View Full Version : OKC UGLIEST Building?



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bucktalk
05-01-2012, 06:31 PM
I had to walk directly in front of the new federal building last Sunday walking to and from the OKC Marathon. I've never thought the new federal building was eye appealing in the least. However, after walking directly in front of it -along with the landscaping in the front - I have made an official decision...that building should be designated as OKC's Ugliest Building!! Is there any uglier building in town than the federal building????

Pete
05-01-2012, 06:41 PM
For me, it's always been the AT&T Building and annex, especially since it's so visible when viewing our skyline from the north:

http://www.oklahomacounty.org/assessor/Searches/sketches/picfile/2730/R010012740001uA.jpg

dankrutka
05-01-2012, 07:08 PM
I kind of like the new federal building. AT&T is pretty bad, but I'm going with... Sandridge. It's really visible and just looks terrible IMHO. I think it's crazy they're putting all that money into it.

Pete
05-01-2012, 07:45 PM
The Oil Center on NW Expressway is just a mass of painted, pre-fab concrete.

There are a bunch of others built the same way in the 70's and 80's, but this is the biggest and most noticeable:

http://a2.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/61/9e973065f0285e7f775ac496bee41265/l.jpg

http://www.oklahomacounty.org/assessor/Searches/sketches/picfile/2627/R114793115001vA.jpg

Pete
05-01-2012, 07:59 PM
These things on EK Gaylord downtown are not only ugly, the exterior concrete is crumbling and flaking:

http://www.oklahomacounty.org/assessor/Searches/sketches/picfile/2730/R010010496001tA.jpg

bucktalk
05-01-2012, 08:29 PM
These things on EK Gaylord downtown are not only ugly, the exterior concrete is crumbling and flaking:

http://www.oklahomacounty.org/assessor/Searches/sketches/picfile/2730/R010010496001tA.jpg
Yeah - would have to agree with you. There must be a way to update these buildings!!!

LuccaBrasi
05-01-2012, 08:45 PM
These things on EK Gaylord downtown are not only ugly, the exterior concrete is crumbling and flaking:

http://www.oklahomacounty.org/assessor/Searches/sketches/picfile/2730/R010010496001tA.jpg


I concur. This the building that OCURA compare to a beautiful church in the old video Doug posted.

The Oil Center is just as bad. I call them the seat-belt buildings ever since they added the cornice work at the top that reminds me of a fireplace mantle, and painted the seatbelts down the center. Before those so called enhancements, they were just your typical squared off double T concrete spec bldgs that seem to blanket OKC from back in the day.

LuccaBrasi
05-01-2012, 08:51 PM
Woops, I forgot to mention, I think maybe the Country Inn Suites could take this honor since they recently repainted it. They also took their cornice design inspiration from the same fireplace mantle on the Oil Center from many years ago.

1273

poe
05-01-2012, 09:10 PM
My vote goes to AT&T.

Double Edge
05-01-2012, 09:24 PM
Yeah, the Trigen building (or whoever they are today) was my first thought. However, the Uhaul building has more presence and rather than attempt to hide and cut noise like the physical plant is trying to do, it's just a big old ugly in your face eyesore.

The First Christian Church Dome ranks up there for me too. (Sorry if that's your church.) Never liked the aesthetics of the north capital office buildings, Conner, Hodges, Sequoia and whatever the other one is.

onthestrip
05-01-2012, 09:32 PM
What is it with AT&T buildings having little or no windows? Even their smaller offices around town are like this as well as their downtown building in Tulsa, it basically has no windows.

BG918
05-01-2012, 09:59 PM
What is it with AT&T buildings having little or no windows? Even their smaller offices around town are like this as well as their downtown building in Tulsa, it basically has no windows.

Lots of switchgear/servers that don't need windows/light since they are climate-controlled. A lot of cities have them. I don't think they are as necessary now with off-site data centers. One of the most famous is the AT&T Long Lines Building in NYC...550 ft. tall of solid concrete with no windows.

Wishbone
05-02-2012, 05:24 AM
Chase building is pretty ugly too guys.

OklahomaNick
05-02-2012, 08:20 AM
Probably going to take some flack for this, but the Stage Center takes my vote..

SoonerBoy18
05-02-2012, 11:10 AM
My vote goes to the AT&T building AND the one beside it, When ESPN's "Outside The Lines" featured Oklahoma City bombing, they picked the worst angle to show downtown buildings. My initial reaction to seeing the builing next to at&t was "Why does it look like the roof top suffered a fire"

OKCisOK4me
05-02-2012, 04:50 PM
These things on EK Gaylord downtown are not only ugly, the exterior concrete is crumbling and flaking:

http://www.oklahomacounty.org/assessor/Searches/sketches/picfile/2730/R010010496001tA.jpg

Reminds me of those little robots in the Deathstar on Star Wars. If we only had a rather large Chewbacca to AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH at them. They'd grow wheels and disappear!! ;-)

old okie
05-03-2012, 12:38 PM
Probably going to take some flack for this, but the Stage Center takes my vote..

