Downtown OKC Brisk Walk

Art (and other points of interest) Tour 2014

In conjunction with the OKC Memorial Marathon Health / Fitness Expo

April 25, 2014 [LANDRUNNERS BRISK-WALK TOUR]

TOUR...... AT.....GLANCE!!!!

***Start Health/Fitness Expo Landrunner Booth #116 OKC Arts Festival Sky Bridge Devon Tower OKC Downtown Ron Norick Library Museum of Art - CHIHULY Galaxy And Jesus Wept Marathon/Half Marathon ...Start Line OKC National Memorial/Museum Vigil Marathon/Half Marathon...Finish Line Curious Organism E K Gaylord Street Murals Dancing Fountains River Walk to the Inclined Inclined Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark , , , Carl Hubbel , , Wilber Rogan Johnnie Bench OCMM Mile 1 - Reno and Mickey Mantle 1935/1955 Murals Cox Convention Center....Home of the OKC Barons Ice Hockey Team Centennial Clock Runners Chesapeake Arena....Home of the Thunder Basketball Team ***Return to Health/Fitness Expo Landrunner Booth #116 - 3 miles

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April 25, 2014 [LANDRUNNERS BRISK-WALK TOUR]

Start / Finish at the OCMM Expo Landrunner booth #116 – 3 mile route

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April 25, 2014 [LANDRUNNERS BRISK-WALK TOUR]

Site Description OKC Arts Festival Since 1967, the Festival of the Arts has been City's rite of spring. The Festival is a community celebration of the visual arts, performing arts and culinary arts. The 2014 Festival of the Arts will take place April 22-27 in Downtown at the Festival Plaza and the Myriad Botanical Gardens. The festival runs 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free. Pets are not allowed.

 The Visual Arts includes 144 Plaza Artists from across the nation that exhibit on Hudson Avenue, a large-scale Sculpture Park exhibit and a variety of specialty exhibits throughout the grounds.  The Culinary Arts consists of the International Food Row. Each food vendor is partnered with an area non-profit organization.  The Performing Arts includes four stages of non-stop performing arts and entertainment representing all genres and world renowned street performers roaming the grounds. The Festival of Arts is known across the country as one of the top ten outdoor events in the nation

Sky Dance Bridge SkyDance Bridge, commissioned by the City of Oklahoma City, is a public artwork that serves as a pedestrian bridge. It opened to foot traffic April 23. The bridge spans I-40 near Harvey Avenue. It is 380 feet long, 20 feet wide and 192 feet tall. The design was inspired by Oklahoma's state bird, the scissor-tailed flycatcher. Americans for the Arts named OKC’s Skydance Bridge as one of the nation’s top 50 public art projects in its 2012 Public Art Network Year in Review.

It’s pretty cool that it lights up! Devon Tower Devon’s 1.8 million square foot headquarters, includes a five story Garden Wing and Rotunda, a 285 – seat Auditorium, a park, two restaurants, a coffee shop and Oklahoma’s tallest building, the 50 – story Devon Tower, nearly 850 feet tall. Devon is the sole occupant of its headquarters space, with more than 2,000 people working here.

Devon is an oil/ natural gas company operating exclusively on shore in North America.

“Vast” restaurant is 726.2 feet above OKC.

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April 25, 2014 [LANDRUNNERS BRISK-WALK TOUR]

Ronald J. Norick Downtown Library Serving the downtown workforce as a business information center and the inner-city neighborhoods as a community library is the Ronald J. Norick Downtown Library — a cerebral core of its revitalized community.

Architecturally, the building steps down from a four-level height at the east end to two levels at the west, providing a much-needed transition from the business district office towers on one side to the smaller- scaled Works Progress Administration-era civic buildings on the other. Off-white insulated metal panels serve as a transitional element between the modern office towers and the streamlined Art Deco limestone lines of the civic plaza.

At the east end, the building opens into a monumental, curving, four- level atrium, offering a grand public gathering space with stunning views of the city’s skyline. From the atrium, a narrower, spine-like atrium follows through the building as it steps toward the west, serving as a unique symbolic axis.

Funded by a temporary, one-cent sales tax as part of the Metropolitan Area Projects approved by city voters in 1993, the facility replaced the former Downtown Library, which was located at Dean A. McGee and Robinson avenues.

