2023 Road Trip: Myriad Botanical Gardens and Oklahoma City National Memorial (5/13/2023)

Saturday, May 13, 2023 (continued)
The Myriad Botanical Gardens (1977-1981, by Conklin + Rossant based on the urban renewal plan developed by the city and I M Pei in 1964) is essentially a four-square block area surrounded by city streets in Oklahoma City, OK.

The middle of the gardens is sunken and crossed by the
Inasmuch Foundation Crystal Bridge Conservatory
(1983-1985, opened 1988) as seen from the east

A waterfall (at the corner of Reno and Robinson Avenues)
is built to look like an Ozarks outcrop

A variety of theme gardens included
the Waterwise Gardens; there was also a dog park

The Wave Fountain sends out gentle pulses of water that
flow as white water over the layered edges

The Devon Lawn and Band Shell

Open but shady spaces accommodate the Oklahoma City
Flower & Garden Festival today

Gateway (1986, by Hans Van de Bovenkamp)

View of the lake and conservatory from the west

The Children's Garden includes Mo's Carousel
(by Allan Herschell Company), which was donated
by the owners of Crossroads Mall/Plaza Mayor Mall
when it closed in 2017

Mo's Carousel

Thunder Fountain is closed until June 23, when it
will spout water from above and below, and occasionally
have rain and thunder

Our Tyler Arboretum membership gained us free access to the Conservatory.

Orchids

Ouch! the trunk of Ceiba speciosa/
Silk Floss Tree on the Bromeliad Terrace

View through the Inasmuch Foundation
Crystal Bridge Conservatory (KSS)

The ground floor of the conservatory
features the vertical lines of the Cloud Portal
Sculpture (2022, by Scott Murase)

Tamiko & Kent selfie

Two-level waterfall cascades over
natural stone

Next, the Oklahoma City National Memorial, which is located partially on the footprint of the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building, site of the 1995 domestic terrorist bombing.

The Survivor Tree, an Ulmus americana/American Elm
that was in a parking lot filled with burning vehicles

The Reflecting Pool extends down to the monumental
9:03 gate, the moment after the 9:02 explosion

The monumental 9:01 gate seen from the street

Looking from one gate to the other (KSS)

Remnant wall of the Alfred P Murrah Federal
Building (1977-1995), a further section of the wall
bears the names of the survivors of the bombing

The Field of Empty Chairs: Each chair represents one of
the 168 persons killed, and they are arranged in nine rows
for the nine stories of the federal building; a group of
five chairs represent those killed outside the building, and
each chair bears a name

There are smaller chairs representing the 19 children
who were killed at the  America's Kids day-care center
on the second floor of the Federal Building

The Oklahoma City Streetcar system (2017-2018)
features the Brookville Liberty model, the first streetcar
built in this country that can operate off-wire,
yet it can also operate via pantograph off electric wiring

Next: Route 66 in Oklahoma (continued).