Made for you and me

Honoring those behind the Gathering Place as Tulsans of the Year

For only the second time in the 31-year history of our sister publication, TulsaPeople, the Tulsan of the Year is not one individual. It’s Tulsans.

This happened once before in 2004, when the magazine honored voters who approved the Vision 2025 sales tax increase, which kept jobs in Tulsa and built the BOK Center.

This year, TulsaPeople recognizes the visionaries of the Gathering Place, Tulsa’s iconic public park opening this summer, as the Tulsans of the Year.

Here’s why.

Editor’s note: the original, longer version of this story appeared in the January 2018 issue of TulsaPeople magazine.

Transforming Tulsa

Nearly 80 donors joined the George Kaiser Family Foundation in contributing $400 million to create and endow the Gathering Place, comprised of 100 acres facing the Arkansas River and linked to River Parks by two unique land bridges across Riverside Drive.

Phase I of the park, which will be completed this summer, occupies 66.5 acres, from East 27th to 31st Streets on the east side of Riverside and from 27th to almost 35th along the west side.

The donors’ collective gift is the largest to a municipality in the history of the United States. The second biggest was $100 million for New York City’s Central Park in 2012.

Many believe the Gathering Place can change Tulsa’s national identity.

“We hope that it will help our companies recruit and retain employees,” said philanthropist and project mastermind George Kaiser. “We hope it will be a place where all of our children and grandchildren want to return as they raise their children.”

It also has the potential to help unify the community.

“What great urban parks do today is bring people out of isolation,” said Gathering Place Executive Director Jeff Stava. “People have grown apart. We want to bring Tulsans together for a better community.”

More than 1 million visitors are expected to visit the Gathering Place annually.

How it began

Kaiser didn’t envision a central gathering place out of a nostalgic memory of a park.

“I try to divorce my charitable investments from my life experiences and personal preferences,” he said. “[I want to] solve problems that reflect larger community needs.”

In 2013, Tulsa had lost the spring in its step, Stava said. The 2007 bond issue for development of the Arkansas River had failed, largely because of suburban votes. Downtown revitalization of the Arts District and Guthrie Green had not yet begun. It was a time of economic decline.

“True visionaries realize what great cities need,” Stava said. “Great cities have great gathering places.”

“Tulsa was losing its sense of community,” Kaiser said. “We were more divided by geography, race, and class than before. A large central park might heal that divide.”

Additionally, the city needed a draw for corporate recruitment and economic development to compete with Houston, Dallas, and other metropolitan areas. GKFF saw the need to revitalize downtown, especially for young people and arts patrons, and then to marshal public-private funding to accentuate the power of the river for families.

In 2014, GKFF pledged $200 million for the park. Williams Cos. became the lead donor with a $16 million challenge. Other corporations followed, as did the city’s philanthropic foundations and families for a total of nearly $200 million.

The City of Tulsa and Tulsa County joined with $65 million for infrastructure improvement of the park area, funded through an Improve Our Tulsa and Vision 2025 sales tax extension.

Research and design

Planning for the park began in 2011 with community engagement and public meetings that addressed various issues, from park design to food and drink possibilities.

The Brooklyn-based Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates—which has designed public parks, gardens, and campuses around the world—believe urban parks should be made for use, not just for beauty. The New York company was hired.

Consultants included the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Army Corps of Engineers, the City of Tulsa, INCOG, Tulsa County, the River Parks Authority, a scientific team (comprised of a soil scientist, an ecologist, a hydrologist, and a sound engineer), and an economic team of restaurant and park management consultants.

Germany’s Richter Co., known for trend-setting playgrounds, was hired for its daring outlook on outdoor play. Its wooden playground equipment includes giant climbing towers.

California Skateparks customized a skateboard park specifically for Tulsa. Teens and young adults will also appreciate the park’s BMX bike track.

Crossland Construction enabled the historic project to be built within budget and of the highest quality, Stava said.

The Gathering Place operations team also settled on a security system with ample surveillance and staff.

Magnitude of the park

For now, we can only imagine the park’s vastness. The property has been under construction for three years. Stava says visitors will discover a Central Park-type space, popping with “wow” recreation, nature, and culture features.

Amanda Murphy, the park’s senior marketing officer, says topography is one of the most startling changes the Gathering Place has brought.