OKC Museum of Art CHIHULY – Composed of 2,000 individually blown glass parts, held together by a seven piece steel armature or spine with 2,000 individual forks. Galaxy "Galaxy" is a 14-ton monumental sculpture by Alexander Liberman that reaches 45 feet in height and 27 feet in width. Composed of 14 elliptical hollow forms painted in "Liberman Red" that soar to one point, it was constructed at the artist's studio in Connecticut and brought to Oklahoma City on three flatbed trucks. The sculpture was commissioned by Leadership Properties, Inc., in order to expand cultural growth and to provide an exciting environment for those who work in the area. It was presented to the public on February 8, 1984.

And Jesus Wept Behind St. Joseph Old Cathedral the monument "And Jesus Wept" acts as a shrine or memorial for the 168 men, women, and children who lost their lives in the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing on April 19, 1995. Inspiration for the piece is drawn from John 11, the shortest verse of the bible where Jesus is seen weeping over the loss of his dead friend Lazarus.

The monument was dedicated by the Most Revered Eusebius J. Beltran, Archbishop of Oklahoma City, and Reverend Louis J. Lamb, Pastor of Saint Joseph Old Cathedral on April 19, 1998, three years after the attack.

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April 25, 2014 [LANDRUNNERS BRISK-WALK TOUR]

OKC Memorial Marathon NW 5th & Harvey – West side of the OKC National Memorial Race Start Line OKC National Memorial In one of the most devastating acts of domestic terrorism on American soil, the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was bombed. Constructed in 1977 and containing regional government offices, it was sheared by a massive explosion at 9:02 a.m. April 19, 1995.

One significant element is the use of the memorial chairs — conceptualized in honor of the 168 people who were killed — and handcrafted from glass, bronze and stone. Granite panels on which the survivors’ names are etched were salvaged from the Murrah Building, as were the stones that make up the granite path surrounding the field of empty chairs.

But the most striking element is the twin bronze gates that serve as the entrance, bridged by a reflecting pool. Outside each gate appears this inscription:

We come here to remember those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever. May all who leave here know the impact of violence. May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity. Vigil One of the original parts of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building that survived the bombing on April 19, 1995. Southeast corner of the memorial. OKC Memorial Marathon 818 N Broadway – Automobile Alley th Finish Line End of the Runner’s Finishing corral at NW 5 St. Curious Organism Notes entrances into the ¾ mile tunnel system linking 16 block and 30 buildings in downtown area. This one of several sculptures intended to call attention to the underground entrances.

E.K. Gaylord Mural This mural was approved by The Oklahoma Centennial Commission and depicts western scenes and a passenger train containing notable living Oklahomans along the west wall of the elevated railroad along N EK Gaylord Dr between Robert S Kerr Ave and Sheridan Ave.

Dancing Fountains Children play area during the summer months River Walk River Taxis up and down the Bricktown canal

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April 25, 2014 [LANDRUNNERS BRISK-WALK TOUR]

Inclined "Inclined" is a site specific piece that draws upon the history of the surrounding "Bricktown" district and its neighboring "Deep Deuce" district. The two histories are very different from each other, as Bricktown used to be an abandoned warehouse district and Deep Deuce was the cultural epicenter for African American music and culture, particularly jazz music.

Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark Home of the OKC Redhawks, A farm team of the Astros.

Mickey Mantle Mickey Charles Mantle, named after Hall of Fame , was born in Spavinaw, Oklahoma on October 20, 1931. A short four years , his family moved to Commerce, Oklahoma, where he played football, basketball, and of course, baseball. Raised in a baseball family, Mickey would right-handed off of his left-handed father, and then bat left-handed off of his right-handed grandfather. After surviving a life-threatening infection from a football injury, Mickey signed to a minor league contract with the Class-D Independence Yankees after graduation in 1948. In 1950 he was promoted to the Class-C where he won the batting title, with a .383 batting average, 26 home runs, and 136 RBIs. Finally, in 1951 Mantle was assigned to the where he went on to have one of the most prolific baseball careers of all time. Despite a career plagued with injuries, Mantle finished third on the all-time list with 536.

Additionally, Mantle won the in 1956, received three Most Valuable Player Awards, played in nineteen All-Star games, and won seven . He was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1964, the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974, and selected to the All-Century Team in 1999. Mantle passed away in 1995 at the age of 63, but three short years before this statue would be placed in his honor at the Oklahoma City Bricktown Ballpark in 1998.

Blair Buswell’s monumental bronze sculpture stands at the third-base entrance at 7’6” tall. Mantle is captured in his powerful swing that led him to be one of the greatest switch-hitters of all time. Buswell was honored in 1990 as the Sport Artist of the Year by the United States Sports Academy.

