EMBARK Earns Prestigious Award for OKC Convention Center Parking Garage

August 16, 2022

An ENR Best Projects Award is considered one of commercial construction’s most prestigious and coveted honors. The award winners are selected by juries of prominent and experienced industry professionals. Twenty categories are awarded and include various project types, covering areas in safety, buildings, infrastructure and green projects. The Convention Center Parking Garage project was chosen as the best in a five-state region that includes Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

The ENR award is the third honor received by EMBARK for the Convention Center Parking Garage. Last year, the garage was presented with an American Institute of Architects High Design Award at the AIA Oklahoma Design Awards. That honor is the highest design recognition for AIA projects at the state level. The facility also earned a Best of the Best award from the Associated General Contractors of Oklahoma for projects between $10 million and $50 million.

A distinctive feature of the garage is the artwork named What Is The City ButThe People, which was created by English artist Martin Donlin and managed by Anton Morton of Kasum Contemporary Fine Art. The project took about 1,400 hours by both Donlin and Morton to construct. The concept uses multiple layers of pattern and imagery, exhibited through the placement of polycarbonate tiles and fastened to steel cables spanning from the second to the sixth floor of the garage.

The project will be featured with a picture and description in the Oct. 3 issue of ENR Texas & Louisiana and celebrated during a Best Projects Awards luncheon on Oct. 13 in Houston.

The Convention Center Parking Garage, which opened in early 2021, is located at 15 Mick Cornett Dr., adjacent to the Oklahoma City Convention Center, Scissortail Park and the Omni Hotel in downtown Oklahoma City. The garage includes six levels, more than 1,100 parking spaces and monthly, daily and hourly parking options. It is EMBARK’s fifth parking garage in operation.

Various public and private entities worked together to complete the $24 million garage project, including TAP Architecture, Manhattan Construction, Kimley-Horn Engineering, the OKC Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, EMBARK, the Central Oklahoma Transportation and Parking Authority (COTPA), Donlin, Morton and the 1% for the Art project, which was created and continued by Mayor David Holt and members of Oklahoma City’s city council.

For more information about the artwork, the public can view the City of Oklahoma City Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs’ virtual exhibition.