The Pearl Project
"You can't have a healthy Downtown without healthy core neighborhoods" asserts Christine Booth, President of The Pearl District Association (PDA) and principal of Hawley Design Furnishings at 7th and Utica, "And changing demographics are bringing people back into the heart of cities across the US". Tulsa's Pearl District nestles against Downtown to the east. It's the first link in the 6th St. connection between Downtown and the University of Tulsa. It marks the intersection of north Tulsa and mid-Town.
Despite - or because of - its strategic location the neighborhood sank amid urban blight in the 1950s, along with many such neighborhoods nationwide. That's now changing. The freshly-minted 'Pearl' has a Plan that was enthusiastically endorsed by the City Council in January, 2006. It has a Vision, drafted way back in June 2000 - and at
www.tulsapearl.com - that has guided every PDA decision since. New, local businesses characterized by creative types from architects to artists, furnishers to potters, and even its own, avant-garde
'Nightingale' theater, are complementing the long-established artisans and light industries in the neighborhood. Rachel Navarro of
OneArchitecture, which moved into the Pearl a year ago, says she and husband/partner Shelby Navarro were attracted by the focus on sustainability and walkability. Two other new businesses have adopted the 'P' word as part of their company name.
The most evident manifestations of progress are the new pond, the refurbished Central Park (officially re-named 'Centennial Park' in 1997, to the neighborhood's surprise) and new Central Community Center - nick-named 'The Boathouse' by neighbors as a tongue-in-cheek reference to the adjacent pond. Not to forget Oklahoma's first, new-urbanist development at
The Village At Central Park, now home to a hundred or so people who might not have thought of Tulsa's inner city as the obvious place to live, say, a decade ago.
Many more changes are en route, all of which will help boost the Downtown renaissance that 'Pearlites' now see gathering pace. One is the design - just now starting - of the next phase of an imaginative waterway and 'lake' system that will remove property from the flood plain and spawn re-development. A second is a progressive approach to designing streets and intersections that work as much for pedestrians and cyclists as for drivers. ("30% of the US population doesn't drive" notes Jerry Bowen, a PDA Board member who cycles to work in Downtown).
A third focus is an all-encompassing approach to 'sustainability' in terms of residential densities, walkability, native plantings, open spaces, incorporation of mass transit into street improvements, shared parking and the encouragement of green building design. A fourth is diversity: capitalizing on the neighborhood's racial and income mix to create a traditional, urban, compact, mixed-income neighborhood of both owner-occupied and rental homes.
The Pearl District is also soon to be the pilot for
'form-based codes' - an updated approach to zoning now adopted in many cities, large and small. The Pearl is set to be Tulsa's next
'Main Street' partner, - a federal program led locally by the State's Commerce Department. It would be Oklahoma's first 'inner city' Main St. program.
Folk in the Pearl talk calmly of transforming Tulsa into a world-class city 'from the inside out', leveraging necessary re-investment in long-decayed, urban infrastructure to deliver dramatic returns on Tulsans' invested capital; capital that exists in the form of streets, sidewalks, alleys, open space, utilities. They talk of a truly distinctive, urban waterway system woven into a sustainable and walkable neighborhood that will stand out from any other city. 'The great thing about creativity', says Jamie Jamieson, PDA Secretary and developer of the Village At Central Park, 'is that it costs nothing. All you have to do is decide to come up with creative and relevant solutions that both fix the immediate problem - such as streets - and maximize other opportunities while you're doing it. That's how to make tax-payers' money really work intelligently. The world is changing fast, we're in a tough spot competitively as a City, and we have no option but to be innovative. We see true synergies as a fiscal necessity.'
