Capitol Hill Pop-up Plaza

POP-UP PLAZA PLAZA MÓVIL Historic Capitol Hill - Calle Dos Cinco Oklahoma Municipal League OU Institute for Quality Communities

CONTENTS About Capitol Hill 2 Project Background 3 Tactical Urbanism 4 Community Workshop 5 Vision Boards 6 Concept Development 7 Location 8 Design Precedents 10 Pop-Up Plaza | Plaza Mรณvil 12 Concept Renderings 14 Next Steps 16 Collaborators 17

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Capitol Hill Capitol Hill is a historic district located about 1.5 miles south of downtown Oklahoma City. The area was originally developed as a separate city before Oklahoma statehood, and merged with Oklahoma City. Capitol Hill developed into a thriving retail main street for south Oklahoma City with department stores, theaters, churches, and businesses. The area declined with changing patterns of development in Oklahoma City, especially the construction of Crossroads Mall in 1974, where many of Capitol Hill’s department stores were able to relocate.

Since 1997, Capitol Hill organized as a district and began promoting the area through marketing, events, and economic development efforts. Since then, it has attracted $15 million of reinvestment including a streetscape and new businesses.

Today, Capitol Hill’s commercial district along Southwest 25th Street is also known as Calle Dos Cinco, featuring a number of locally-owned restaurants and services. Oklahoma City Community College has also become an anchor for the area with a new Capitol Hill Center for adult education. Many of Calle Dos Cinco’s programs each year celebrate the area’s thriving Latino community, including Fiesta Fridays throughout the summer months and Fiestas de las Americas, a Hispanic heritage parade and festival, in the fall.

Image: Calle Dos Cinco - Facebook

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Project Background In 2018, Capitol Hill’s Calle Dos Cinco district leaders submitted a proposal for a collaboration with the University of Oklahoma Institute for Quality Communities (IQC). IQC is an outreach program from the Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture at the University of Oklahoma that provides city planning and design assistance to Oklahoma towns and cities. IQC partnered with the Oklahoma Municipal League, a statewide group representing Oklahoma towns and cities, to provide matching funds for the project.

Calle Dos Cinco also worked with the Oklahoma City Metro Area Realtors (OKCMAR) to apply for a grant from the National Association of Realtors to help fund materials and provide volunteers for the project.

The Capitol Hill community wants to see a signature public space, like a plaza, at the heart of their historic commercial district. To build support and test ideas for a future permanent plaza, IQC supported Calle Dos Cinco and the Capitol Hill community in creating a Pop-Up Plaza, or Plaza MĂłvil. The plaza took place at Southwest 25th and Harvey, a location that already has community significance during most community events.

This document explains the community visioning process and volunteer collaboration that made Pop-Up Plaza possible, and outlines some possible next steps for Capitol Hill.

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Tactical Urbanism The Pop-Up Plaza will be based on ideas of Tactical Urbanism, a process of using temporary installations to test ideas for urban design. Tactical Urbanism is increasingly a planning and design tool used by local groups and governments alike, and its techniques have been used all over the world. Tactical Urbanism: Short Term Action for Long Term Change by Mike Lydon and Anthony Garcia (Island Press, 2015) documents many techniques and examples of this tool.

The Tactical Urbanism Materials and Design Guide (2016) is available free online. It has a wide range of ideas about materials and techniques for temporary design projects. http://tacticalurbanismguide.com/

This project by Global Designing Cities Initiative took place in Fortaleza, Brazil to demonstrate creating plazas out of public streets.

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Community Workshop The process formally began with a brainstorming session in the form of a workshop on Monday, June 3. About 20 people from all segments of the community attended the charrette, gathered in groups and discussed visions for a Capitol Hill Plaza. The group members discussed what they might like to do in a plaza, what times of day, week, or year they would visit the plaza, and who they would enjoy the plaza with. Groups also created vision boards that outlined their ideas about how the plaza would look and feel.

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Vision Boards Four groups at the community workshop produced vision boards that were collages of appealing patterns, features, activities, and characteristics of a plaza. Each group presented their vision board for discussion. Some groups even suggested names for the plaza, including Plaza de Colores or Plaza de las Americas.

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Concept Development Calle Dos Cinco and the IQC team considered the results of the Community Workshop in order to guide the development of a concept plan for the Pop-Up Plaza. A number of common themes emerged, summarized to the right.

Common themes included lots of color and vegetation, a central feature like a gazebo for gathering or performances, a variety of seating options, food, and programming for groups and families.

Harvey

The concepts were then applied to the selected location at Southwest 25th and Harvey, located at the heart of the commercial district of Calle Dos Cinco.

Templo de Alabanza

25th

Gazebo Stage Performance Children Zumba Games Activities Relaxing Sitting Reading Greenery Dentist Trees Landmark Wayfinding Interactive Art

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Location

Harvey

Harvey at 25th is already an important location for Calle Dos Cinco. Many events are held in this street throughout the year.

