Guthrie Green

This weekend was the opening festivities of Tulsa's newest and most innovative park - Guthrie Green, named after Oklahoma's own Woody Guthrie.  The park is an urban garden and performance space located at the corner of Brady and Boston.  The park is beautiful - with water features, a performance stage, cafe, bocce ball court (bring your own balls), winding pathways, and a large expanse of lawn.  Even more interesting (at least I think so) is what is underneath all the exterior beauty.  Below the grass, benches, and stage lies a network of geothermal exchange well fields.  The well fields circulate water through the earth, bringing it to 66 degrees.  The water then feeds the ground source heat pumps in the neighboring Tulsa Paper Company and the Hardesty Visual Arts Center buildings, reducing their heating and cooling costs by approximately 60%.  Pretty clever!!

On Sunday evening I attended the Symphony in the Park with Lou, Tina C. and her daughter, J.  The weather was perfect - sunny with a light breeze - and the crowd was abundant!  We packed a blanket, a couple of lawn chairs and a few snacks and settled in for some music and people watching - which, by the way - was excellent.  J especially enjoyed the water feature that looked eerily like a fire pit.

Future concerts are planned for Sunday afternoons through October with kid tents and a variety of musical acts.  And if fitness is your thing (I'm looking at you, Jenn S), there will be boot camps and yoga throughout the week.

Check out http://www.guthriegreen.com/ for more information.

And completely apropos of nothing - if you park on the street in front of the Brady Tavern, know this - your car will be completely covered - and I mean COMPLETELY covered in bird poop when you return.