Monday, April 26, 2004
Here's another column I wrote for LOUD. I promise to have new posts by the end of the week. Also, the title is taken from the Ben Folds Five song "Underground."
We Can Be Happy Underground
The Oklahoma City Metro Concourse opened on August 2nd, 1974, and connects downtown buildings from the Dowell Parking Garage on 4th and Harvey to the former Myriad Convention Center. Finding the Concourse on the north end is a bit of a trick. There is an unmarked elevator on the east side of the building, which leads to a concrete passageway. Take a left, then right through the glass doors, and you’re inside. At this point, the Concourse itself looks like something from an old Star Trek episode, or a Planet of the Apes movie. It is a simple square concrete passage with yellow, gold, orange and brown upon the walls in combinations and amounts not seen since the days of President Ford. If you’ve made it this far, congratulations, and enjoy the air conditioning. The world you are in now has much to offer your senses that the surface world, with its angry yellow sky-ball, simply cannot. A sense of isolation is normal, as is a tendency to speak in whispers.
By the time you make it to the Box Parking Garage, the concrete has given way to wood paneling and an incongruous collection of black and white drawings of European renaissance architecture. Notable among them is a nice drawing of Notre Dame, and notably absent is any kind of explanation or credit for the pieces. Still nice to look at, though.
Farther ahead, underneath Robert S Kerr Avenue, the walls are covered with mirrors and rope lighting, which I liked, without really being able to say why. Like so much of the concourse, it seems to resonate with how I remember the world as a kid. Speaking of, the next bit of the concourse features art from local Jr. High Schools celebrating “Youth Art Month.” I’m not sure what month that is, but it seems that these paintings and collages have been hanging there since the late 1970’s/early 1980’s. That means that the kids that did them are now in their 30’s. That thought kind of creeped me out, so I kept moving.
Beginning at 101 Park Avenue and continuing through the BancFirst building and Bank One buildings, you’ll find a collection of old black and white photos of Oklahoma City from the 1950’s. The Skirvin is featured prominently, but other landmarks, such as the Masonic Temple and the First Christian Church, also receive star treatment. And if you’ve ever wanted to see picture of a giant Marilyn Monroe towering above the old Criterion Movie Theater, it is down there, too.
There is not enough room in this column to tell you all of the sights and sounds I encountered in the Concourse, but as I left the Cox Business Center I had the same wonderful feeling I get every time I walk out of a museum or a play. My eyes were once again opened to the possibility of wonder in the mundane world, and I hope you all have a chance to experience that.
We Can Be Happy Underground
The Oklahoma City Metro Concourse opened on August 2nd, 1974, and connects downtown buildings from the Dowell Parking Garage on 4th and Harvey to the former Myriad Convention Center. Finding the Concourse on the north end is a bit of a trick. There is an unmarked elevator on the east side of the building, which leads to a concrete passageway. Take a left, then right through the glass doors, and you’re inside. At this point, the Concourse itself looks like something from an old Star Trek episode, or a Planet of the Apes movie. It is a simple square concrete passage with yellow, gold, orange and brown upon the walls in combinations and amounts not seen since the days of President Ford. If you’ve made it this far, congratulations, and enjoy the air conditioning. The world you are in now has much to offer your senses that the surface world, with its angry yellow sky-ball, simply cannot. A sense of isolation is normal, as is a tendency to speak in whispers.
By the time you make it to the Box Parking Garage, the concrete has given way to wood paneling and an incongruous collection of black and white drawings of European renaissance architecture. Notable among them is a nice drawing of Notre Dame, and notably absent is any kind of explanation or credit for the pieces. Still nice to look at, though.
Farther ahead, underneath Robert S Kerr Avenue, the walls are covered with mirrors and rope lighting, which I liked, without really being able to say why. Like so much of the concourse, it seems to resonate with how I remember the world as a kid. Speaking of, the next bit of the concourse features art from local Jr. High Schools celebrating “Youth Art Month.” I’m not sure what month that is, but it seems that these paintings and collages have been hanging there since the late 1970’s/early 1980’s. That means that the kids that did them are now in their 30’s. That thought kind of creeped me out, so I kept moving.
Beginning at 101 Park Avenue and continuing through the BancFirst building and Bank One buildings, you’ll find a collection of old black and white photos of Oklahoma City from the 1950’s. The Skirvin is featured prominently, but other landmarks, such as the Masonic Temple and the First Christian Church, also receive star treatment. And if you’ve ever wanted to see picture of a giant Marilyn Monroe towering above the old Criterion Movie Theater, it is down there, too.
There is not enough room in this column to tell you all of the sights and sounds I encountered in the Concourse, but as I left the Cox Business Center I had the same wonderful feeling I get every time I walk out of a museum or a play. My eyes were once again opened to the possibility of wonder in the mundane world, and I hope you all have a chance to experience that.