The environment at this corner is attractive for a plaza.

It is anchored with a historic church building dating to the 1940s. The intersection is has views toward the rest of the district, including the Oklahoma Opry and Yale Theater marquee signs. The dramatic postcard view to the north features the Skydance Bridge and Oklahoma City skyline, highlighting Capitol Hill’s connection with downtown Oklahoma City.

Templo de Alabanza

Dentist

The segment of Harvey stretching north from Southwest 25th has very little traffic, and Harvey terminates just four blocks north at 21st Street. Parallel conversations suggest that a pedestrian and bicycle connection into Wiley Post Park may be created at Harvey Street.

The space between buildings is approximately 112’ on the north side of the intersection. The curb-to-curb width on Harvey is 40’. The team explored two ideas for creating a plaza in this space: One idea completely closed half of the block to traffic, and another idea explored the possibility of preserving slow twoway traffic through the block with a “Festival Street” configuration. These alternatives will be discussed in coming pages.

Coney Island El Nacional

Harvey

There are a number of advantages to using public right-of-way for a plaza:

• Vacant developable parcels can be retained for • •

private investment and development.

Design with the right-of-way creates opportunities for visual focal points and landmarks in the streetscape.

Truly public access can be retained in the plaza.

Templo de Alabanza

Dentist

25th

Coney Island El Nacional

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25th and Harvey is already a key location for community events. Dancing, food vendors, and concerts all take place with the church and skyline as a backdrop.

(Images, clockwise from top: Concert performance - Tony Gaedert, Flickr; Food trucks and vendors - Calle Dos Cinco, Facebook; Dancing with skyline view - Calle Dos Cinco, Facebook.)

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Design Precedents One precedent for the Pop-Up Plaza concept is the idea of a “Festival Street.� A festival street is designed to allow vehicles to pass through slowly during most times, but also has features that make the street easy to close and convert into a pedestrianonly plaza for special events.

Festival streets might be designed with a curbless configuration, eliminating trip hazards for people walking. The shared vehicle space might be delineated with bollards, planters, and a different pavement texture.

Festival streets have removable bollards or gates at the ends of the space. They can be put in place when the plaza is closed to traffic. This configuration creates a multipurpose plaza comfortable at all times for pedestrians, that also preserves slowflowing traffic when not in use for special programs.

Curbless festival streets in Batavia, Illinois (top) and Auburn, Washington (bottom) allow slow-moving traffic during most times, but prioritize access for pedestrians and are easy to use for public events.

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Another precedent for the idea of installing a plaza in street right-of-way comes from Purcell, Oklahoma.

In Oklahoma, many historic main streets are served by a regular grid of streets allowing many choices for moving through a neighborhood.

Purcell, Oklahoma took advantage of this configuration to create space for Santa Fe Plaza. The design uses a 100’x130’ space in the street right-ofway for the gathering place. A parking and turnaround space is provided at the back of the plaza.

Main St.

Reducing vehicular access, while preserving pedestrian access, to just one side street in a very highlyconnected grid does not create significant disruption in the overall system.

2nd St.

Satellite view of Santa Fe Plaza, occupying less than a half-block of right-of-way in Purcell, Oklahoma. (Google Street View)

View of Santa Fe Plaza south entrance. For vehicles, 2nd Street has a terminating point that includes parking and turnaround area. (Google Street View) © 2019 Google

© 2019 Google

View of Santa Fe Plaza north entrance. The plaza’s landscaping and amenities invite pedestrians in from Main Street. (Google Street View)

© 2019 Google © 2019 Google

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Pop-Up Plaza | Plaza Móvil The Pop-Up Plaza was constructed by volunteers on Friday, October 18 and Saturday, October 19. The plaza remained in place for community members to experience and evaluate on Sunday, October 20, during the Open Streets OKC event on South Robinson. The plaza was also left in place on Monday, October 21.

Restaurants offered lunch to enjoy in the plaza, and business owners were invited to provide feedback on a normal weekday. The plaza was removed by volunteers on the evening of October 21.

Materials

• Recycled tires painted with bright

colors represent curbs or bollards.

• Corn starch and water-based • • • •

washable paint represent plaza surfaces.

Recycled industrial spools represented seating and tables.

Recycled metal barrels represented tables.

A stage constructed from recycled shipping pallets represented a gazebo or performance space.

Acrylic stencils cut by laser cutters, sprayed by spray chalk on the sidewalk, created wayfinding directing people to the plaza.

Activities

• Music played from a Bluetooth • • • • •

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speaker to create a festive atmosphere.

Visitors could get a balloon from OKC Metro Area Realtors.

Visitors could leave a “Wish” for the district on a colorful panel.

Visitors carried food up from Open Streets to enjoy in the plaza.

Games were in place for children.

