Thrillist: Best New Attractions in America

I love Minneapolis but it's not the only thing I know about!

Photo courtesy of Thrillist. 

I try as hard as I can to get out of my #twincities bubble. One of the greatest surprises for me has been Oklahoma, one of my favorite short weekend trips.

The Sooner State continues to capture attention thanks to thoughtful developments like The Gathering Place, which is one of Thrillist's Best New Attractions in the U.S. I wrote up a short interview with the staff there and was so pleased to learn about the incredible ways the community of Tulsa is being served by this beautiful new space. Click here to read the full piece, and let me know - what are your favorite local developments? What parts of the country are unjustly ignored?

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Gathering Place
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Opened September 2018
A mid-size city in Oklahoma is not where you’d expect to find a $465 million park, but here it is. Gathering Place is putting Tulsa on the map, drawing visitors from as far away as Austin and Little Rock. Star landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh helmed the park’s design. The Roots performed at the opening last September.

Why all the fuss? Gathering Place is far more than its simple name implies. Like most parks, there is much green to behold: 1.2 million plants, 16 acres of gardens, a vast trail system, a pond for boating, and two great lawns offering views of the Arkansas River. There’s also a mammoth adventure park for all ages, with seven unique realms for play and one truly epic treehouse. You’ll find sculptures and murals by local artists throughout, plus a cutting-edge BMX skate park, sports courts, a lodge, and a boathouse.  And all this is just phase one: By late next summer, the park’s 70-acre footprint will expand with an interactive children’s museum.

The fairy godmother in this story is billionaire George F. Kaiser, a Tulsa-born banking tycoon and philanthropist who donated $200 million to the park, plus an additional $100 million endowment to help maintain it for the next 99 years. Admission is totally free. There is no gift shop peddling obscenely priced souvenirs. Gathering Place measures success not by the number of tickets sold, but by the amount of diversity in the park's attendees.

“I’ve never seen a project like this that did not have an aggressive return on investment plan,” says Tony Moore, Gathering Place’s Executive Director. “The primary ROI here is a social one that unites. It’s an economic changer, social changer, green space, and democratic space where all people can come together.” Sometimes a name says it all. -- Becki Iverson