The team behind the Boardwalk at Bricktown development in Oklahoma City is to request a design variance from city officials which, if granted, would see the project become the tallest building in the United States. Designed by California-based Architects Orange for Matteson Capital, the project contains four towers and spans 5 million square feet, hosting hotels, residential units, and commercial and hospitality functions.
As we reported earlier this month, the project sees three towers rising 345 feet, with a fourth taller ‘Legends Tower’ originally measuring 1750 feet in height. With the scheme already approved by city officials, the team has sought the approval of a variance that will increase the height of the Legends Tower to 1,907 feet, making it the tallest building in the United States. The record is currently held by One World Trade Center, which measures 1,776 feet tall.
Described as a “mixed-use marvel” by the design team, the development will include 1776 residential units alongside 110,000 square feet of space designated for commercial and hospitality. The Legends Tower, meanwhile, will contain a 350-room Hyatt hotel with 100 serviced condominiums as well as a public observatory, restaurant, and bar at the summit. At street level, a 17,000-square-foot lagoon and water feature will be surrounded by a boardwalk with several roof decks above.
You can learn more about the project by following our previous reporting here.
6 Comments
Very poor massing. I'll wager they have three stumpy short towers to allow enough of a FAR transfer to justify the super tall 4th one. The local market probably can't digest any more total floor area. Wonder too how such a project can finance itself in current conditions and if there will be enough interest for the high floor rental or sale costs.
On the face of it, this project comes across as gimmicky and a driven by a desire to get noticed rather than for any other pressing need.
This project will never happen. This is the wrong project, the wrong location, the wrong market, the wrong scale, the wrong Architect (with all due respect to AO...they are a multi-family design firm in Orange County with no experience in a project of this type). This is a ploy by the developer to maximize the value of the land for maximum project. Who would be crazy enough to finance this; who would be crazy enough to put in equity funds? Nobody. The architecture of this is also clumsy and cliched....the lower buildings remind me of something that would be in Las Vegas.......certainly not OKC.
I agree - it's a speculative press release designed for clicks. Architects do this frequently (Remember that U-shaped "skyscraper" in NYC? or the donut in Dubai) because its a quick and effective way to get public attention. Most of it is harmless but the ones that take advantage of disasters tend to be despicable.
This one is a bit unique in that a developer is behind the project. My guess is that the developer wishes to put themselves on the map and drum up interest in investors.
While this likely comes across as the height of sophistication to the folks of Oklahoma City and might very well be a smashing success in that local it would be a laughing stock if it were proposed for another city even just a touch more cosmopolitan. And this is OK! Regional difference in a country as large and diverse as the USA is a GOOD thing.
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Great idea. Finally, something to see in the flyover parts.
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