OU Urban Design Group Helps Tulsa Community Renovate Historic Area

A student group with the University of Oklahoma is teaming up with community leaders in North Tulsa to revitalize the historic Greenwood Avenue area and B.S. Roberts Park.

These OU Urban design students are helping to turn a vision into a reality. They are using the community's input to create designs in an effort to bring back to life what Greenwood represents. Business, community and entrepreneurship.

Kandy Whitley-White and her husband were walking the trails here at B.S. Roberts Park and started to think about what Greenwood used to be like.

"We were thinking how cool would it be to do something really special with this park?" said Whitley-White.

Those ideas led to a partnership with the University of Oklahoma Urban Design Studio.

These master’s students joined in to help take Kandy and her husband’s ideas to the next step. 

"They tell us what they love, what they hate and now we have created a few renderings proposing a new market, little black Wall Street, which will be very similar to Bryant Park in New York City," said Jessi Stringer, OU Urban Design student.

Jessie and Kandy say this project is all about the community.

"We want this to be solely community driven. We really want this to be their design. We are just here to do all of the grunt work and make it happen," said Stringer.

M.J. Johnson has lived in the area for years and knows the history of Greenwood and the 1921 Race Massacre.

I asked him to close his eyes and tell me what he sees this area looking like.

"A vibrant area with the marketplace, with family reunions, with folks hosting their annual cookouts and things like that here. More and more children in the area," said Johnson.