Oklahoma City could soon be home to the country’s second-tallest structure if plans for a new 1,750-foot skyscraper designed by the California practice Architects Orange (AO) are approved along with a larger $1 billion entertainment district proposal from developer Scot Matteson.
The tower is included as part of the mixed-use Boardwalk at Bricktown development that calls for a hotel, two condominium towers, and an LED-lit multilevel podium with a pool and other public areas at a site just two blocks away from where the new home of the Oklahoma City Thunder NBA franchise is now being planned.
Matteson and other developers behind the scheme are hoping the local real estate market can support their ambitions, and say the 134-story apartment tower could be added to the mixed-use scheme provided there is adequate demand. The plan would be funded in part by a $200 million tax increment financing.
"We felt that creating someplace can live and work and play and be an entertainment district with all the venues around it. It’s going to be exciting and pull people into that marketplace," Matteson told the local news outlet KOCO 5. (He also said the third tower could be shortened upon its market assessment and the city’s request.)
The proposal falls in line with others that would have rivaled or even surmounted SOM’s now ten-year-old One World Trade Center, including Santiago Calatrava’s scrapped 2,000-foot Spire condominium tower in Chicago. AO has extensive experience in smaller multifamily and mixed-use designs but has yet to complete a high-rise in its 50 years of operation. Their new design calls for 2.7 million square feet of residential space with another 100,00-square feet of retail plus a 48-key Dream hotel and two parking garages totaling 980,000 square feet overall.
Oklahoma City’s current tallest building is the 844-foot Devon Energy Center from Pickard Chilton. No timelines for the proposal’s completion have been presented. If approved, construction of the first two-tower phase could begin as early as this year.
13 Comments
Remind you of something?
It's so incredibly hideous. It fits perfectly in Oklahoma.
The base of the building isn't ugly, it's vulgar.
Or both?
thanks insane
"not' gigantic, smaller than the Rose Bowl or Coliseum.
something about this isn't real. i don't know what, but it makes no sense at all.
Of course it is not ... just look at the context
Much better landing for the base of building is needed.
I agree with the previous negative design comments, and would add that the 1,750 ft tower element appears to be an afterthought, and not the driver of the design. Please take a look at the Burj Khalifa in Dubi to see the difference in how the Burj interacts with and embraces the ground elements.
Oral Roberts said he saw a 900-foot Jesus in Tulsa, so maybe the tower is for Him?
Sorry for the puerile comment, but the shape of this tower looks fit for "Oral Roberts"
They claim it will be the "tallest building in the nation" not the "second-tallest building"? Though the body of this post uses "structure" so perhaps there is some nuance between tallest building vs structure I am missing?
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