Gathering Place

About

The Gathering Place is a massive new outdoor playground and park just south of Downtown Tulsa. It is adjacent to the Arkansas River, across Riverside Drive.

Facts about The Gathering Place

  • It opened on September 8, 2018. It has already won numerous award's including USA Today's Best New Attraction of 2019.
  • The cost to build Gathering Place was approximately $465 Million. Numerous donors and business contributed to the effort.
  • The playground and park sit on roughly 100 acres.
  • The park received 155,000 visitors in its first ten days of operation.
  • It is situated roughly half way between Downtown Tulsa and the Oklahoma Aquarium.

History

The park was the idea of George Kaiser, a wealthy Oklahoma businessman who became a billionaire through the oil and banking industries. He is a well known philanthropist who has made numerous donations in Oklahoma and other areas of the U.S. over the past few decades. Around 2005, he began to imagine a place in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where people of all social statuses and ages could meet together.

Mr. Kaiser hired Michael Van Valkenburgh, who has worked on landscape projects around the world, to design the project. Mr. Kaiser, Mr. Van Valkenburgh and a team of designers and architects began reaching out to the local community for both input and feedback. Together, the community came up with the idea for Gathering Place.

In 2014, ground was broken on the project, and it was completed in about four years. The park officially opened on September 8, 2018.

Map

Information

Address:2650 S John Williams Way
Tulsa, OK 74114
Open:9AM - 6PM Daily
Website:Gathering Place Official Site

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