New additions to OKC's Bricktown area

[Spartan65]

So this week's been a pretty good week in terms of announcements for the Bricktown area of OKC. In case you all haven't heard, the Academy of Contemporary Music is opening a 2nd School of Rock (modeled after their famed School of Rock in London or the new one that the German government just opened in Berlin) that will be in Bricktown. It'll be the first in the US, and there's a rumor that another is in store for the West Coast. Part of the deal was that they're going to operate it in conjunction with UCO (which already has the Jazz Lab on the edge of its Edmond campus) and The Flaming Lips. Part of what they loved about Bricktown was the existing presence of a blues scene.

The American Banjo Museum is also currently under construction in Bricktown. Work is fixing to start on a Mickey Mantle Museum/Oklahoma Baseball Hall of Fame. There are 2 other museums that are coming to Bricktown.

http://www.newsok.com/no-pay-doesnt-ski ... le/3308994

We also are getting a Coyote Ugly location in Bricktown. Steve Lackmeyer, who covers downtown development for the Daily Oklahoman, says he's tracking a new spurt of businesses opening that is the largest influx of new restaurants and businesses in Bricktown's history, which he links directly to the arrival of permanent NBA basketball and the new Devon Tower. Work on several hotels is starting up (and the new 10-story Hampton Inn is almost finished).

I would say a lot of this is probably a more direct result of all of the new housing fixing to come online in DT OKC, but the NBA crowds can't hurt, neither can the new "big city" perception that the Devon Tower's given OKCers.

[NDTeve]

Banjo Hall of Fame??? 

[LenexatoKCMO]

Banjo Hall of Fame??? 

Seems an odd choice of locales - I would have thought that belonged in hill country somewhere; perhaps Tennessee, NC, or the Ozarks - not in OK prairie. 

[NDTeve]

Don't forget Kentucky.

[Spartan65]

Well the American Banjo Association is actually headquartered in Guthrie, Oklahoma's first capital city. They're moving their museum from Downtown Guthrie into Bricktown. It'll have a state-of-the-art museum, interactive exhibits, a performance theatre, a replica of a Shakey's Pizza Parlor, classrooms, workshops, archives, etc.. should be open by early next year.



The reason that they're in Oklahoma and not Appalachia is just because the guy who started the only banjo museum in the world happened to be an attorney who lived in Midwest City, an OKC suburb.

[KCPowercat]

Hopefully the addition of the Thunder will spur the bricktown area a bit...everytime I've been there it's been pretty dead, even with recommendations on where to go.  Nothing like a Coyote Ugly and Banjo hall of fame to really put a place on the map....I'm sure the NBA players will enjoy those locations.

[Spartan65]

I wouldn't be caught dead in a Coyote Ugly..but hey.

[49r]

KCP = &