they actually imported 100-year old oak trees to line the central promenade. Discovery Green is powered by its own solar array, so sustainable energy is something that Hargreaves may be interested in doing in Oklahoma City (The renderings of our park show windmills throughout the area).

An overview of Houston's Discovery Green, showing the George Brown Convention Center

The aerial view of Discovery Green shows its relationship with the neighboring convention center. Is this the best use of that frontage of Discovery Green?

Citygarden – St. Louis, MO

Citygarden was completed earlier this summer in central St. Louis, very close to the Gateway Arch. It is only a two-block area, about 3 acres, and a part of the “Gateway Mall” of St. Louis, an area that was demolished to create an urban park in 1993 but remained an ugly patch of grass until the completion of the Citygarden. The park cost around $30 million to complete.

An overview (rendering) of CitygardenCitygarden is primarily described as a sculpture garden, but it features some fountains, splash areas, and a cafe.Interactive public art is a major draw in the new generation of urban parks

So why the big turnaround now? Partly it’s the “wow” in the new city parks–fascinating gardens, theaters, concerts, fountains, ice skating. That’s why, says Harnik, the 2004 opening of the Millennium Park in Chicago had the biggest impact on the American parkland scene since New York’s great Central Park opened in 1873.

But Harnik insists there’s more to the revival–that we’re seeing a revival of factors “ignored in the din of massive suburbanization and sprawl–human scale, walkability, efficiency, and respect for ecological principles and democratic ideals.” Or put another way, we’re reawakening to parks’ ultimate value: “an interplay–a conversation–between people and nature.”

And as if that’s not enough, new and revived parks bring massive associated benefits. The parks embellish cities’ reputations and become “must see” destinations for tourists. And they turn into meeting places not just for city residents, but magnets for visitors from across their metro areas.