AUBREY K. McCLENDON Riversport OKC
Riversport OKC Gateway building
OSU Kayak Boathouse
Rotary Point
Raft Pavilion
Rand Elliott Architects’ design concepts for the Oklahoma River’s Riversport OKC complex expand on the Boathouse District aesthetic defined in 2003 in Elliott’s first sketches of the Chesapeake Boathouse (2003). Yet these forms reflect the roaring nature of Riversport OKC, embracing its furiously churning power. Flat it is not. So, the architecture here projects a high-energy angularity.
Like the Oklahoma River’s flatwater sports, Riversport OKC challenges riders to lean in, forge ahead and finish fast. But by nature, Riversport OKC makes Canoe Slalom challenging to just hang on and stay out of the water, much less clock a winning score. (Raft and tube riders can relax and just enjoy.) Either way, there’s no staying dry.
The rapids course itself is a rarity; there are only four like it exist in the world.
THE Riversport OKC GATEWAY
This is the two-story Mother Ship for adjacent satellites: Riversport Rapids, the Raft Pavilion, OSU Kayak Boathouse, and Rotary Point awards stage. Their lines suggest the Riversport OKC athlete’s sharp twists and turns — the aquatic equivalent of a rodeo.
Facilitating the flow of visitors, this building offers commanding views of its surroundings – Riversport OKC course, landscape, downtown skyline — as well as the river and rhythm of boathouse neighbors, their winged roofs lined up along the river’s edge, as if ready to race.
RIVERSPORT RAPIDS®
Soon after OKC’s first boathouse opened, a Riversport OKC course was seen as the next-level, natural complement to growing rowing/kayak flatwater programs and iconic structures. It would be geared both for family/group rafting or tubing, as well as skilled athletes in kayaks.
It would bring more people to the river: An urban alternative to Mother Nature in Colorado.
So in collaboration with Rand Elliott Architects, the custom course was designed by the same gold-medal team that developed the 2012 London Olympics’ Riversport OKC events — the U.K.’s Lee Valley White Water Centre. And it’s much like North Carolina’s U.S. National Riversport OKC.
Immediately south of downtown OKC, recirculating channels pump treated water to create Class II-IV rapids and offer a range of white-knuckle experiences. The lower-flow channel offers tamer yet rocking rafting and tubing thrills – no previous experience necessary. Today, the high-octane Class IV rapids on the Olympic-style course attract elite athletes from around the world for both training and competition.
Meanwhile, spectators bask in the action from the sidelines and enjoy the show.
THE RIVERSPORT BRAND
The alliterative name, “Riversport” was first introduced with the Boathouse District’s expansion into recreation on dry land. Wedged among the boathouses and set back from the riverfront,
“Riversport Adventures” broadened the brand and it paved the way for a natural: Riversport Rapids helped sell OKC voters on funding it.
Blue rafts are stowed inside one of three Raft Pavilion doors
THE RAFT PAVILION
Highly visible along the river, the Raft Pavilion is multitasker: A 205-foot-long sliver of a structure for storage and rider orientation. Here, trained Riversport staff members store and distribute proper gear for rafting, tubing or kayak slalom, assisting and prepping riders.
Under its long, winged canopies, participants gather and gear up in welcome shade. (Rand Elliott Architects has made a science of proactively shielding people from a sometimes scorching Oklahoma sun.)
It’s storage for rafts, life jackets, oars, helmets, and other essentials. Stairsteps descend to rafts waiting in the water for boarding. When the gear is in use, it’s a pop-up concessions kiosk.
OSU KAYAK BOATHOUSE
This building is a landmark on the eastern end of both McClendon Riversport OKC and Boathouse District. Its striking, sculptural shape and pristine white presence can be seen from I-35 by day or night. (Floodlit at night, it glows).
Its form is an abstraction of a kayaker in a frozen, twisting moment. It serves as storage and a staging location for competitive events and training, including Swiftwater skills for first responders. It also serves, we think, as sculpture.
In 2016, OSU’s then-president, Burns Hargis, saw it made sense to partner with the Boathouse District to recognize Mike and Tempe Knopp — the rowing enthusiasts who founded the rowing organization, OAR (Oklahoma Association of Rowers). As recent OSU grads, the Knopps were first to recognize OKC’s new urban river as a rowing venue. (Burns has always been ready to note that Rand Elliott is also an architecture graduate.)
ROTARY POINT
Any sports stadium needs an awards stage for the ceremony of victory. Rotary Point awards stage (a project of Downtown OKC’s Rotary 29), a series of steel beams delicately meet to form and define space, seemingly afloat in water. The triangular form is reinforced in three dimensions with overlapping diagonal bracing and a translucent fabric roof.
The architectural lines hint at the mad paddling action of oars and paddles to create sculpture that salutes the action of a helter-skelter sprint.
As another iconic centerpiece of the McClendon Riversport OKC complex, it serves special programs for schools, community groups and musical performances, as well as canoe/kayak competitors.
SPECTATOR BRIDGES
The bridges that span the course and connect the venue’s capabilities are similar in material and design to the other buildings and pavilions. These simple, geometric, ADA-compliant forms feature spectacular views of the area, including the downtown skyline and Riversport OKC action below.
ONWARD AND UPWARD
OKC’s flatwater stadium had become the stage for international championships and Olympic Team Trials, most recently in 2024. But few might have dared imagine this city hosting actual Olympic Games and Gold Medal ceremonies?
The Oklahoma River has long been called a “Cinderella River.” And this river’s going to the Ball!
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