OKC Of The Future: A Look Back At The Original 1960's Plans For Downtown

The City of Oklahoma City announced the architecture team that will design the Thunder's new arena. A final design is expected sometime next summer.

Six decades ago, before the first MAPS projects were approved by voters, the city brought in a world-renowned architect I.M. Pei to revitalize downtown Oklahoma City. You might recognize his work; he designed the pyramid at the Louvre in Paris.

An area known as "Hell's Half Acre" was the main target. It was a stomping ground of saloons and domino parlors. With a 3-D model designed by Pei to guide them, the city began knocking down buildings across downtown.

“One key part of the plan was the need for superblocks,” said Lisa Chronister, the city’s assistant planning director.

Chronister says the superblocks provided a clean slate for projects like the Myriad Convention Center and Botanical Gardens, the Bank First building, and Oklahoma Towers.

But making room meant the original Criterion movie theater, the historic Huckins Hotel, and OKC's version of the Venetian Palace, the Baum building, where News 9 is today, had to go. “When you tear down that much history, you lose the heart and soul of the city,” said journalist and author Steve Lackmeyer.

But city leaders took it a step too far, bringing out the dynamite on buildings Pei never planned to bulldoze. More than 500 buildings in downtown OKC were reduced to rubble.

Steve Lackmeyer, author and long-time journalist at The Oklahoman, has covered OKC's renaissance for decades. He says the Pei plan called for more office space, and more parking garages to accommodate an increasingly car-centric community. But in the middle of the destruction, downtown was becoming a ghost town. “When you came on the weekends it would be dead,” Lackmeyer said.

“We lost a lot of old buildings that allow for small businesses to come in. And now everything is a large business or a corporate entity,” added special collections librarian Judie Matthews.

Any remaining hope for the Pei Plan died with the 1980s oil bust, leaving the downtown it was meant to save worse than before. “He was blamed for everything,” Lackmeyer said. “But the truth is, he got a lot right.”

Three decades after the start of the Pei plan, voters went to the polls with a new vision to fill downtown's deep scars. Oklahoma City residents approved the first MAPS plan in 1993, paving the way for nine projects that included the Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark, Cox Convention Center, and the Civic Center Music Hall.

2024 City Council Approval For New Arena

Fast forward to 2024, this past Tuesday, the city council voted to approve the contract with the team that will create the new home for the Oklahoma City Thunder.

“It's a big day on this journey and obviously many more big days ahead,” said Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt. “This is one of those days you can really recognize how far the city has come.”

Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt says the city’s future is bright and ever-changing. “It really is a day for dreamers,” Mayor Holt said. “The next step is really seeing what we can create.”

At the helm of this dream team are two firms, Manica Architecture and TVS, now tasked with designing the city’s new arena.

“Obviously with the budget we have and the aspirations that we have we really have the opportunity to be cutting edge in every way,” said Mayor Holt.

The new $900 million arena will be designed using digital models and virtual reality. “You can literally walk through the building and see all the spaces and how they interact with each other,” said Project Manager David Todd of the software. “

Project Manager David Todd is confident the team will give the city something special. “It's really a good marriage between the two and they've done this before,” Todd said. 

It's their past work that helped to seal the deal. Specializing in sports and entertainment venues, the team designed several projects together including the Chase Center in San Francisco, the Nissan Stadium in Nashville, Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, and a new stadium for the Chicago Bears. “It's really exciting that we can start designing and that here pretty soon we'll start seeing what this building's gonna look like,” Todd said.

The arena will be at least 750,000 square, meeting NBA specifications and requirements, and will maximize team revenues, ensuring the sustainability of major league professional sports in Oklahoma City. The city will own and be responsible for maintaining and operating the new arena, which will be home to the Oklahoma City Thunder NBA team.

In a statement, Oklahoma City Thunder Chairman Clay Bennett said:

“Oklahoma City is in the midst of an exhilarating transformation, evolving in ways we've never seen before. The prospect of our new arena signals even greater milestones ahead, heralding continued success and achievement for both our city and state. 

The partnership with David Manica and his outstanding architecture team provides an extraordinary opportunity for an innovative venue that promises to elevate Oklahoma City’s sports, entertainment, and cultural landscape. His visionary approach, combining cutting-edge design with functionality and aesthetic appeal, has resulted in award-winning architectural achievements that foster community engagement.

Each of David Manica’s projects has distinctly transformed the geography and skyline of its location, while significantly enhancing the potential for an exceptional guest experience.

I’m personally very much looking forward to the creative process and learning how our new arena will be visioned and designed, as well as seeing a concept brought forth that will be the pride of every citizen.”

Todd says the design process will begin immediately, and construction will start in 2026. The arena will be built where Prairie Surf Studios, formerly the Cox Convention Center, is located. The existing building is expected to be demolished in 2025.

The Thunder will continue to play home games at Paycom Center until the new arena opens with a target completion date of June 2028.