Articles by Asad Syrkett

Photo © Robert Shimer/Hedrich Blessing/Courtesy Elliott + Associates Architects Designed by 'Harvard Five' architect John Johansen in 1970, Stage Center'previously known as Mummer's Theater'is mired in preservation controversy: The prime downtown parcel on which it sits is the envy of developers, while the seminal (though deteriorating) building is the darling of preservationists. Unoccupied since a 2010 flood and now up for sale, the theater's fate hangs in the balance.

Photo © Rob Ferguson The newly finished SkyDance pedestrian bridge, by OKC-based design group S-X-L, takes its form from the colorful state bird, the scissor-tailed flycatcher. The team won a competition to create the 197-foot-tall, locally-fabricated-steel structure. Architect Hans Butzer, a member of the S-X-L team, hopes the bridge will become a symbol of an enlivened Oklahoma City.

Photo © Rob Ferguson When New York's Rogers Marvel Architects (RMA) finishes work on SandRidge Commons (left) in 2014, the site'which is anchored by a soon-to-be-renovated 30-story office tower designed by Pietro Belluschi in 1967'will include a series of connected public greens and two administrative-office buildings for oil and natural-gas company SandRidge Energy. The project, a collaboration with Chicago-based landscape designers Hoerr Schaudt and Arup's environmental group, aims to bring restaurants, shops, and other amenities downtown, says RMA principal Rob Rogers. It will incorporate nearby Kerr and Couch parks and, with the renovation of the Belluschi building, create SandRidge's new

In 2010, Oklahoma City commissioned a renovation of the greenhouse (by Gensler) and park (by the Office of James Burnett), leading to greater use of the gardens.

Photo © Steven Wilson Urban revitalization isn't just about OKC's downtown core. A stone's throw from the burgeoning city center are two Oklahoma City neighborhoods with histories that stretch back to the early 1920s: Bricktown (above) and Automobile Alley (right). Both are getting new leases on their previous lives (as centers for freight operations and the auto industry, respectively). Today Bricktown'and its water-taxi-navigable canals'is home to restaurants, nightclubs, and the corporate headquarters of fast-food giant Sonic. Automobile Alley is similarly dotted with shops and restaurants, and, like Bricktown, has seen many of its concrete-and-brick buildings become rental apartments and condominiums.

Photo © Russell Chronister Three pavilions for rowing (two of which are visible above), designed by OKC-based Elliott + Associates Architects, breathe new life into once-disused land along the Oklahoma River's northern bank. The newest and tallest, the five-story, steel-frame Chesapeake Finish Line Tower (above center), cantilevers over its concrete base, marking the official end point for races, while the Devon Boathouse (above right) is home to the Oklahoma City University rowing and kayaking teams. The boathouses have garnered national attention and elevated Oklahoma City's status as a world-class city for training and competition, says principal Rand Elliott.

Along Brooklyn's Atlantic Avenue, buses and cyclists whiz by to the sounds of car horns, laughing children, and the occasional jazz quartet.