Agreed--although much of the architecture in OKC lacks any kind of uniqueness that we've seen in other places. I would agree with all of the suggestions here.

Perhaps we should try to find an "attractive" building in OKC. That would be a short list IMHO.

RadicalModerate
05-03-2012, 12:52 PM
If they cut or knocked a few holes in some of those "fluted" walls--and/or maybe leaned them over on amusing angles--and added some decorative duct work then the building posted by Pete could give Stage Center a run for The Ugliest prize money . . .

1972ford
06-07-2012, 04:55 AM
Shoppes of OKC followed by the entire public supply site.


PS. I don't think they are closing down but switching to commecial only. the residental side of the business went downhill after the Wright's sold their stake to the Bennet/Gaylord family they don't even manufacture the widows they sell anymore.

Larry OKC
06-07-2012, 01:36 PM
What is it with AT&T buildings having little or no windows? Even their smaller offices around town are like this as well as their downtown building in Tulsa, it basically has no windows.
Seems like I read someplace back that when the telecommunications buildings were constructed during the Cold War era (meaning they were intended to withstand a nuclear blast, leaving the communications core intact). Course that wouldn't protect the lines coming/going to the core...

1972ford
06-07-2012, 04:04 PM
Originally Posted by onthestrip
What is it with AT&T buildings having little or no windows? Even their smaller offices around town are like this as well as their downtown building in Tulsa, it basically has no windows.


its cheaper to insure a wall than a window???

jdcf
06-07-2012, 09:29 PM
The central patient tower at St. Anthony

Larry OKC
06-13-2012, 01:24 PM
http://www.okctalk.com/images/pete/wf10311b.jpg
^^^
This...

Roadhawg
06-13-2012, 01:39 PM
The Oil Center on NW Expressway is just a mass of painted, pre-fab concrete.

There are a bunch of others built the same way in the 70's and 80's, but this is the biggest and most noticeable:

http://a2.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/61/9e973065f0285e7f775ac496bee41265/l.jpg

http://www.oklahomacounty.org/assessor/Searches/sketches/picfile/2627/R114793115001vA.jpg

The inside matches the outside too

RadicalModerate
06-13-2012, 01:43 PM
Number One Ugliest: Stage Center
Number Two Ugliest: Whole Foods
Number Three Ugliest: (Yet to be determined, based upon all of the modernarchitectural NUMBering)



of course, this is [B]only my personal opinion, and frankly, i'm even getting a bit tired of PrairieVictorian (e.g. Overholtzer Mansion) and FauxArtDeco so . . . yet, seriously, don't you have to admit that Stage Center is totally goofy in design? i mean, really: is it the perfect example of form having nothing whatsoever to do with function at all . . . or whut? =)

Sheetkeecker
06-13-2012, 02:05 PM
Telephone Buildings are butt-ugly all over the nation, for some reasonable technological reasons.
But, they are, u-g-l-y.
Look like something in East Berlin, in the 1960's.

Sheetkeecker
06-13-2012, 02:06 PM
Number One Ugliest: Stage Center
Number Two Ugliest: Whole Foods
Number Three Ugliest: (Yet to be determined, based upon all of the modernarchitectural NUMBering)



of course, this is [B]only my personal opinion, and frankly, i'm even getting a bit tired of PrairieVictorian (e.g. Overholtzer Mansion) and FauxArtDeco so . . . yet, seriously, don't you have to admit that Stage Center is totally goofy in design? i mean, really: is it the perfect example of form having nothing whatsoever to do with function at all . . . or whut? =)

Oddly, I think the Mummers was the absolute darling of the Landed Gentry of the Left back when it was built and it won many, many awards for daring styling.
It was adored.

Times change.

RadicalModerate
06-13-2012, 02:31 PM
True.
Yet good taste in timeless architecture does not. =)

("landed gentry of the left" is an oxymoron . . . isn't it?
except maybe in EuroEngland . . .
and among "noo-voh" rich(e) Oilies in OKC, maybe, but . . . =)

It really is an ugly blot on the landscape though . . .
Isn't it?

(if Thomas Pynchon was writing today . . .
would he base a book around "the phone company"
rather than the postal service?
i wonder . . .?)

Larry OKC
06-14-2012, 08:36 AM
Stage Center has a certain charm about it in its ugliness...sort of like E.T. or the Volkswagen Thing

RadicalModerate
06-14-2012, 08:42 AM
Maybe, instead of tearing it down, they could build a pyramid over it.
Like in Memphis. And Halifax.
And that place just south of the Mexican border in "From Dusk Till Dawn".

