Should the new hotel and convention be connected with a pedestrian skywalk?

Oklahoma City is set to spend $1.5 million on a skywalk between the new convention center and the 600room Omni Hotel to be built immediately north of the venue.

The Oklahoma City Convention and Visitors Bureau argues the bridge is an essential part of the project and believes the city will lose conventions without it.

Urban planners, however, have long scorned such skywalks, saying they rob streets and sidewalks of life and vitality that are needed to support street-level restaurants and shops.

Here is where it gets a bit unusual: According to Cathy O’Connor, who led negotiations with Omni, the hotelier doesn’t want the skywalk either. The company, which wants to create a vibrant set of shops and restaurants facing the future boulevard and

Scissortail Park, sees the skywalk in the same light as urban planners.

The skywalk is being recommended by the MAPS citizens oversight board and pushed by downtown Councilwoman Meg Salyer.

Designs by Populous show any bridge will span 85 feet.

A simple 15-footwide circulation bridge would cost an estimated $1.5 million. A 30-foot-wide bridge that could accommodate light receptions would cost about $2 million. Add a covered exterior balcony and the cost would hit $3 million.

Beyond the planning debate, this is real money at a time when the city’s development of Scissortail Park has yet to include any funding for renovating the historic Union Station in the park for adaptive re-use (architects did manage to include construction of new buildings in the park that will be funded).

I called Michael Carrier, president of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, to ask if this is a “make or break” deal for booking conventions.

The answer? An absolute “yes.”

Carrier responds the conventions to be gained the first year that the venue opens will pay for the span’s cost. The skywalk is being urged by an advisory board of meeting planners and convention consultants.

“Weather has some to do with it, especially our wind,” Carrier explained. “The Sweet Adelines group headquartered in Tulsa will not come here if the two buildings are not physically attached. That is one of their requirements.”

That convention, he added, will bring up to 3,500 visitors.

Another national group based in Washington, D.C., has indicated it will sign a contract for a convention only if the Omni is connected via skywalk to the convention center.

Carrier believes most convention activity will be on the second- and thirdfloor meeting rooms of the convention center, and not the first floor, which will be the location of the exhibit halls. He believes the Omni’s meeting space also will be on its second and third floors.

The logic for a skywalk is clear-cut for Carrier. Why would the city want to force delegates to go downstairs in the convention center, go outside, and then go back upstairs in the Omni?

Carrier doesn’t dismiss the concerns about street life. But he believes the proximity to Scissortail Park and the commercial space planned by Omni at ground level will go far in offsetting any negative impact by the skywalk.

Plans are racing toward final stages and construction is expected to begin by next spring. If there is to be any further debate on whether the skywalk is good design or a good investment, let it start sooner rather than later.