Downtown Oklahoma City Partnership will honor three business and civic leaders for their outstanding contributions to the downtown community at the 37th annual Dean A. McGee Awards to be held on Friday, August 23, at the Omni Oklahoma City Hotel, located at 100 Oklahoma City Boulevard.
Dick Tanenbaum will receive the Dean A. McGee Award for his lifetime contributions to downtown.
The Stanley Draper Award will be presented to Deborah McAuliffe Senner for her efforts in community excellence.
Andy Burnett will receive the Neal Horton Award for the revitalization of downtown.
The 2024 Dean A. McGee Awards is a black-tie event that begins with a reception at 6 p.m., followed by a dinner and awards program at 7:00 p.m., and an After-Party.
The 2024 event co-chairs are Marva Ellard, owner of Sieber Holdings, and Jim Couch, former City Manager of Oklahoma City.
Downtown Oklahoma City Partnership President and CEO Jennifer Nakayama will present the State of Downtown address.
“This year’s honorees exemplify the vision to dream big,” said Co-Chair Ellard.
“Their achievements will have long-lasting significance for downtown continuing to be a destination for future generations to enjoy the arts, live, work, and raise a family.”
Co-Chair Couch added, “The leaders we honor this year have helped shape and mold today’s downtown for all of Oklahoma City to enjoy. Whether a person lives, works or is visiting downtown, you can see their mark on making the greater downtown area an exciting core to our city.”
The Dean A. McGee Award recognizes individuals for a lifetime of contributions, ensuring that Oklahoma City has a strong, energetic core.
The award is named after Dean A. McGee, an Oklahoma City business leader who led efforts to construct the Myriad Gardens and was passionate about developing downtown as a gathering place for future generations.
Dick Tanenbaum, Dean A. McGuigan Award recepient
Dick Tanenbaum, the 2024 Dean A. McGee Award recipient, chose downtown as the global headquarters for Gardner Tanenbaum Holdings and as home with his wife, Glenna. As part of the company’s $500 million in development, his most recent downtown project is The Harlow, which will transform two historic buildings, The Tradesman National Bank Building, built in 1921, and The Medical Arts Building, built in 1924, that are connected underground, into a 1920s Hollywood theme. The 202,000 sq. ft of vacant office space will be transformed into 265 luxury Class A apartments with robust amenity packages for residents.
Dick recently broke ground on Convergence, a mixed-use project in the Innovation District connecting downtown with the Health Sciences Center.
Tanenbaum introduced downtown’s first luxury residential apartment building when he revitalized the historic and iconic Montgomery Ward Department Store that had been vacant for decades. It created a vibrant community on the western edge of downtown that spurred additional economic development with shopping and fine dining. He further revived downtown by redeveloping a 1950s bland office building into a colorful palette apartment building with $20 million in renovations and a detailed eye to historic preservation. The Park Harvey offered an affordable downtown lifestyle to upwardly mobile professionals.
He is a major investor in downtown Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Oklahoma City Museum of Art, the Myriad Botanical Gardens, Scissortail Park, and The Skirvin Hilton and The Colcord historical hotels.
The Stanley Draper Award to Deborah McAuliffe Senner for nonprofit work
The Stanley Draper Award is presented to an outstanding nonprofit staff member, volunteer or non-elected government employee who has made an enduring impact on downtown. The award is named after city visionary Stanley Draper, who inspired everyone to dream impossible dreams and was known as the country’s greatest “city builder.”
Deborah McAuliffe Senner, the 2024 Stanley Draper Award honoree, led the downtown-based Allied Arts organization for two decades that helped fund many downtown arts and cultural organizations, such as the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Oklahoma City Ballet, Arts Council of Oklahoma City, Canterbury Voices, and Oklahoma City Museum of Art.
Deborah led efforts to raise over $60 million for the arts community, served as consummate convener of arts groups and built strategic public-private partnerships, resulting in additional funding.