“It’s not flat anymore,” she said.

During peak construction, 650 people were employed. Massive amounts of earth were evacuated, moved, and hauled in to build hills and valleys, to construct elevations reaching 53 feet, and to reconfigure the riverbank so that it swells out into the water.

The QuikTrip Corp.’s Great Lawn is the park’s center. Its heart is the five-acre Chapman Charitable Foundation’s Adventure Playground, with playground equipment and installations never before seen in the U.S.

The Williams Cos. Lodge, with a three-story fireplace and floor-to-ceiling plate glass windows, offers spectacular sunset views.

The lodge and boathouse are extraordinary, said Kaiser, “but it may be the peaceful pocket parks and the hidden discovery areas that provide the distinguishing ambience.”

Visitors will see eight miles of paths and nature trails in a landscape with 5,789 trees of 118 different species and 16.75 acres of wildflower gardens—Sky Garden with seasonal plantings; the Four Seasons Garden with walls of natural stone; the Wetlands Gardens with aquatic plantings; and Swing Hill, which has swings for all ages and
abilities.

Water features include kayaks and canoes at Peggy’s Pond and Mist Mountain, home to the Flying Fish feature and the water maze, a children’s play fountain.

The Adventure Playground is designed for robust interaction with nature, from the Ramble sensory garden, with labyrinths and a hedge maze to the Land of River Giants, with colossal depictions of native wildlife, to the Fairyland Forest.

The Riverview Passage land bridge will be an unrivaled place to watch Fourth of July fireworks.

By the people, for the people

The park will employ about 45 full-time park managers and up to 200 part-time employees during peak summer activity. Proceeds from the $100 million endowment will pay for all operations, programming, maintenance, and security. The 14 leaders recruited to run the park represent a dream-team combination of large park industry veterans and professionals with Tulsa and Oklahoma roots.

Tony Moore, Gathering Place park director, is a Jamaica native who comes to Tulsa from Florida, the theme park capital of the world. His professional background includes working for Tampa’s zoo and Orlando’s SeaWorld and Universal Studios—all heavily revenue-driven. He could barely believe the Gathering Place would have no admission charge.

“It will redefine the mindset of a public park,” Moore said. “It’s not a theme park; it’s a public park with theming.” Toddlers to seniors will return for educational, cultural, and sports activities, including big production shows. Other cities will emulate Tulsa’s private-public collaboration, he said, but for now the Gathering Place is one of a kind.

Josh Henderson, senior operations officer, a University of Arkansas graduate who worked at Myrtle Beach Water Park in South Carolina, said, “When I give tours, people are speechless … Tulsa will be blown away when they see what this park has to offer.”

Heavy landscaping filters the noise, Henderson said. There’s no sense of being in the middle of a city. “I can’t wait to see kids playing in the park with their friends and family,” he said. His favorite area is the overlook at the ONEOK Boathouse, “a special place to have a cocktail and look at the skyline and river.”

The boathouse’s full-service restaurant, with its stunning view of the park, river, and downtown, is a favorite of Richard Shoucair, director of business analysis, another Tulsa transplant from Florida. “A lot of dreams and hard work went into this before we got here,” he said. “In Orlando, I’d seen it all, but what we have here is so unique it is absolutely breathtaking.”

The magic of the innovative park is its combination of place and programming. Kirsten Hein, senior programming officer, has 15 years of experience with parks and recreation in Prince George’s County, Maryland and the Chicago Park District. “My heart is in free programming for children to gain new experiences,” she said. “We’re providing new places for kids to learn.” The Gathering Place’s programming will range from large-scale events for 300-plus to smaller educational programs for about 20 individuals.

With GKFF’s signature dedication to early childhood education, it is no wonder the first Tulsans to have a sneak preview of the Gathering Place were elementary school children. They visited the Reading Tree, the oldest and biggest cottonwood tree in the park and the site of a stage for storytelling and reading events.

Art will also be displayed in the park. “Local and internationally renowned artists will be a feature, including performances … and all free and open to the public,” Hein said.

Performances might include dance, theater, music, acrobatics, magic, juggling, and more on the Great Lawn’s stage, mobile stages throughout the park, and the round stage in the children’s playground.

The grand opening this summer will include special events, but Hein won’t give details. “We’re planning big,” she said. “Something big and special.”