Historic Images
The I.M. Pei plan marked the beginning of the end for the downtown that was once the retail, entertainment and cultural center of Oklahoma City. While hundreds of buildings, many historic, were lost forever, they are preserved on film thanks to the efforts of the Oklahoma Historical Society and collectors throughout the state. The following photos are just a sampling of the collections being assembled by the Oklahoma Historical Society. Some of the later photos and renderings relating to the Pei Plan were provided by RetroMetroOKC, which is working in tandem with the Oklahoma Historical Society and the Oklahoma City/County Historical Society to increase awareness of Oklahoma City’s history. To learn more about what downtown looked like before the Pei Plan was launched, please visit http://www.okhistory.org/
20 Responses to “Historic Images”
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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
Unfortunate that even OKC was not spared the utopian, yet disastrous hand of modern city planning of the sixties, robbing countless American cities of their hard-earned history and identity. What a true loss of visual design variety in the built environment.
Urban renewal and the Eisenhower highway program have been the most devastating events to established residential neighborhoods, commercial districts, and urban cores leading to the growth of an unsustainable suburbia and barren, depopulated city streets.
I.M. Pei’s OKC urban planning concept model is truly a time capsule demonstrating the short-sighted and ill-conceived visions for America’s cities’ futures. In the historical photo archive, compare the richness and wealth of the former downtown with the fractured, patchwork of today.
Subsequent generations have and are recognizing the mistake of large scale demolition and investing trillions of dollars to rebuild and recreate vibrant, healthy urban environments. It is unfortunate that America lost so much of its wonderful history within such a short period to euphoric ignorance. Equally unfortunate is that this attitude still exists among most of the public with the irrevocable destruction of historic structures and neighborhoods.
Let the I.M. Pei model be a learning tool of our mistakes of the past.
What did what-passes-for-leadership in Oklahoma City learn from the outrageous disasters of Pei and Urban Renewal?
In the days since the week of 9-11-09, eight full years into the “new world” created by the disasters of 9-11-01, the paid vandals of the Oklahoma Department of Transportation have continued the sorry legacy of “Urban Renewal” by destroying the OKC Union Station rail yard, together with the landmark S. Robinson and S. Walker subways underpassing that yard.
The 8-block-long, 12-track-wide yard was destroyed, allegedly, ostensibly to facilitate the “relocation of I-40,” a plan cooked up by highway lobby puppeteer Neal McCaleb during his last masquerade as state transportation czar under Gov. Frank Keating. The way for this destruction was first cleared, however, by the complete collapse of the State Historic Preservation Office under Bob Blackburn. Interference for the destruction was then consistently run by the OKC Chamber and its personnel, some of whom now populate this thing calling itself “retro metro.”
…and, so, the last, grand, Western capital city rail passenger center remaining unused but boasting all its original train-handling space and rail connections has now been unnecessarily lost forever in a city and state sorely needy of alternatives to “highways-only.”
Far from being a tool for repentance and reform, the legacy of the “Pei model” in Oklahoma City seems to be that the big shots continue to get away with just about any outrage they can imagine — while armies of simpering toadies smooth their way.
With all due respect, Tom, I’d subscribed to comments in this website, but I’d hoped that the comments would be related to the content posted and not anyone’s (mine, yours) political agenda. With your post, I’m unsubscribing.
You have an abundance of places to post your political opinions, and you have often done so. While I admire your stamina for being something akin to Don Quixote, I really have no interest in reading about what you have to say about the Pei Plan anymore. You are so very tiresome.
As I recall, it was George Bernard Shaw who said, “If you’re gonna tell people the truth, you’d better make ‘em laugh, or they’ll kill you.”
Some folks can tolerate nearly anything except the truth. And, likely, the inevitable weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth over what’s been lost at OKC Union Station hasn’t even really yet begun “in Ernest…”
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The saddest thing is they are too embarrassed to show the most intriguing buildings that they demolished, such as the Baum building and the Criterion Theater. The Baum Building was leveled to straighten Robinson and The Civic Center serves the same purpose as the Criterion, except the Criterion was at least a visual from the inside as well as out.
The Skirvin tower was replaced with a sight for sore eyes, by a building of the same size and no appeal. It sat across the street from the Skirvin Hotel, where B.C. Clarks now sits. The tower matched the red bricked hotel. For photos of these look at the Hillerman Collection on the Oklahoma Historical Society Website http://www.okhistory.org
Has anyone else bothered to look at the other projects that Pei had input on. To me, none of them look very appealing, as they are all square and glass, just like the Park Harvey Apartment building. The only project of his I liked would be the pyramids at the Louvre, in Paris.
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