The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

Today the Tulsa World posted a story in the Business Section that included the plight and demise of many an architectural firm in this country as a result of the global economy. 

http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/article.aspx?subjectid=46&articleid=20090322_46_E2_JCSNis902910

One such firm was Sienna Architects, the principal architect behind PLANitulsa I thought?  I remember attending a presentation at OSU-Tulsa and Gary Reddick of Sienna giving a somewhat lengthy presentation on Portland, OR.

Researching this further, the Oregonian reports that Sienna closed its doors in January of this year.  I was a lil surprised that we haven't heard of this development.  Is an architect still needed on this?  Do we have one?  I thought Sienna was brought in by Fregonese to help put all the plans prepared at the work study meetings together and formulate the scenarios?

I don't think that Sienna Architecture was ever one of the PLANiTULSA consultants...unless they were a sub-contractor to Fregonese.  All of the main consulting firms  on the team are listed on the PLANiTULSA website: TIP Strategies (economic development and modeling), Collective Strength (research/surveys), Kimley-Horne (transportation), etc.

Fregonese has, on occasion, pulled in experts from other firms to take a look at issues / problems that are specific to Tulsa.  Gary Reddick seems to be, among other things, an expert on creative solutions to parking problems.  That is, eliminating the need for surface parking lots by building up, and incorporating the parking into multi-use designs. 

He came to Tusla to speak at the TulsaNow event (and an AIA event), but has been back several times b/c of the opportunity he saw here.  (I think a couple local develpers have sought out his services...including, if I remember correctly, ZigZag.)

Who knows?  Perhaps Sienna's loss will be Tulsa's gain.  We can use all the creative solutions we can get!