A Tale of Two Cities Film
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This film was created by the Urban Action Foundation, a non-profit organized to promote I.M. Pei’s vision for recreating downtown Oklahoma City. Take a good look at the future downtown – it’s a vision created through the use of a fish-eye lens that captured the finest details of Pei’s model of what downtown Oklahoma City would look like in 1989 – the city’s 100th anniversary.
12 Responses to “A Tale of Two Cities Film”
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Thanks for stopping in! This is a really exciting project for Oklahoma City. The scheduled date for unveiling is May 3rd, and will begin at 5:30 p.m. in the northeast lobby of the Cox Convention Center.
Speakers will include Mayor Mick Cornett and state historian Dr. Bob Blackburn. In addition to the model, the display will include new information panels about the history of downtown and the urban renewal era, and original paintings that were produced almost 40 years ago in conjunction with the introduction of the Pei Plan.
History
Renowned international architect I.M. Pei was contracted in 1964 by the Urban Action Foundation, a non-profit formed to help launch an urban renewal program for downtown Oklahoma City. His work included a creating a 10- by 12-foot model showing how downtown might look in 1989 after the program's completion. The model was part of an ambitious public relations effort aimed at gaining support for tearing down hundreds of old buildings...Read More
Media
Check out the various Photo Galleries and Video Collections of the Model and it's history.More to come soon!
Moving The ModelHistoric ImagesModel Close-UpsConstructing the Base
A Tale of Two Cities FilmI.M. Pei DocumentaryPartners
After watching the video, it appears that the trees are different than the ones on the model now… Any thoughts?
Appropriate that an urban blues plays while the scene scans Pei’s residential towers in the …wasteland. Astonishing that this still exists. Did they grasp how alive the ‘before’ scenes are compared to their over-designed ‘afters’?
This is real, and charming, nostalgia … not only because it is a piece of IM Pei history but also because it is sooo very reminiscent of the good/bad “teaching” videos presented in the 1960s of … good/bad manners … good/bad things to eat … etc. In this respect, the video is quite a hoot … wonder if it’s possible to get the name of the narrator?
Cody, Urban Renewal paid for a refurbishment of the model in the early 1980s. I’ve not found any record as to what was done, but it wouldn’t surprise me if there was some work done with the trees.
You’re kidding right Philip?
Steveej, I suspect what Philip is referring to is the opening sequence where you see a bustling Main Street (with Burt’s Shoes showing on the store front). That scene was the one slip by the filmmakers indicating downtown was not totally dead when this film was made. In fact, I’ve seen photos from this time period and it was far from dead, though the filmmakers were careful to only show downtown in it’s least flattering light.
How awful! This is propaganda at its finest. Urban Renewal is a wonderful example of what happens when big business and big government work together! We all get screwed.
This Urban Action Foundation was probably the propaganda wing of the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce..
This atrocity was carried out by the “greatest generation.” I guess after bombing and destroying all those cities in Europe and Japan they wanted to continue it at home. All in the name of boosting conventions!
And Lackmeyer please stop being a pseudo apologist for these atrocities. We didnt have to destroy 70% of downtown to get the skyline we currently have or to have any of the MAPS projects.
John, your description of me is a bit surprising and I’m not sure where you got that impression.
For what it’s worth, I don’t consider myself an apologist at all. I am among those who think Urban Renewal was extremely short-sighted and stubborn in tearing down the Baum Building, Midwest and Criterion Theaters just to replace them with what is absolutely a dreadful building – the Century Center Plaza. And no, we absolutely did not have to tear down as much as was razed by Urban Renewal to have the current skyline or MAPS. If you look at I.M. Pei’s plans, even he called for a much more surgical approach to reconfiguring downtown than the clear-cutting used by city fathers.
I try to examine everything, though, with the eyes of a historian – someone who tries to understand why and how things were done – and I’m not sure it’s helpful to go about that with preconceived ideas as to who is bad and who is good.
John, I hope you join us tomorrow night at 5:30 p.m. and maybe we can talk more.
Yeah, John- we probably should have just let Hitler and Hirohito run amok. Neville Chamberlain thinks you’re an idiot.
Great video, and it did not surprise me in the least to see that Doug and Steve beat me to it!
how long will this exibit be on display ?
Staining, Sanding and at great low prices.
The plunder barons have been busy pillaging us while the government holds their hands. GW2 Gold