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  #21  
Old Posted Jun 16, 2007, 4:54 PM
Doug Loudenback Doug Loudenback is offline
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I've tried to edit the above to say that "I've rarely posted" ... I'd forgotten that I had ... but I'm unable to edit the post. Hence, this correction message.
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  #22  
Old Posted Jun 16, 2007, 5:34 PM
Karried Karried is offline
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Great Thread!

Doug, I especially like the second pic of the Chesapeake Boathouse with DT in the background.

I think many people will be surprised at all the of the new projects slated for Downtown and Bricktown.

Thanks for the sticky. I'm so glad to see posts such as these.


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  #23  
Old Posted Jun 16, 2007, 7:12 PM
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Hey, Doug - I started this thread and I meant of it to be anything about Oklahoma City as long as its not crap-talk. You can put whatever you like about Oklahoma City, the current, the future, maybe some history - that would be great. Its weird because ya'll just all kinda popped up all of a sudden and started writing because no one was posting at all and ya'll 4 showed up all of a sudden. Thanx for suporting the thread.
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  #24  
Old Posted Jun 16, 2007, 7:18 PM
jbrown84 jbrown84 is offline
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The Founders Tower office building in the NW business district is being converted to upscale condos.

The 360 at Founders Plaza
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  #25  
Old Posted Jun 16, 2007, 10:02 PM
Doug Loudenback Doug Loudenback is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Architect2010 View Post
Hey, Doug - I started this thread and I meant of it to be anything about Oklahoma City as long as its not crap-talk. You can put whatever you like about Oklahoma City, the current, the future, maybe some history - that would be great. Its weird because ya'll just all kinda popped up all of a sudden and started writing because no one was posting at all and ya'll 4 showed up all of a sudden. Thanx for suporting the thread.
Cool!

You can thank Hot Rod for a link in OkcTalk, http://www.okctalk.com/okc-metro-are...age-forum.html , for the awareness and peaked interest!
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  #26  
Old Posted Jun 16, 2007, 10:18 PM
Doug Loudenback Doug Loudenback is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Architect2010 View Post
it will be at grade-level and semi depressed, a combination of the two.
In case it's not been mentioned, the current I-40 "road bed" (if one can say that an elevated expressway has such a thing) (once the "old" crosstown is destroyed), will become a gorgious street-level boulevard (at least, that's the plan) ... I'm sure I've seen some renderings but at the moment I can't remember where ... maybe someone else will post them.

Last edited by Doug Loudenback; Jun 17, 2007 at 2:02 AM.
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  #27  
Old Posted Jun 16, 2007, 11:06 PM
Doug Loudenback Doug Loudenback is offline
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Oklahoma History Center

A major development which came to fruition in November 2005 was the $59M new Oklahoma History Center at the northeast corner of the State Capitol, moving from its former location south of state capitol, shown below (aside from the 1st 2 "vintage" pics which probably came from the Oklahoma Historical Center's website, http://www.okhistory.org/ , I don't remember for sure), I took the other pics shown below in October 2006:

The old Oklahoma Historical Society Building



The New Oklahoma History Center

Looking north and a little east, east of the State Capitol



Looking north and a slightly west at the entry to the Center



Approaching the entry, looking northwest



Looking west into the entry



Looking west and slightly south toward the Capitol,
Showing a replica of Wiley Post's Winnie Mae, 1st airpcraft (other than a Zeppelin) & 1st pilot to solo an around the world flight in 1933 (his 1st (1931) flight had a co-pilot)



Wiley Post is buried in Oklahoma City


If interested in more about Wiley or the OHC, see the Wiley Post and Oklahoma History Center articles in my blog.
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  #28  
Old Posted Jun 16, 2007, 11:56 PM
Doug Loudenback Doug Loudenback is offline
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Skirvin Hilton

In the posts I place here, I'm assuming a largely non-Oklahoma audience ... Okc Okies have seen all this stuff and much more before ... posts I place in this forum are scaled-down articles posted in my blog which contain a whole lot more than is show here ...

Before reopening, interior construction in progress, 1/2007

Venitian Room on top (14th) floor



Lobby Area Looking Up During Construction in 1/2007



Lobby Area Look Up Essentially Done In 2/2007
(though since modified to include ceiling-to-floor draperies)

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  #29  
Old Posted Jun 17, 2007, 2:24 AM
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Thanx Hot Rod, that was great of you to provide this link to the other site. the Skirvin Is such a beautiful building, I wish I could go in but I don't think they would be so open on a group full ot 15 year olds in the hotel. lol

I did go to the History Center on a field trip this year, it was a really cool building and all the stuff inside was so interesting.
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  #30  
Old Posted Jun 17, 2007, 3:44 AM
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I'm glad to see this thread prosper!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Hot Rod
Yes Kevin, thanks for the sticky.