They could call it "The Return of The Mummer (Building)".

Or how about a Disney film: "The Love Building."

(It really does look like something that might be where ET came from)

decepticobra
06-14-2012, 10:11 AM
the founders tower at n.w. expressway and independence looks like an asian pagoda at the top of it. its rather misplaced sitting where its at, and needs to be relocated to Little Saigon. ...why the asian inspired architecture in the first place?..whats the story behind that?....

decepticobra
06-14-2012, 10:14 AM
yeah sandridge is pretty bad....i just wanna pour pancake batter in all the windows and use it as a waffle iron.

RadicalModerate
06-14-2012, 10:23 AM
You may be talking about Founder's Tower.
Nick's at the Top restaurant used to be there.
Now the whole building--or at least some of it--has been converted to condos.

The point of the pagoda roof was the same as always:
To keep the demons off.

Larry OKC
06-16-2012, 11:52 PM
Never noticed that it had a pagoda style roof??? A while back they had added color changing lights to the outside of the building, thought it was a cool update to it (along with the neon that some of the hotels nearby have added in recent years), but havent seen it in a while. Did it change hands again and the new owners take the lights out again??

Snowman
06-17-2012, 12:34 AM
Telephone Buildings are butt-ugly all over the nation, for some reasonable technological reasons.
But, they are, u-g-l-y.
Look like something in East Berlin, in the 1960's.

I think the technological reason was concern of keeping national communication working if the soviets attacked (plus natural disasters), granted they would not hold up verses a direct hits to the building but the likely target in OKC would be Tinker.

Spartan
06-17-2012, 02:14 AM
For me, it's always been the AT&T Building and annex, especially since it's so visible when viewing our skyline from the north:


This. SandRidge tore down the wrong buildings. :headscrat

Spartan
06-17-2012, 02:17 AM
Number One Ugliest: Stage Center
Number Two Ugliest: Whole Foods
Number Three Ugliest: (Yet to be determined, based upon all of the modernarchitectural NUMBering)

You literally just drove a dagger deep into my heart, in three separate stabs. Thanks jerk :rude:

Cocaine
06-17-2012, 03:19 AM
stage center isn't that ugly

RadicalModerate
06-17-2012, 05:38 AM
You literally just drove a dagger deep into my heart, in three separate stabs. Thanks jerk :rude:

Uh...... You're welcome?

ljbab728
06-28-2012, 11:08 PM
I'm disappointed. There isn't one building from OKC mentioned on this list even though those bastions of modern urbanism, Portland and San Francisco, are included.

http://realestate.yahoo.com/news/10-buildings-that-should-be-demolished.html

I've seen that building on Melrose in LA many times and actually like it.

Larry OKC
06-29-2012, 08:47 AM
I liked most of the buildings on that list...

SoonerDave
07-03-2012, 01:53 PM
I'll second the First Place vote for the Stage Center. What a wreck.
I'll add a vote for one I think is a no-brainer, but is primarily off the radar: the WEOKIE Credit Union building at SW 74th and Penn. It looks like a cross between a stone paver and an exploded Lego plant. Really ugly place.

Pete
07-03-2012, 02:06 PM
This is that Weokie building:

http://www.oklahomacounty.org/assessor/Searches/sketches/picfile/1728/R109781005001vA.jpg

Bellaboo
07-03-2012, 02:52 PM
That Hale building that just disappeared the other day was pretty dang ugly.

OKCisOK4me
07-03-2012, 05:15 PM
I'll second the First Place vote for the Stage Center. What a wreck.
I'll add a vote for one I think is a no-brainer, but is primarily off the radar: the WEOKIE Credit Union building at SW 74th and Penn. It looks like a cross between a stone paver and an exploded Lego plant. Really ugly place.

Hahahaha about Weokie!

Someone should make a vote generator for the top 5 ugliest suggestions so far so we can see which building is #1. I'm gonna guess that Stage Center would come in either 2nd or 3rd, only because there are a bunch of people on here that actually love it...SMH

Cocaine
07-04-2012, 01:56 AM
Gotta go with AT&T I've always hated the building it's ugly as sin.

OKCisOK4me
07-04-2012, 02:07 AM
Been to Fort Worth? They've got the same kind of building... Their downtown is quite nice.

Snowman
07-04-2012, 02:36 AM
From what I had heard they would use the same blueprints for the buildings and internal wire routing in a lot of cities, it essentially was always over built for OKC's size (even more so after technology made components fit in less room) but was cheaper than coming up with a tailored solution for each city on overall construction costs and operations.