She was one of several arts leaders who assisted nonprofit arts groups in navigating recovery efforts during the pandemic and in securing an additional $10 million in ARPA funds for the arts.
Her passion project was always arts education and raising much-needed dollars for underserved and marginalized communities to create greater accessibility to the arts for all. Allied Arts established the Deborah McAuliffe Senner Excellence in Arts Education Award in her honor, and the award is presented annually.
According to a press release from Downtown Now, "The exclamation point to her career was spearheading efforts for a 25-foot public art piece by Oklahoma artist Joe Slack entitled “Together, Together.” It was installed last December in front of the Oklahoma City Convention Center and marks 50 years of Allied Arts serving the community.
Senner retired in 2022; however, in 2024, she returned to nonprofit leadership as the Interim President and CEO of Make-A-Wish Oklahoma.
Neal Horton Award for "visionary' work to spark a Downtown Renaissance
The Neal Horton Award is presented to a visionary who sparked a renaissance in a downtown area.
It is named after Neal Horton, who dreamed of revitalizing the decaying red brick warehouses east of downtown into an entertainment, dining and retail district known today as Bricktown.
Andy Burnett will receive the 2024 Neal Horton Award as an early partner in revitalizing several projects in downtown areas that had declined. Beginning with The Steelyard in east Bricktown required overcoming significant environmental issues. He later teamed up to develop the $70 million West Village Apartments along Film Row, restored the Pioneer Telephone Building at the gateway to Automobile Alley, developed the Heartland Building, and renovated Bricktown’s historic Mideke Building.
Mr. Burnett specializes in downtown mixed-use properties that contribute to attracting suburban and traditional neighborhood dwellers to a downtown lifestyle by creating urban neighborhoods where everything a resident needs in daily living is within walking distance. He serves on the Myriad Botanical Gardens community board of directors, served as the chairman of The Bricktown Association and was a founding member of the former Urban Neighbors.
Presented by Downtown Oklahoma City Partnership, tickets to the Dean A. McGee Awards are available to the public. Advance reservations are required and may be made by calling (405) 516-9686 or emailing beverly@jones.pr for sponsorships.
This event benefits Downtown Oklahoma City Partnership’s 501(c)(3) organization, Downtown Oklahoma City Initiatives, which funds public art and other downtown improvement projects. For additional information about Downtown Oklahoma City and the Dean A. McGee Awards, visit www.DowntownOKC.com or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
According to promotional materials, the mission of "Downtown Oklahoma City Initiatives (DowntownOKC.com/Initiatives) is “to foster an environment of creativity and culture through public art and activation in downtown. Projects funded through Downtown OKC Initiatives are meant to inspire conversation and wonder and to activate unused space or reinvent existing space in the urban core.”
Editor’s Note: For coverage of the Downtown Now awards honoring Dean A. McGee in previous years, see some our past stories:
2023 honorees Gary Brooks, Wiley Williams, Charles Nichols and Jane Jenkins, at this link:
https://www.citynewsokc.com/news/downtown-okc-partnership-announces-2023-dean-a-mcgee-honorees-gary-brooks-wiley-williams-charles-nicholas/article_899b906e-fa51-11ed-a059-9b75af9678a3.html
In this Darla Shelden story from 2022, a report about honorees Rand Elliott, Marva Ellard and Debi Martin:
https://www.citynewsokc.com/arts_and_entertainment/2022-dean-a-mcgee-awards-to-honor-rand-elliott-marva-ellard-and-debi-martin/article_7f1c4c1a-c72f-11ec-b308-e3e77d9b3794.html
And, at this link, Darla's 2017 story on honorees James D. Couch, Leslie Batchelor and Mark Beffort:
https://www.citynewsokc.com/arts_and_entertainment/dean-a-mcgee-awards-annually-honor-key-oklahoma-city-leaders/article_a512307d-9207-5367-abe3-86e96bcc58f3.html
For more reporting about the work of Downtown Oklahoma City over the years, search at www.CityNewsOKC.com .
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