I imagine Dallas and Houston might want one as well?
Definitely. I have some ideas about who to ask about getting those started. If there's any Tulsa posters out there that wants to get one started for that city, then let me know. New Orleans and Baton Rouge also are in the middle of a boom.
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  #31  
Old Posted Jun 17, 2007, 1:26 PM
Doug Loudenback Doug Loudenback is offline
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Colcord Hotel

Another event of 2006 importance was the conversion of the Colcord "Building" into the "Colcord Hotel" -- a use originally intended by builder Charles Colcord, as shown in the pre-construction postcard (from my postcard collection) ...

Of course, it didn't turn out that way and the "left" wing never did get built, and the remainder opened as an office building in 1910 as Oklahoma City's "first skyscraper."

The property was acquired by Tulsa's Paul Coury & Associates (who had already done a great job in Tulsa with Tulsa's Ambassador Hotel) and converted the building into a "boutique" hotel, opening in November (I think) 2006, beating the Skirvin's restoration. Although the top floors were all gutted and redone, care was taken in the lower levels to preserve the historical elements. I took the pics below in May 2006, during construction.











From the Ford Center at a Hornets Game - crappy pic but used for perspective.
The hotel is at about 8:45 o'clock in the pic - red neon sign.
Extra long beds were used in some rooms to accommodate extra long NBA bodies


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  #32  
Old Posted Jun 18, 2007, 4:14 PM
bombermwc bombermwc is offline
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I love OKC....wouldn't want to live anywhere else!
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  #33  
Old Posted Jun 25, 2007, 11:20 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Doug Loudenback View Post
A major development which came to fruition in November 2005 was the $59M new Oklahoma History Center at the northeast corner of the State Capitol, moving from its former location south of state capitol, shown below (aside from the 1st 2 "vintage" pics which probably came from the Oklahoma Historical Center's website, http://www.okhistory.org/ , I don't remember for sure), I took the other pics shown below in October 2006:

The old Oklahoma Historical Society Building



The New Oklahoma History Center

Looking north and a little east, east of the State Capitol



Looking north and a slightly west at the entry to the Center



Approaching the entry, looking northwest



Looking west into the entry



Looking west and slightly south toward the Capitol,
Showing a replica of Wiley Post's Winnie Mae, 1st airpcraft (other than a Zeppelin) & 1st pilot to solo an around the world flight in 1933 (his 1st (1931) flight had a co-pilot)



Wiley Post is buried in Oklahoma City


If interested in more about Wiley or the OHC, see the Wiley Post and Oklahoma History Center articles in my blog.
I really like the pic of the museum with the airplane in it with the capitol building in the background through the window.

That's priceless!!
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  #34  
Old Posted Jul 6, 2007, 4:53 PM
shane453 shane453 is offline
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The rumor mill about downtown OKC is heating up, and even the Daily Oklahoman is catching on.

A recent article said that as many as four or five highrise projects were under development in various stages. Today, the Oklahoman speculated (according to information from various reliable sources) that rapidly growing Sandridge Energy Co, which moved to a highrise tower in NW OKC from Amarillo last year, is interested in purchasing the 30-story, vacant, McGee Tower in DT. According to the Oklahoman, such a move would give Devon Energy CEO Larry Nichols enough confidence in the DT office market to go ahead with his rumored plans to consolidate his company into a single signature office tower. Devon is currently using well over 50 floors of space all around DT. The Oklahoman speculated even further that American Assurance, a company currently on the NW side, would fill in the spaces left by Devon.

It's actually a very plausible scenario... All of these companies are expanding and interested in improving their locations.
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  #35  
Old Posted Jul 9, 2007, 1:11 AM
bombermwc bombermwc is offline
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Why is it that folks think the KMG tower is empty? Remember that KMG only had like 250 people in the HQ office in OKC. If you walk into the building, do you really find no tenants? Somehow I dont think so.
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  #36  
Old Posted Jul 12, 2007, 7:56 PM
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Hopefully this comes true..... a new signature tower for devon would help the appearance of their company head quarters and i would think make it much more efficient in one tower as opposed to being dpread throughout several towers. And of course would help the asthetics of our old same ol' same ol' skyline.... but in other news did anyone hear of the McDonald's that was proposed for bircktown and was hammered down quite harshly?
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Last edited by Architect2010; Jul 12, 2007 at 8:03 PM.
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  #37  
Old Posted Jul 12, 2007, 8:26 PM
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oh and this just in the company named sandridge that Shane mentioned has indeed bought the Kerr building!!!!!! With this happening this will help take down the vacancy rate downtown dramatically....


