Thanks to the Waurika News Journal for allowing us to share excerpts from these articles covering a collaboration between Waurika, IQC, and the Oklahoma Municipal League. Please visit the full articles on the Waurika News Journal website.
- OU Partnership with Waurika to Bring Much Needed Improvements in the Near Future (July 2018)
- OU Institute for Quality Communities Visits Waurika (October 2018)
Articles are written by project coordinators for Waurika, Jacob Eck and Lauren Nitschke.
Jacob Eck is a graduate of Oklahoma Christian University with a degree in New Media Design. His professional career in web design & development began with Phase 2 Interactive in Oklahoma City. Eventually, the desire to move his family home to southern Oklahoma was too hard to ignore. Now living in his hometown of Waurika, Jacob is a freelance graphic designer. He has a passion for civic involvement and volunteerism that has pushed him to a passion for placemaking as well. He is involved with many civic organizations and serves on the city council.
Lauren Nitschke graduated with a degree in Environmental Design from Texas A&M. She spent time with HOK’s Dallas office, then later opened her own architectural graphics and wayfinding design consulting business. The daughter of an architect, Lauren has always had a fascination with urban planning which was further ignited when she met Jason Roberts in their Oak Cliff (Dallas) neighborhood as he was laying the foundation for Better Block. Now a resident of the rural south central Oklahoma, Lauren has brought her passion for fostering visions of renewal into tangible reality to her adopted hometown of Waurika.
Waurika is a community of about 2,000 people that serves as the county seat for Jefferson County, along Oklahoma’s southern border, the Red River. The community has seen a number of recent milestones, including hosting a Smithsonian Exhibit, “The Way We Worked,” in which over 300 people volunteered to make a great exhibit come together. Other initiatives have also been activating and improving the community’s main street.
Waurika faces many of the same challenges and opportunities that we see around Oklahoma:
The questions and challenges that Waurika faces are much of the same ones that all small towns are having. When the larger industries left, so did many residents and small businesses. Empty buildings are on every block, some areas look worn out and forgotten, side streets diminish the feel of comfort and safety.
Additionally, walkability and accessibility need attention, and most of all, we want to create a “place” with staying power. After 6 pm, activity downtown slows to a crawl.
How can we get people back to Main Street after work? How can our parks be of more benefit to our citizens? Empty buildings and parks are screaming for more activity.
In 2018, Waurika was selected to partner with IQC for planning assistance and receive matching funds from the Oklahoma Municipal League. IQC staff visited in the summer to get the lay of the land and prepare for a project in the fall semester. The project includes IQC graduate assistants looking at a variety of design issues in the community, and students in the Historic Preservation Planning course preparing a historic building survey. In October, two site visits to Waurika allowed the teams to understand the community’s ideas and assets, and to conduct necessary fieldwork.
You may have seen several groups of unfamiliar faces wandering up and down Waurika’s Main Street over the course of 3 days last week and wondered what they were up to. No, they weren’t from the tax office looking to raise your bill. They weren’t investors looking to buy Main Street. But they definitely DID come to invest in Waurika!
Staff members of the University of Oklahoma’s Institute for Quality Communities and design students from the Gibbs College of Architecture brought their considerable observation, design and analysis talents to downtown to engage with our community as a unique part of our ongoing Waurika rejuvenation efforts. And engage they did!
The visits began last Tuesday as 7 team members arrived at the Main St. office of Brickstreet South, Jacob Eck’s website and graphic design studio. After brief introductions, the group of 3 IQC staff members, 4 design students and Chamber board members Jacob Eck and Lauren Nitschke launched out on a 75 minute walking tour of Main Street that included our new Farmers Market space, The Lawn, the County Courthouse and Sorosis Park. Our visitors were particularly intrigued by our local ranch-sponsored benches, the large metalwork cattle mural on the north face of Sorosis Park and by our art deco inspired, and largely original, 1931 Courthouse. Interestingly, architect Ron Frantz noted that one of the architects listed on the cornerstone was also involved in the design of the Oklahoma State Capitol building!
After a day of exploration, the IQC team led a community meeting encouraging participants to share ideas. The meeting included a place game exercise (modeled after the Project for Public Spaces) looking at key locations downtown. The following day, the IQC team prepared a preliminary presentation of concepts to run by community members. The team will continue to refine concepts based on discussions from the meeting.
The second visit included dozens of students in the Historic Preservation Planning Course:
Round 2 of IQC’s Waurika study took place on Saturday morning as 28 Environmental Design and City Planning students plus 2 of the same IQC staffers arrived on Main Street to undertake a unique historic building architectural survey. It began with the large contingent touring 4 blocks of Main Street with Jacob Eck and Lauren Nitschke providing historical context and other information about many of the buildings. Several downtown building owners were so generous to allow the team access inside their properties and the group was delighted by what they found: high ceilings with other design features that allowed for natural air flow, original, stained wood trim, high light-emitting transom windows on storefronts that had long since been covered over with huge awning structures, gorgeous wood floors and cavernous spaces just waiting for new uses.
The group was also treated to the Brickstreet Classic Car Show taking place on the north end of Main, along with the accompanying burger lunch and Volunteer Fire Departments’ BBQ Cook-Off.
The architectural survey work took place after lunch with the team breaking into small groups targeting the various structures. The results of their survey work and extensive historical research will also be presented early next year and will provide the type of documentation necessary if Waurika leaders and property owners decide to pursue state and national historic designation opportunities.
Thanks to the community members of Waurika for the hospitality and openness to make sure our team can understand as much as possible about this place. The IQC team will continue to refine the results from both site visits into a series of recommendations to present early next year.
