The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/city-eyes-th-and-lewis-as-new-site-for-route/article_d3235877-c024-586d-ad49-398887e766e8.html (https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/city-eyes-th-and-lewis-as-new-site-for-route/article_d3235877-c024-586d-ad49-398887e766e8.html)

Very cool. That area is already hopping, but this would make it a true destination as much as anything in else in Tulsa. It's a big lot, but with that many units + a museum, I'm guessing a large parking garage and a fairly tall residential building would be part of it.

12,000 square feet is not a large museum though. The one in Sapulpa is bigger than that I'm pretty sure. Could be a nice compliment to the area, but with this kind of thing you either go big or go home. We don't need another random dinky museum, even if it is in a fairly active area.

Depends on what you do with the space.  I could blow your mind with 12,000 sq feet worth of space.  And don't forget, dinky museums can grow in time, plus it would be just one part of what you can do in the area.  I frankly love going to see little "pocket" museums in other cities around the world, they can be so fun, interesting and imaginative.  Think of them like getting a delicious ice cream treat as you stroll along, versus a long, draw out multi-course sit down meal.

Alternative headline could be “City to Boost Value of Land Owned by Former Mayor’s Family.”

Dropping from the 42,000 sq. ft. center at Avery Plaza to 12,000 sq. ft. is a significant reduction.  Nonetheless, I agree if done correctly it could still be a very good attraction.  More importantly, it doesn’t look like there was a realistic path to raising the funds necessary for the large center.  A smaller museum is better than an unrealized plan for a much larger museum.

I also think this location makes a lot more sense and ties into current development better than the Avery Plaza location.  Unless/until money is found to rehab the old bridge and open it up to pedestrians, it simply stands as a fenced off monument to Oklahoma’s failure to maintain its infrastructure.

Parking for it and Mother Road Market on the roof maybe? 

How about another 'Golden Drumstick' ??   That would be a great thing to have back on Route 66!

If it goes to 11th & Lewis what do you do with the site by the Avery Bridge?  Honestly not sure what would work best there but it's a great location.

I like the idea of it going there on 11th.  Course wish it were closer to my next projects on 11th near Peoria.  But think that with the transit going in that it should be easier for Tourists, and locals even, to zip up and down to the attractions on 11th and Downtown.  Just want to make sure my next projects next to Buck Atoms and near the Mayo Gold are a sure thing stop for the tourists and busses.

Need another restaurant by that corner if anyone knows of anyone looking for a space.  That nexus around Buck Atoms to the Peoria corner will be a great location here in another year.  ;)

^Sounds great Artist. Was sad to see how few people were out and about in your area last Friday, while Ida Red's was packed.

I don't know how I feel about that corner though. On one hand, there are several buildings there that have been rehabilitated into some cool shops already. On the other hand, it feels like 6th and Peoria and the motherroad area have better starts at becoming a more cohesive attraction area. If you could take all the stuff in the Peal district and squish it closer together, it would be an amazing district. Would be great to have a little trolley or something for that area so that you don't have to worry about driving and parking between each thing.

I don’t know, it seems like attractions along a celebrated highway called the “Mother Road” are inevitably going to be car centric.  Embrace it.  Celebrate it.  Exploit it.

The fascinating thing about the "Mother Road" & Route 66 is how it went through so many traditional Main Street type areas, places that were both pedestrian friendly, and that you got to by car.

The areas on 11th that will be the most attractive will be the pedestrian friendly ones. But, you will need parking lol.  It's a unique case for sure.

Yes, we know that our area is right on the edge of either making it as a more lively one in the evenings, or swiftly changing into only daytime activity.  This next year or two will likely tell the tale.   

I feel like we have a better chance at making the 11th & Peoria spot into one that's more evening/shopping friendly.  There are already a few shops and attractions there, a few restaurants, and spots for more.  If we can get just a few more shops and restaurants.... it can be another Cherry Street/Brookside area.  Gotta have that right mix/density.

I'm excited to see that!

We love the Buck Atoms shop and the hand made home goods place next to it.

That whole strip from downtown to TU needs to keep on trucking. It'll be tough for a while, but eventually that area will be the area to live. It's already tough to even  buy a fixer upper in that area, much less find one for cheap! Folks know what they have and know what the plans are so they're holding out and land lords are keeping places too. I'm thankful for those who are pushing ahead in aspiration for what it will be, despite fear of what the area was or is at the moment.

I'm hoping the area remains truly mixed-use. It needs to be sort of a utopia for all income ranges from students to single parents and also dual income families trying to build a life. That's the stuff that makes great urban areas. Not some fake economically-exclusive area where prices are set "From the 200's"... The Central Park Townhomes are great for what they are, but that kind of development won't help the Pearl become a truly "Tulsan" neighborhood and isn't the only type of housing the area needs.

The mixed income apartments at 6th and Lewis are something that will help build a thriving urban society rather than purely high income neighborhood. The area needs to be approachable for many income levels or it'll become another "us vs them" neighborhood and will appear like wealthy are just pushing their way up to reclaim everything south of I244. All the citizens of the area need to feel that they're part of this and that those rejuvenating places are building a better village for all rather than just a new quaint gentrified spot with a catchy name by downtown to make landlords richer.

