Planners see the Centennial Walk as a pedestrian path that educates and entertains.

By Brian Barber

Tulsa World

The Centennial Walk is touted as the Vision 2025 project that ties together all of the plans for downtown Tulsa.

Without it, multimillion-dollar facilities such as the BOK Center, the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame and the renovated Maxwell Convention Center would be hubs of activity but still fairly isolated.

"As downtown develops, we must also work to develop a pedestrian-friendly atmosphere for it to be successful," said Mayor Bill LaFortune, who recently approved the design plans.

The two-mile walk through downtown will entertain and educate people about Tulsa's colorful past with historical markers. But it will also connect the city's major attractions with well-lit, tree-lined sidewalks made of brick-like concrete pavers.

"It really puts everything in a nice, neat package," Downtown Tulsa Unlimited President Jim Norton said.

Construction on the Centennial Walk's core, which is the portion that is funded, is scheduled to begin in May and be completed in December 2008.

The Walk: Shortly after LaFortune took office in 2002, he held a Vision Summit to determine where Tulsans wanted to see their city in the future.

At that time, streetLife was formed by a group of people with a vested interest in seeing downtown thrive.

"We were totally unofficial and unorganized," architect Kathleen Page said. "We just wanted to kick around some ideas and present them to city leaders. It was democracy in action."

While it was great to hear people envisioning major projects, like the arena, she said, "we wanted to deal with how to get people back on the streets and infuse life into downtown."

Developer Jamie Jamieson, a member of streetLife, said the goal was to reconnect Tulsans with their downtown and re-establish a sense of center - both physically and spiritually.

So the group suggested that Tulsa create something similar to Boston's Freedom Trail, which is widely considered to be the country's premier historic walk.

The idea was greeted by officials as a somewhat nebulous concept at first, Page said, but eventually it earned support.

In September 2003, Tulsa County voters approved the Vision 2025 package, including nearly $10.4 million to help pay for the core of the walk, along with a new downtown park to serve as the trailhead.

Page's firm, Consynsus, teamed with Joe Howell's architectural firm, Howell & Vancuren, to win the project bid and set out to map the Centennial Walk.

The chosen route came about because of two factors: budget and suitability for walking.

With limited financial resources, planners are tapping into a variety of other sources, including tax increment financing and sales tax dollars, along with grants, by directing the route to areas where improvements already had funding Howell said.

"The hardest thing for Tulsa is that we are losing the historic context of our buildings through demolition," Page said.

"It doesn't matter how interesting the bricks are under your feet. If you don't have something to look at for a full block, you won't take that walk."

Much of the route is concentrated around Tulsa's art deco buildings and sites on the National Register of Historic Places in the heart of downtown. Centennial Walk medallions will appear in the sidewalk to guide the way.

Tulsa Tablets: They can be referred to as historical markers, but planners prefer to call them 1ulsa Tablets."

"The intent is to not be so solemn and serious," said Jamieson, also a member of the Vision 2025 Downtown Tulsa Design Advisory Committee.

Page added, "We want to avoid the highway-marker syndrome."

As pedestrians navigate the route, they will encounter tall, metallic Tulsa Tablets - 24 in total - that will highlight the surrounding buildings and detail bits of the city's history involving outlaws, railroads, famous visitors, music, the performing arts, early politics, banks, schools and race relations.

Negotiations are under way to incorporate photography from the Beryl Ford/Rotary Club of Tulsa collection. The markers will present age-specific information - high for adults and low for children perhaps with clues to find the next marker.

Author Michael Wallis, who wrote the book "Route 66: The Mother Road," and his wife, Suzanne Walls, have been hired to craft the text.

"Every word counts on a project like this," Michael Wallis said.

He said they will have to carefully consider the audience. "It's important to really think about whether something will be relevant in 10 years or even in 50 years, because these markers will be out there a long time," he said.

"It's also important to realize that many of the people who stop and read these things don't know squat about Tulsa."

But Wallis said they will strive to capture imaginations.

"There's going to be stuff about bootleggers, oil barons, whore houses and gangsters," he said. "When you talk about history, you do it warts and all. That's what people like to hear."

Gusher Park: Of the roughly 320 trees that will be planted along the walk, about 50 will be in a new park that will serve as the trailhead as well as a gathering spot.

Gusher Park - its working title - will encompass half a square block located off Sixth Street between Main Street and Boston Avenue.

A parking lot bought and donated by Land Legacy, a nonprofit conservation organization, will be transformed into a green oasis for downtown Tulsa

"This is a quality-of-life issue for anyone who spends a significant amount of time downtown," Land Legacy Executive Director Robert Gregory said.

Gusher Park will have a small amphitheater to accommodate small musical events or speeches. A full map of the Centennial Walk will be its backdrop.

The park also will feature a fountain that will slowly bubble up until it dramatically blasts water into the air every hour or so to simulate an oil-well strike.

The iridescent material that will make up the fountain will give the water an oil sheen.

On the south side of the park will be the Petro Wall, which will detail Tulsa's rich oil history and display industry artifacts.

"Tulsans have become shy about our oil history because of the bust, but we've had several people encourage us to celebrate it," Page said. "It played a big part in what Tulsa has become."

The Future: Although the core of the Centennial Walk and the historic markers are all that have funding, plans call for it to grow as more money becomes available.

Walk maps show proposed extensions in every direction.

Funds to provide a connection to the walk's core from the BOK Center are included in the mayor's proposed third-penny sales tax package that will go to a public vote in the spring.

The mayor said he also wants to see the walk eventually connected all the way to the planned Zink Lake Riverfront Development on the Arkansas River.

"This is something we, as a city, will definitely need to build on," LaFortune said.

Norton said great opportunities exist for private investment in the walk

"Perhaps some companies will want to pay for it to extend around their blocks," he said. "That will be one of the roles of Downtown Tulsa Unlimited, once the first piece is in place, to see that it continues."

The Centennial Walk - through the foot traffic it will generate - is also expected to entice private investment in busi- ness and housing downtown.

'This is going to help transform downtown Tulsa," LaFortune said, "from a place where people work and do business to one where they also live and play."