7 - Bust of Baseball Greats Allie Reynolds, Bobby Murcer, Pepper Martin, Carl Hubbel, Paul Waner, Lloyd Waner, Wilber Rogan

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April 25, 2014 [LANDRUNNERS BRISK-WALK TOUR]

Johnny Bench was born in Oklahoma City on December 7, 1947. During his 17 years in Major League Baseball (1967-1983) , he won 10 Gold Glove Awards, 2 Most Valuable Player Awards, and Rookie of the Year. He was voted an All-Star 14 times, batted 389 home-runs, and led the league in RBI's three times for the . In 1989, Johnny Bench was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. It is no coincidence that "Johnny Bench" sits at the main entrance behind home plate given that he played catcher his entire career. This 9 foot statue poignantly resides in the center of Johnny Bench Plaza. In addition to his traditional catcher gear, the statue includes an inscription that reads "a true Oklahoma hero." Warren Spahn Warren Spahn, a left-handed born in Buffalo New York, won 363 games in his career that lasted 21 years. This was more wins than any pitcher in his era, and more than any other left-handed pitcher in baseball history. He is still recognized as one of the greatest in baseball. In 1946 he moved to Oklahoma where he passed away in his Broken Arrow home in 2003 at the age of 82. In his memory, the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame presents the annual Warren Spahn Award to the most outstanding left-hander in the major leagues. In addition, this sculpture was placed in the Warren Spahn Plaza, along the first baseline of the Bricktown Ballpark in July 2005. Created by Shan Gray, the sculpture features Spahn's signature high kick windup and stands 9 feet tall. Mile 1 of the course On Reno just before Mickey Mantle 1935/1955 Murals Artist Bob Palmer once said, "Murals can express the history and interaction of a community. Their visual story of social interaction bring together the past and present of it's people with pride and honor of their community. A story told for future generations and visitors through the eyes of the artist." This mural, commissioned for the 2007 Oklahoma Centennial Celebration, provides a quick snapshot into Oklahoma's history during its 100 years of statehood.

There are distinct sections to the mural, all depicting distinct characteristics of the time period they represent, including the buildings, cars, and urban development. The mural can be found directly across from the Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark near the Canal on the corner of Reno Ave and S Mickey Mantle Drive. Cox Convention Center The Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City is a quick walk from the revitalized Bricktown historical district, featuring a variety of new canal- side restaurants, clubs, music venues and attractions. The center is also just across the street from three downtown hotels with 1,400 of Oklahoma city’s 15,000 hotel rooms.

Home of the OKC Barons American Hockey League Affiliate of the Edmonton Oilers

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April 25, 2014 [LANDRUNNERS BRISK-WALK TOUR]

Centennial Clock They come in all colors. Midnight black, royal blue, reflective silver, brilliant gold, forest green, candy-apple-red, and chrysanthemum brown. They reflect adjacent architecture, earthy landscapes, playful parks, corporate color schemes, and school pride.

Most interestingly, they look like they have been there forever. So convincing in their stature, most cannot imagine anything else in their place.

These are Centennial Clocks. They have become animated fixtures in our communities: always seen differently in the light, perpetually in motion, and calling our name with their resounding chimes.

Public enthusiasm has made the Oklahoma Centennial Clock & Bell Project one of the largest public art projects in Americaís recent times. Each clock is a modern day replica of period clocks that once graced main streets throughout Oklahoma and the United States. Runners Located right outside Oklahoma City's main sports arenas, the Chesapeake Energy Arena and Cox Convention Center, is a large sculpture by Oklahoma Richard Muno of two runners carrying the Olympic Torch. The location of this piece is fitting considering it resides between the homes of the Oklahoma City Barons and the Oklahoma City Thunder and right across the street is a Big 12 Timekeeper Centennial Clock. "The Runner" is a great addition to an already lively sports alley in downtown Oklahoma City. Recently, Oklahoma City became an official training site with the renovated Oklahoma River, the only river to be named a U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Site. Chesapeake Arena Chesapeake Energy Arena (called the Ford Center from its opening in 2002 until 2010 and then the Oklahoma City Arena until 2011) is a arena located in downtown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The arena has been the home venue of the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s Oklahoma City Thunder since the 2008-09 season -- their first season after the team relocated from Seattle, Washington, where they were known as the SuperSonics (a.k.a. the Sonics).

Chesapeake Energy Arena hosts concerts, family and social events, conventions, ice shows, and civic events. Return to Health & Fitness Expo

Special thanks to the OKC Landrunners: Jim Roblyer & Chuck Mikkelson for organizing these tours and your Tour Guide!!!

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