Brady Park Under Construction

The construction of Brady Park is well underway and has been an exciting project for me as an architect and photographer. It covers an entire city block and will be the front yard to many of the other projects currently underway in the Brady District. As you can see in this image the space is within reach of downtown Tulsa and sits among several historic buildings. You may recall from one of my previous posts that I am also working on the Tulsa Paper Company Building renovations. They are just across the street. The first phase of that project was recently completed and the The Henry Zarrow Center for Art and Education is now open. Next up is the renovation of the west half for the Woody Guthrie Archives, the Brady Craft Alliance and the Tulsa Symphony.

Architecturally speaking, the most sticking element of the new park will be the pavilion. The design features a 217 feet long, aerodynamically shaped, zinc covered roof with 36 feet long cantilevered wings; a photovoltaic skylight array that will feed power back into the city grid; exterior walls of honed limestone; and a café with floor to ceiling operable glass walls. Very cool. Of course the park will have many other great amenities within its tree-lined perimeter including a 56 feet long covered stage for performances, open lawn seating, and bioswale gardens. The interactive fountain will surely be a hit with the kids and showcase a series of spectacular water and light displays. It will even have a bocce ball court!

The image below was captured just after sunrise as the sun was peaking over the horizon. To accentuate raw nature of a construction site, I processed the image for a more gritty and hardened look.  The tallest buildings were placed to the left of center and juxtaposed with the shorter horizontal buildings in the foreground for a balanced and compelling composition.

NIKON D90/16.0-85.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 – 16 mm, 1/6@f/11, ISO 200l}