And here I thought Kathy's Korner had a nice ring to it.

A small variance request for the recent MX-2 zoning on this corner will be taken up next week by the Board of Adjustment: http://www.tulsaplanning.org/cityboa/cases/BOA-22945.pdf.  There are some interesting renderings on this PDF.

(https://i.imgur.com/78Pa3Iw.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/Yh8GjFb.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/3GZfL8O.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/oOoXHZp.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/jcv9WYb.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/Bt3acZ8.png)

That would be a great addition at 11th & Lewis.  What a transformation for that area which not long ago was still pretty sketchy.

Great idea but total crap design of a building. It's a Route 66 museum - why not make it Art Deco? Make the building be an homage to 66. It needs to be a destination in itself. I'm talking curves, neon, colorful frescoes, giant ball of twine on top on a rotating pedestal - something!! That design is hipster boring and one I'd drive right by without even glancing over - honestly it might as well say Route 66 Mini-Storage.

And don't even get me started on that crap building across from the Mother Road Market.

Art Deco would have been better, but it's still a vast improvement for the area and incorporates a ton of good elements. I still think the museum is kind of a joke being so small, but maybe it gets started here and can get a larger space down the road (literally and figuratively).

Yes - it's certainly better than nothing (ie - the giant concrete pad that's there now) but honestly they should start over and do it right the first time and this time turn off the autopilot function in autocad (or maybe they hired the laziest architect they could find and I say that speaking as a former architecture student). Not to mention, before more infill is added to the area, the city needs to figure out the street situation. Now that most of 11th is going to be two-lanes with mostly unused bike lanes on both sides, adding more people living, working, and shopping on it is a real problem. Two-lanes can't support that kind of traffic as they can't support the traffic that's already on 11th. People are going to start avoiding the area due to the absurd congestion in every direction which is going to hurt the businesses on it. 11th & Lewis is already an unholy clusterfark - adding more people and less street is not going to help the situation. Sure we can dream that everyone is going to hop on their bikes and pedal down there instead of getting in their cars but in the real world that's not going to happen.

As a previous architecture study, you should look into road diets and the benefits of them. Reducing 11th Street to two lane is needed, as is it needed for most streets near Downtown. Traffic isn't a bad thing. Slowing traffic actually provides enormous benefits to business along a route. It gives more time for people in their cars to see things versus driving 50-60 mph past a business. Expanding roads in the urban part of Tulsa was a mistake that we made long ago, and the city is just now getting around to correcting it.

I could go into thousands of examples of two lane roads in cities much larger than Tulsa with 10x more density and they do just fine. Perfect example would be DC, specifically look at the Georgetown neighborhood. Look at Wisconsin Avenue - it's two lane surrounded by other two lane roads (exception being M Street). Yet it's by far the densest retail street in DC, has a nearby University, one of the largest medical centers in the region, etc. Wisconsin carries thousands of more cars per day than 11th Street - 28,000 per day which is almost as much as 71st, Yale, etc which are much larger. We waste so much of our tax dollars every year trying to maintain infrastructure we've over built and isn't needed. Just so people don't have to be 'inconvenienced' by not being able to drive 60 on an arterial street or heaven forbid someone has to sit through 1 or 2 cycles of traffic lights that adds a minute or two to their drive. 

As for the museum being "small", am I right in it looking like it might be about 9,000 sq feet? If you do it right you can make a lot of magic in 9,000 sq feet.  My new place on Route 66 which will have a Tulsa Art Deco Museum component in total is about 2,500 sq ft and about half that is the Art Deco part.

I could create an incredible world you could spend hours in if I had 9,000 sq feet! 

I believe it's actually planned to be 12,000 square feet, which FWIW appears to be about the same size as the one in Sapulpa, which is focused on cars...

So I'm kinda salty since my team got this pulled out from under this, but we had integrated the BRT bus stop in our design so that it was implement as part of the patio. Are they also going with 58 parking spaces for that entire area? I was thinking that a parking garage was required for the property. I think a garage would have really helped integrate it with MRM as well as the properties on the east all the way to Atlanta.

But anyway, I think it will be great for the area and hope it works out. Putting that many more residents in the area will be helpful and should help solidify the BRT corridor.

Looks like that area in blue is a multi-level garage, not sure how many total spaces it will have though.  It would make sense to have some public parking for both the museum and MRM as well as the space labeled "restaurant" on 11th (looks pretty small, probably more like a coffee shop).

It does appear there is a multi level parking garage. Seems like the museum could easily be converted to retail uses if at some point money can be raised to expand the museum. I think if we really want something as a regional draw, it needs to be much larger than 12,000 sq. ft. Right now this is probably more of something people would stop at MRM and then walk over to the museum.

Only thing I hope they change is the odd steel fencing thing they have that faces 11th Street. They should just keep the lawn area open to the street the entire frontage instead of having a fence people have to walk around to get to the lawn area. That would just section off part of the sidewalk and create a really odd pedestrian environment and would make the open space far less inviting. I really don't like that part.

Outside of that, I think this would be a good addition to the area.