Scissortail Park Pavilions

Oklahoma City, OK

  • Architect: BAU

    Contractor: Downey Construction (Upper park), Wynn Construction (Lower Park)

    Landscape Architect: Jones Hargreaves Associates

    Structural Engineering: Obelisk Engineering

    MEP: CEC Engineering

    Civil Engineering: Johnson & Associates

    Lighting: Bell McCoy  (Upper park), LAM Partners (Lower Park)

  • AIA Central States Citation Award (For the Park Cafe)

    AIA Central States Honor Award (For Upper and Lower Park Pavilions)

    AIA Oklahoma Merit Award

    ENR Regional Best Project Award

    APWA Project of the Year

    AIA Central Oklahoma Honor Award

    AIA Central Oklahoma People’s Choice Award

  • “Oklahoma City’s Scissortail Park embraces a city-to-nature approach” (Archinect News)

    “This Conservative City Built a $132 Million Park Using One Weird Trick” (Bloomberg City Lab)

  • “At twilight the camp-fires of ten thousand people gleamed on the grassy slopes of the Cimarron Valley, where, the night before, the coyote, the gray wolf, and the deer had roamed undisturbed.”

    William Willard Howard, “Rush to Oklahoma,” Harper’s Weekly (May 18, 1889)

    Notably absent in this passage are the indigenous people whose resettlement or history on these lands also came to shape the 46th State in the Union. The architecture and landscape architecture of Scissortail Park represent a return to the early landscapes that pre-dated the 1889 Oklahoma Land Run. Native grasses, plants, and trees are reintroduced alongside water features and around land formations that evoke the cuestas of the Pre-Cambrian Arbuckle Mountains in Southern Oklahoma.

    The tectonics of Scissortail Park Café, specifically, are inspired by the natural frames and coverings used in Native Tribes’ shelters. These serve as a form of acknowledgment that this park is built on lands of the Numunuu (Comanche), Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo), Gáuigú (Kiowa), 𐓏𐒰𐓓𐒰𐓓𐒷 𐒼𐓂𐓊𐒻 𐓆𐒻 𐒿𐒷 𐓀𐒰^𐓓𐒰^ (Osage), and Wichita tribes. Steel, wood, and glass become the contemporary palette for this skeleton-skin dialectic. Earthen structures of early Western settlers are the historical source for the brick that rises up to meet the lightweight canopies. The brick colors and patterns evoke the coyote, gray wolf, and deer, and help camouflage the architecture amidst the regionally inspired park landscape.

    Dramatic lighting draws visitors into the park as darkness settles in, recalling images of prairie campfires. By day, long overhangs and lattice tame sun and wind to define places of shade and cool respite for park visitors. The Café is designed to welcome people from all directions and from diverse backgrounds and lifestyles.