NewsOK: Kerr-McGee Tower sold

Don Mecoy
Business Writer
SandRidge Energy will move its corporate headquarters into the Kerr-McGee Tower in downtown Oklahoma City as part of an innovative three-company deal announced today to restore and repopulate the vacated landmark building.



SandRidge acquired the 30-story tower at 123 Robert S. Kerr Ave. and surrounding buildings and three downtown parking lots from Chesapeake Energy Corp., which obtained all the former Oklahoma City real estate holdings of Kerr-McGee in a transaction with Anadarko Petroleum Corp. The amount of the transaction between SandRidge and Chesapeake was not immediately disclosed.

Anadarko last year bought Kerr-McGee in a $17 billion deal. Kerr-McGee’s Oklahoma City office employees were either absorbed or cut loose by the Texas-based company.

SandRidge plans to renovate Kerr-McGee Tower and relocate its base from the Valliance Bank Building later this year or early next year.

“I am very pleased to announce this transaction with Chesapeake whereby SandRidge now owns one of Oklahoma City’s largest and most important buildings,” said Tom L. Ward, SandRidge chairman and chief executive officer.

“Our company is growing very rapidly and the Kerr-McGee Tower is an ideal location for our corporate headquarters,” Ward said. “I look forward to becoming a member of the downtown business community and to contributing to the ongoing renaissance of downtown Oklahoma City.”

Ward co-founded Chesapeake with Aubrey McClendon, but stepped down last year to pursue other interests. However, within three months Ward leveraged his large Chesapeake holdings to buy a controlling stake in Riata Energy in Amarillo, Texas, for $500 million. Ward moved the company’s headquarters to Oklahoma City and renamed it SandRidge.

SandRidge employs about 1,600 people, including more than 200 at its headquarters.

Chesapeake acquired the former Kerr-McGee property in Oklahoma City as part of a joint venture with Anadarko. Chesapeake obtained energy assets in west Texas and western Oklahoma in exchange for $310 million in cash, future cash for development of some of the assets contained in the deal and half of some Chesapeake interests in Loving County, Texas.

The transaction between Chesapeake and Anadarko was negotiated for months, but the Kerr-McGee properties “became the last chip on the table,” McClendon said. However, Chesapeake, with its sprawling campus near NW 63 and Western, has no need for a large downtown building.

McClendon contacted his former partner and friend Ward to see if he was interested in acquiring the downtown properties from Chesapeake. Ward was “very agreeable” to the offer, McClendon said.

“These properties are important to our community and we are happy to return them to local ownership,” McClendon said.

As part of the deal, Chesapeake and SandRidge have agreed to jointly maintain Kerr Park downtown at no cost to Oklahoma City for the next 10 years. The companies have asked Rand Elliot to develop a new plan for the park, McClendon said.




This is a very important step in getting any new tower built downtown!!!
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Last edited by Architect2010; Jul 12, 2007 at 8:43 PM.
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  #38  
Old Posted Jul 13, 2007, 7:40 PM
bombermwc bombermwc is offline
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Yeah and it's so screwey that Chesapeake ever owned the building. They have made it clear that they didn't want to move downtown, so I wonder why they invested? Surely they weren't smart enough to know they could made the deal they did. I mean the next tenant could have just as easily been a non-energy company. It's just office space, so it's not like it was particularly specialized.

Hopefully American Fidelity will now look to build!!!
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  #39  
Old Posted Jul 13, 2007, 10:41 PM
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^ Hopefully Chesapeake sells their campus up at NW 63rd to some expanding tech company and instead builds downtown as well. I see Devon definitely building a new tower soon, maybe American Fidelity as well but there is still a lot of vacant space...
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  #40  
Old Posted Jul 14, 2007, 6:02 AM
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Did you guys know that apparently American Fidelty made a bid on the building too??? Or thats what was on another forum......lol. Oh and I doubt that Chesapeake has any plans on moving their campus, since they are spening so much on buying properties and tearing them down to make room for an expansion of their current address. But this also shows that American Fidelty definitely has interest in downtown, and if they cant acquire a space...... they can always build a new tower! i dunno.. lol
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