Lunch specials from local restaurants.

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Plaza Conceptual Views The renderings show example concepts for a permanent plaza in this location.

1

2 3

8

4 Templo de Alabanza

Dentist 5 6

7 25th Street

Harvey

1 Covered Seating/Stage - Small stage for performances 2 Shaded Zone - Flexible area for passive seating, street vendors, or audience seating 3 Food Truck Parking - Designated food vendor location.

4 Multi-Purpose Zone - Flexible open space for seating, dancing, or group exercise.

5 Gazebo - Traditional-style gazebo for gathering or performances 6 Shaded Seating Nooks - Corners feature shaded benches.

7 Curb Extension - Plaza extends into parking lane with protective planter wall.

8 Parking Access - Parking access is maintained in renovated alley.

100 ft

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200 ft

Views of Downtown

Anchored by the Church

The covered stage at the north of the plaza frames Capitol Hill’s view of the downtown skyline. The viewing area for the stage is a multi-purpose plaza shaded by rows of trees.

Like many famous cultural plazas, this location is anchored by a beautiful church structure that creates a backdrop for activities in the plaza, and a natural partner for activating the space.

Traditional Gazebo Traditional plazas often have a beautiful gazebo which plays a central role in programming the space. In this example, the gazebo creates a memorable view from 25th and Harvey at the heart of Calle Dos Cinco district.

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Next Steps Based on community feedback, a colorful plaza with landscaping, seating, and central place for performances and events would be an important addition to the Capitol Hill community. This document provided an overview of the community visioning, design principles, and tactical urbanism experiment for a Pop-Up Plaza in Capitol Hill at Calle Dos Cinco and Harvey. This space is picturesque, is already an important part of community events, and has a central location to benefit the entire Capitol Hill business district.

Additional Community Support: Additional outreach to the public should continue, to better understand the community’s interest in pursuing, building, and programming such a plaza. The materials in this report can be repurposed as a presentation to share with community groups, build local support, and continue to refine the design concepts to make sure that the plaza fits local needs. Additionally, the local partners could consider following up with another public event in the space to get feedback.

Further Design & Planning: Design efforts for a permanent plaza should consider the findings from the public workshops outlined in this report. In addition, the plaza design should consider possibilities for utilizing

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Harvey to connect to Wiley Post Park, the Oklahoma River, and beyond to Scissortail Park. Maintenance, operations, and programming will be important considerations for a permanent plaza.

Funding & Implementation: Current and upcoming initiatives in Oklahoma City, including the Strong Neighborhoods Initiative and MAPS 4, may be able to provide funding support to placemaking initiatives like a permanent plaza for Calle Dos Cinco.

Local donors and corporate sponsors are often a source of matching funds. Don’t overlook the potential of local inkind donations by contractors and skilled workers.

The AARP Community Challenge funds over 150 community projects each year. The program funds projects for public space, bike/walk mobility, and housing that have fast implementation schedules.

The National Association of Realtors, through OKCMAR’s partnership with Capitol Hill, may be able to provide additional support through its Placemaking Grant and Smart Growth Action Grant.

Collaborators These individuals and organizations contributed to the project in the planning or installation stages.

Calle Dos Cinco at Historic Capitol Hill Gloria Torres Miriam Ortega Evan Rink Mario Medrano Edgar Medina Miriam Campos

Executive Director Promotions Coordinator Board President Board Vice President Board Treasurer Board Member Oklahoma City Metro Area Realtors

Community Volunteers Donna Cervantes Heidi Chavarria Shannon Entz Mary Frantz Maria Martinez Yostin Mendoza Ana Hernandez Royce Liston Alejandro Montelongo Fernando Ochoa Alexia Osuna Yessenia Pacheco Lluviaa Ramirez Silvia Sandate Jennifer Sylvester America Zuniga

City of OKC Student City of OKC - Strong Neighborhoods Initiative Community Volunteer Student Student Student Oklahoma City Community College Student OKC Public Schools Student Student Student Sandate Nutra Salud City of OKC - Strong Neighborhoods Initiative Student

Sally Allen Cheryl Bush-Willard Glen Cosper Veronica Galaviz Andrea Jalaff Jabson Gary Jones Isabella Jones Kristi Mansell Hutton Jimmy Nguyen Sharyl Pickens Kimberly Robbins Carolyn Sims Jessica Thompson

University of Oklahoma Institute for Quality Communities Shane Hampton Hope Mander Ron Frantz Sonia Ramirez Alice Calmon Taylor Huizinga Matthew Kessler

Director Associate Director Environmental Design Coordinator Undergraduate Fellow Graduate Assistant Graduate Assistant Graduate Assistant

Funding provided in part by the Oklahoma Municipal League.

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Report prepared by: OU Institute for Quality Communities OU Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture 830 Van Vleet Oval Gould Hall 165 Norman, OK 73019