MENDING A RIFT: Urbanism for North Tulsa, Oklahoma UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE 2017 GRADUATE URBAN DESIGN STUDIO
Project Description Mending A Rift: Urbanism for North Tulsa focuses on a one-square-mile site immediately north of downtown Tulsa, adjacent to the Arts District, a downtown hub of Millennial and Gen-x activity, but cut off by the Crosstown Expressway. Over the course of the 20th Century, Greenwood was twice ravaged. On June 1, 1921, Black Wall Street and large swaths of Greenwood were razed by white rioters, who dropped home-made bombs from WWI era bi-planes. Greenwood recovered in later decades, but was largely demolished again by 1960s Urban Renewal and replaced by the Crosstown Expressway and the University Center at Tulsa. These together today occupy some 150 acres formerly occupied by homes and businesses; and our entire site is now a food desert, with only 2,800 residents within its square-mile-plus boundary. and/or residential purposes. In Phase III, Greenwood Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard become north-south corridors of development that reach Pine Street, the northern border of the site. In the area bounded by these three streets, we recommend removing the 1970s culs-de-sacs that back properties onto these major thoroughfares in order to reconnect the street network and allow new buildings to front and spatially contain important streets. PROJECT SITE (DOWNTOWN SHOWN BELOW) The site is home to two historic neighborhoods, Brady Heights to the west and Greenwood to the east. Under Tulsa s early 20th Century Jim Crow laws, Greenwood was the legally segregated black neighborhood in town, with 10,000 residents occupying its 400 acre precinct. Thus, though Tulsa boomed -- the new oil capital of the world -- most of the wealth remained within the art deco high-rises downtown and with those who owned them. Nevertheless, within the economic isolation of Greenwood, what was known as Black Wall Street also African-American community. A multiracial consortium of public and private interests invited us to study this area, challenging us to balance critical issues of history, memory, justice, and the economic opportunity represented by so much vacant land proximate to new growth. We envision and recommend development on our site in three phases. Phase I, entailing no demolition of existing buildings, proposes a new mixed-use Five Points neighborhood to the southwest, a new BMX Arena and National Headquarters district to the southeast, and the block-scale seeds of a new Black Wall Street at the southern end of Greenwood all site neighborhoods two-to-three-story missing-middle housing and mixed-use building types needed to (re)create the density required to support grocery stores and other pedestrian-proximate retail uses, which density we calculate to be 15,000-25,000 people per square mile. 1920S ART DECO TULSA THE DESTRUCTION OF GREENWOOD 1921 In Phase II, development continues north along Greenwood Avenue. A new Greenwood Cultural Center and the existing Vernon Chapel prominently sit on a new Greenwood Plaza. The Tulsa campuses of Oklahoma State University and Langston University are envisioned as urban campuses, not unlike the University of Chicago or the College of Charleston. In this formal model, University-owned- the public character of the street, can Working in tandem with existing local initiatives to promote permaculture gardening on currently vacant land, we propose a linear urban market on MLK Jr. Boulevard, akin to historic precedents such as the Charleston Market. The new market building would be proximate to the largest portions of the site dedicated to permaculture: the southern facing slopes of a large hill to the southeast, and the gardens adjoining a Public Montessori School to the near southwest. Finally, we imagine re-urbanizing the Crosstown Expressway, replacing it with a new Crosstown Boulevard boasting a spacious green median in a 150- foot R.O.W. lined by four-to-six-story residential buildings. An edge shared by distinct neighborhoods, the new Crosstown Boulevard would become a new urban center in its own right. PROJECT DESCRIPTION 1
P H A S E I: F I V E P O I N T S N E I G H B O R H O O D (S O U T H W E S T ); BMX N AT I O N A L H E A D Q U A RT E R S (S O U T H E A S T ); G E N E R A L S I T E I N F I L L (N O D E M O L I T I O N ) P H A S E II: OSU-T U L S A & L A N G S TO N ; G R E E N W O O D A V E N U E ( B L A C K W A L L S T R E E T ); G E N E R A L S I T E I N F I L L P H A S E III: P I N E S T R E E T (N O RT H ); MLK B O U L E VA R D (C E N T E R L E F T ); G R E E N W O O D A V E N U E (C E N T E R R I G H T ); C R O S S TO W N B O U L E VA R D (S O U T H ); F I N A L G E N E R A L S I T E I N F I L L 0 P RO J E C T S I T E / M A S T E R P L A N P H A S I N G 400 800 N 1600 2
MIXED-USE BUILDING LOFT BUILDING CORNER LOT TWELVE-FLAT SIX-FLAT STUDENT DESIGNS FOR PROPOSED MISSING MIDDLE HOUSING 1 3
FIVE POINTS NEIGHBORHOOD MASTER PLAN (HALF-MILE DIAMETER) FIVE POINTS - PROPOSED AERIAL FIVE POINTS - 1967 FIVE POINTS - PRESENT FIVE POINTS - PROPOSED FIVE POINTS: PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE 4
BLACK WALL STREET - VERNON CHAPEL (1950) BLACK WALL STREET - VERNON CHAPEL (PRESENT) BLACK WALL STREET - VERNON CHAPEL (PROPOSED) GREENWOOD PLAZA AND AVENUE (PROPOSED) REDEVELOPMENT OF GREENWOOD AVENUE 5
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO OSU - STILLWATER OSU - TULSA & LANGSTON UNIVERSITY EXISTING OSU - TULSA & LANGSTON UNIVERSITY PROPOSED OSU - TULSA & LANGSTON UNIVERSITY EXISTING OSU - TULSA & LANGSTON UNIVERSITY PROPOSED UNIVERSITY CENTER AT TULSA 6
PROPOSED MLK MARKET BUILDING (CHARLESTON PRECEDENT) PROPOSED GREEN WEAVE (INCLUDING PERMACULTURE GARDENS BUILDING ON EXISTING INITATIVES IN TULSA) PERMACULTURE - TO - MARKET PROJECT 7
EXISTING CROSSTOWN EXPRESSWAY PROPOSED CROSSTOWN BOULEVARD TULSA EXPRESSWAY SYSTEM, BEFORE AND AFTER PROPOSED BOULEVARD SECTION CROSSTOWN BOULEVARD 8
GREENWOOD NEIGHBORHOOD STREET 2,800 PEOPLE / SQ. MILE DETACHED SINGLE FAMILY HOUSES (1-2 STORIES) JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN BLVD, EXISTING EXISTING CUL-DE-SACS IN NORTH GREENWOOD CHICAGO RAILROAD SUBURB STREET 7,000 PEOPLE / SQ. MILE DETACHED SINGLE FAMILY HOUSES (2-3 STORIES) JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN BLVD, PROPOSED CUL-DE-SAC DEMOLITION CHICAGO NEIGHBORHOOD STREET 28,000 PEOPLE / SQ. MILE MISSING MIDDLE HOUSING (2-3 STORIES) MAIN STREET, EXISTING THE IMPORTANCE AND CHARACTER OF DENSITY Key to restoring 1920s Greenwood prosperity is restoring 1920s Greenwood density (approximately 16,000 people per square mile) and mix of uses. Street views above illustrate how such density can be achieved in 2-3 story buildings that include dwelling types ranging from single-family houses to six-unit apartment buildings. RECONNECTED STREETS WITH NEW DEVELOPMENT MAIN STREET, PROPOSED CONNECTED STREETS & URBAN DENSITY 9
NEIGHBORHOOD STREET TYPE A (66 FT R.O.W.) REGULATING PLAN AND SAMPLE CODE PAGES 10