I love it! What a great addition to downtown. :congrats:

John Pickard is speaking now:

“We’re about creating a state of the art headquarters. we’re about creating a home - a home for the men and women who make up the Devon family.”

Pickard says they’re trying to create a building that speaks to the culture of Devon. Pointed out Devon is committed to the community, and design needs to serve entire community.

This is quite a building! I'm really impressed as well.

Bad ass! Can't wait to see more detailed renderings!

Do we know the height yet? From the renderings I would guess 850 now.

I think the atrium, rotunda, reflecting pond and landscaping will be equally impressive and an amazing site from the Myriad Gardens.

The face of Oklahoma City will soon be forever changed and every skyline photo will now feature this awesome structure.

I sure hope it does signal the beginning of more buildings downtown, ala the Charlotte reference.

Can someone please go slap this on a Tulsa board? hahaha

How much of the building does Devon anticipate occupying?

Any idea of an estimated completion date?

Based on the height of Chase and adjusting for viewing angle - this looks very very close to 1000'.

Can someone please go slap this on a Tulsa board? hahaha

They are probably going to say that we are trying to one-up them by building the biggest in the state.

Devon anticipates occupying 100% of the building and is scheduled for completion in 2012.

nm

54/925'

Look how freaking tall this thing is!!!

http://blog.newsok.com/okccentral/files/2008/08/model2.jpg

And the winner is...


55 stories. 900 feet.

Holy Crap! That is borderline ridiculous!

1.9 million sq ft

925 feet tall at 1.2 million sf!!!! HOLY!!!!!

925 FEET!!!! We might just sneak out the state tallest with that!

Edit: 54 feet taller than BOA in Charlotte.

Its taller than Dallas's tallest by 4 feet.

Official:

925 feet tall

54 floors

1.9 million square feet of space

OKC will never be the same

BTW, at 925' this will be taller than anything in Dallas!!

Only two buildings in Houston will be slightly taller.

Taller than all but one building in California.

Only one building in Seattle taller and by 12 feet!


Truly a massive, tall building.

Beautiful! Exceeds even everything I was hoping for. Thank you, Devon

There's going to be a lot of Class A space available.

Not to rain on the parade, but what happens now to the occupancy rate of downtown?

Will be the 20th tallest building in the entire country.

59th tallest in the world!

925 feet tall

54 floors

1.9 million square feet of space

Holy frickin' skyscraper dude! Man oh man. That puppy will create a lot of jobs in the next few years! Thank you Devon!!!!!! :congrats:

And the winner is...

Thank you, thank you. ;)

lol. All in fun.


Taller than Dallas!!! HA!

Devon Tower is now taller than any building in Dallas!!!!

Devon Tower is now taller than any building in Dallas!!!!

No, it will be in 2012 if everything stays on track.

Largest green building in the United States?

That will make it the 21st tallest building in the country. Big name buidling below us:

BOA Plaza- Dallas
Citigroup Center- NYC
Trump World Tower- NYC
GE Building- NYC

The ones above Devon:

Sears, Empire, Chrysler, NY Times and 2 ft below 40 Wall Street in NYC...

Good stuff.

Taller than anything in Dallas? Wow...

I think that says something.

There's going to be a lot of Class A space available.

Not to rain on the parade, but what happens now to the occupancy rate of downtown?

Nothing - this is all owner occupied and doesn't get included in the vacancy rate. As for the space they are leaving. Apparently there are several companies ready to move into that space (American Fidelity).

As much as anything, this really raises the bar and sets the tone for things to come.

When it comes time to do Core to Shore, the convention center, a huge hotel, etc.... It's going to be darn hard to propose some half-arse fake stucco boxes. Expectations and standards have been officially raised!

Anybody put this on Skyscraperpage and SkyscraperCity yet? Obviously it's huge.

There's going to be a lot of Class A space available.

Not to rain on the parade, but what happens now to the occupancy rate of downtown?

I have been looking for a new office for my business for a year and there is a shortage of class A right now. I have a feeling if Devon's current space is good Class A it won't be on the market long. I also think Larry Nichols has put a lot of thought in to this subject and would not do anything to hurt the downtown market.

Does anyone know if Devon will now have the tallest building among oil companies?

I just hope construction starts soon. The sooner it starts, the less time for things to fall thru.

That space won't be coming on the market for four years.

By that time, the excitement about downtown will be much stronger than even now and there shouldn't be any problem filling that space.

