60 floor concepts on new Devon tower site.

[Platemaker]

I came across this website today from the OU College of Architecture. It is a student semester project concept that just so happens to be located on the Devon tower site. Although the pictures are student concepts, it is interesting to see what a new tower at the corner of Hudson and Sheridan would do for our skyline.

Forgive me if this has been posted before... I searched and searched and searched!!!

OKC Studio

Semester Project

The semester project will involve a comprehensive central business district (mixed use development) located in the heart of downtown Oklahoma City. The idea is to create a business district which include office building, residential towers, and retail facilities (shopping mall) in lower and underground levels. All these components should be grouped around an architectural landscape open public space, connected by pedestrian walkways, roads, vehicular tunnels, and underground and on surface structured parking.


The most spectacular component of this business district is a sixty story skyscraper (office building). This is the only part of the project which has functional design requirements and the other parts will be designed in a conceptual massing in order to create a new urban central business complex integrated with downtown OKC.

[Platemaker]

[SOONER8693]

Several of those are very impressive. I would be ecstatic with something like those for the Devon tower. Thanks for posting.

[angel27]

I love #4, 7's good; 12 reminds me too much of our tornado alley status!

[bbarnett]

Thanks for posting these. It does give us a perspective of how things might look. We have been waiting a long time for a new tower downtown. Pete Brzycki and I began discussing rumors of a potential "crystal spike" building going up downtown way back in 1982 or so. There was so much building going on at that time, with the high price of oil. (Then of course everything stopped with a big thud shortly after that.) Pete and I would love reading the articles about new developments in the real estate section of the Oklahoman and then trade opinions about them. This was back when Pete and I were attending OU.

[Midtowner]

I'm not a big fan of any of them. It doesn't look like much effort was spent to make the new structures complement the existing skyline.

[Kerry]

I am partial to 4 and 7... but mostly 4. I hate the Chase building but I like number 4 for some reason.

[Thunder]

I like number 4 too. I think 60 floors is not enough. They should raise it to be higher than the twin towers.

[Platemaker]

A pyramid too!!!!

[centaurian]

Pyramid YES.....building as tall as the twin towers, Na...

I wouldn't want to see it flying throught the sky when an F5 comes through.

[solitude]

What is it with #4? It just looks like a World Trade Center knockoff to me. I don't think we need a minature version of the twin towers in Oklahoma City - because that's exactly what visitors would think. It even seems tacky for that reason to me. But, maybe I'm missing something.

Oh, I kinda like #7.

[Richard at Remax]

I know I might be looking too much into these concepts but it looks like all of these would be built over the new parking garage that was built not to long ago.

The devon tower isn't going to bulldoze that is it? cause i was under the impression it was being built south of the parking garage.

[CuatrodeMayo]

I'm not a big fan of any of them. It doesn't look like much effort was spent to make the new structures complement the existing skyline.

I would agree in terms of scale and sheer size. I don't know if 60 stories was a program requirement, but it was a terrible idea. This was a semester project? I will respond more in depth later, I'm tired. As a matter of fact, I think I might design one...hmmmm.

I am partial to 4 and 7... but mostly 4. I hate the Chase building but I like number 4 for some reason.

Speaking of the Chase Tower...where are they in the site model? Leaving those out messes with the scale of the proposals.

[metro]

I like several of them however these are old concepts. These were posted quite some time back, well before the Devon announcement. I doubt Devon will use these for consideration.

[edcrunk]

i think this one is pretty dope

[mmonroe]

7 is a poor waste of floor space. It's not that efficient. 4, I don't see the twin tower knock off... but I do like #5.

[Spartan]

I'm not a big fan of any of them. It doesn't look like much effort was spent to make the new structures complement the existing skyline.

OKC's existing skyline has a very dated look, that to me, almost exudes "Brady Bunch" which would be hard to work with. I think most architects would probably shy away from designing a 60-story tower in OKC. The tallest building in OKC is 500 feet exactly, 60 stories would put a tower at 900 or more, since the average floor height in skyscrapers these days is around 16 feet or so.

Expect Devon to be more around 700, which will take a lot of the edge off, but would still probably end up being exceedingly imposing on the rest of the skyline until we get used to it. You know, for so long, that has been our skyline, just like that, unchanged for decades. It's going to look funny at first to see some changes, and we will see a lot more than Devon announced in the next 5 years.



I know this dude. Goes to show what 5 years or so in the architecture business can do to one. Eeek!

[edcrunk]

7 is a poor waste of floor space. It's not that efficient.

with that being the case... it's still pretty sick!

btw, most of the others were just bizarre and like midtowner said "don't take into account the existing skyline"

[edcrunk]

I like several of them however these are old concepts. These were posted quite some time back, well before the Devon announcement. I doubt Devon will use these for consideration.

especially since they've already decided on an architect firm that has a distinct, recognizable style (who, for the most part, will most likely stick with).

[Midtowner]

OKC's existing skyline has a very dated look, that to me, almost exudes "Brady Bunch" which would be hard to work with. I think most architects would probably shy away from designing a 60-story tower in OKC. The tallest building in OKC is 500 feet exactly, 60 stories would put a tower at 900 or more, since the average floor height in skyscrapers these days is around 16 feet or so.

Expect Devon to be more around 700, which will take a lot of the edge off, but would still probably end up being exceedingly imposing on the rest of the skyline until we get used to it. You know, for so long, that has been our skyline, just like that, unchanged for decades. It's going to look funny at first to see some changes, and we will see a lot more than Devon announced in the next 5 years.



I know this dude. Goes to show what 5 years or so in the architecture business can do to one. Eeek!

I don't know a damned thing about skyscrapers except that they're tall and generally, that if you can put up with having to walk 30 minutes to your car, they're a fun place to have an office.

That said, there are other companies downtown which are growing fast and could conceivably be building their own buildings within the next decade or so.

Quest Resources is currently located in the Oklahoma Tower. They only have around 80 employees, but they just bought a big chunk of the Appalachian Shale.

Gulfport Energy is one of the fastest growing companies in America in terms of investment value. They're currently located in the NW part of town, but if downtown becomes a haven for energy companies, I could conceivably see them making a move as well within the next decade.

Maybe a big 'ol imposing tower would eventually attract complementary towers.

We can always hope.

[soonerfever]

While I can see the "twin towers" resemblance in number 4, number 15 really stands out to me. Although it has since be changed, 15 looks like the original design of the Freedom Tower, which will be the new World Trade Center.

[John]

I know it's a professional model vs. student designs, but I still like the 'Project X' tower...

[mmonroe]

Since when did Leadership Square, The Pioneer Building, Chase Bank, and First National Center all look enough alike to match. Do they compliment one another?

[dismayed]

You know, when I travel to Seattle or San Francisco or Chicago I always see such great, modern looking buildings. I would love to see us really go for it for once and do something like this. And not some dumbed/watered down version of what should have been, but really go for it. I hope we don't end up with another boring 1970s-esque building.

[Kerry]

To tell the truth, I will be happy with anything that isn't made out of concrete with small (or no) windows. I personally would like to break every window in the Chase building so they could replace the entire facade. Now if I could just find the slingshot I had when I was 7.