I suspect we'll see more buildings proposed before 2012.

From the renderings, it looks like the tower will be close to the Colcord and the other "space" will be to the west. Am I seeing that right?

Yes, warren.

Not sure why they did it that way but that was the layout I had heard starting about a month ago.

The huge atrium will be to the west.

The center of the tower will be centered on the street that splits the parking garage. The building will be slightly east of center on the parcel of land.

This is fantastic! OKC is really going to shine now.

Great googaly moogaly! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Na na na na na, na! Thhppppppppt! Take that Tulsa, Dallas, Denver, and all of you others who soon will develop skyscraper envy! YoooooHoooooo!

I have been looking for a new office for my business for a year and there is a shortage of class A right now. I have a feeling if Devon's current space is good Class A it won't be on the market long. I also think Larry Nichols has put a lot of thought in to this subject and would not do anything to hurt the downtown market.

He's been quoted as such. It is a blessing to this city that we have leadership, both private and corporate, that genuinely care about the future of OKC, and how their actions affect things HERE. This is an exciting thing to witness for me. Maybe it's cheesy, but this will always be home to me.

Now please pass the tissue.

Anybody put this on Skyscraperpage and SkyscraperCity yet? Obviously it's huge.

Just got everything updated on Emporis.

This makes Devon Tower the 21st Tallest in the country and 58th in the WORLD!

Nothing - this is all owner occupied and doesn't get included in the vacancy rate. As for the space they are leaving. Apparently there are several companies ready to move into that space (American Fidelity).

Is American Fidelity abandoning its Classen towers? That'd be a huge blow to that neighborhood.

This project will make OKC stand out even further because there is so little in the way of new skyscraper development in the U.S. currently.

There has been some activity in New York and Chicago but not much elsewhere.

It will be cool to show this building rising when all those NBA games are broadcast from OKC.

Is American Fidelity abandoning its Classen towers? That'd be a huge blow to that neighborhood.

There was some speculation when the Kerr McGee building became available that they might move there. To my knowledge there was not any denial of the rumors from AF management and some employess confirmed those rumors on this site.

Truely beautiful

I cant wait to see what the future holds....

From Steve's blog:

"There is so much to this project. Employees will be up in the upper rafters of the dome of the atrium..."

I'm not quite getting that.

Employees will be in the upper rafters of the dome????

Here's Steve's post:


There is so much to this project. Employees will be up in the upper rafters of the dome of the atrium. An elaborate park. A public space for restaurants. The footprint makes it look as if the building is set atop a water garden. There is way, way too much detail here to rush out in a blog right now. But wow…. stay tuned

Larry Nichols: We didn’t just wnat to build a big corporate highrise that was highly secured and wasn’t embracing the city.

Nichols would like to see people visiting the National Memorial walking along Harvey to walk through the atrium on their way to the Myriad Gardens.

Nichols hopes the money this project will generate (I assume TIF) will be used to improve the Myriad Gardens and “the entire neighborhood.”

Veteran Urban Renewal commissioner Stanton Young:

I’ve always felt that every great city in the world had a great heart, a great center. I think what we’re seeing today will in the future be considered the heart, the strength, of our city.

It’s the most thoughtful design we’ve seen.

Also:


No surprise, the Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority just unanimously approved the Devon project.

More from Steve:


Pickard says they never set out to build what is certainly the largest building in the city, maybe in the state.

“Height is fleeting. Beauty is not.”

Nichols:

Started with number of employees, then came up with 1.9 million square feet to house them.

400,000 square feet for the “podium.” And then 1.5 million square feet for the tower.

And:


Larry Nichols wants to double the size of the west City Center garage from five to 10 stories. Make it exclusively for Devon employees

The center of the tower will be centered on the street that splits the parking garage. The building will be slightly east of center on the parcel of land.

Got it now. Had to go to Google Earth to be able to visualize it.

larger than what i was expecting... love the design. i'm excited!

-M

Can someone please go slap this on a Tulsa board? hahaha
now look for the announcment that oneok or bok will build a 950 ft. tower in Tulsa. Tulsa will not let go the tallest bldg. in oklahoma very long.

Now we need complimentary buildings at 600-800 ft. to balance out the skyline, much like what happened in Charlotte after BoA was built and then they got Hearst and now Wachovia. Midfirst Bank tower? Highrise hotel/condo tower?

One of those few times in life when something turns out to be better than expected. :)

Hope this sets a trend for future development.