Bullbear
07-04-2012, 12:25 PM
Never noticed that it had a pagoda style roof??? A while back they had added color changing lights to the outside of the building, thought it was a cool update to it (along with the neon that some of the hotels nearby have added in recent years), but havent seen it in a while. Did it change hands again and the new owners take the lights out again??

I wondered what happened to the LED lights as well.. I know that they didn't buy a big enough system of them and you could barely see them most the time.. money better spent would be to concentrate them on the top levels or just the spire and be more visible.. but I assume they just decided to pull them .

Larry OKC
07-05-2012, 07:44 AM
I'll second the First Place vote for the Stage Center. What a wreck.
I'll add a vote for one I think is a no-brainer, but is primarily off the radar: the WEOKIE Credit Union building at SW 74th and Penn. It looks like a cross between a stone paver and an exploded Lego plant. Really ugly place.


This is that Weokie building:

http://www.oklahomacounty.org/assessor/Searches/sketches/picfile/1728/R109781005001vA.jpg
I was just commenting to my mother about it as we drove by, how much I liked it and thought it would make a neat (yet massive) house...or split up as 4 or 8 apts/condos on the second/third floors.

RadicalModerate
07-05-2012, 08:41 AM
Doesn't the part of the Weokie Credit Union building (with the sign) remind you of an old-fashioned cash register?
(and the part in the back a jail . . . perhaps a latter-day debtors prison)

Skyline
07-05-2012, 08:54 AM
I don't really like naming "Okc's Ugliest Buildings", especially for a city that has so few buildings to begin with.

How about "Okc's Ugliest Surface Parking Lots"?

RadicalModerate
07-05-2012, 10:14 AM
I vote for the ones in front of Stage Center, Whole Foods and Weokie Credit Union.

Larry OKC
07-05-2012, 10:16 AM
New thread please...

RadicalModerate
07-05-2012, 10:19 AM
I second the motion . . .
The motion has been made and seconded . . .

Back on topic . . .
How could something that looked so right (from the air) . . .
http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/okla/oklacity/johansen/plan.jpg

Go so wrong . . . ?
http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/okla/oklacity/johansen/centralsection.jpg

Could we refer to it as The Nazca Plain Hamster Habitat Effect?
(What are those, anyways? Hijacked shipping containers? PODS?)

Maybe if it was all painted Oklahoma Red Dirt Red . . .
Or even Arboreal Green so it would blend in with the trees . . .

Larry OKC
07-05-2012, 10:23 AM
New thread made...http://www.okctalk.com/showthread.php?t=30830&p=552946#post552946

ljbab728
10-04-2012, 08:42 PM
Woops, I forgot to mention, I think maybe the Country Inn Suites could take this honor since they recently repainted it. They also took their cornice design inspiration from the same fireplace mantle on the Oil Center from many years ago.

1273

Someone finally got the message about this building that looks like a mustard bottle. It's being repainted. I'm not sure at this point if the paint going up is just to cover up the existing color so it can be painted some other color. I didn't get close enough to tell for sure but the new paint either looks dark brown or charcoal.

disinfected
10-05-2012, 08:36 AM
I was just commenting to my mother about it as we drove by, how much I liked it and thought it would make a neat (yet massive) house...or split up as 4 or 8 apts/condos on the second/third floors.

I actually always thought the other Weokie building at 5909 NW Expressway would make cool condos/apartments.
2704
2705

As far as the uglies go, I'll agree with that Veolia Energy site that was posted earlier. (What are those things anyways?)
2708

5909 May Ave. Home of the Office lounge and the SB Burger Joint.

Tiffany House Apartments - Looks like something out of Sarajevo in 1992
2706
2707

There are some more Eastern European looking high rise apartments near the OU Medical Center campus, can't think of what they are called though, as I've only seen them from a distance.

Also, not going to sugarcoat it, Crossroads Mall belongs on this list.
2709

The horrendously massive Asian super buffet across the street from the Gold Dome at 23rd and Classen is no pretty sight, either, especially since they made it randomly taller.

I guess this massive, ugly campus still counts, too.
2711

EDIT: Another one that comes to mind.
2712

ljbab728
10-05-2012, 09:11 PM
Someone finally got the message about this building that looks like a mustard bottle. It's being repainted. I'm not sure at this point if the paint going up is just to cover up the existing color so it can be painted some other color. I didn't get close enough to tell for sure but the new paint either looks dark brown or charcoal.

Actually, I'm not sure about this project now. It appears today some of the places on the building that were painted dark yesterday are back to the same ugly color.

bchris02
10-07-2012, 08:55 PM
I personally like the Sandridge tower. As for ugly, I am going to get a lot of flack for this but I think the Classen truly takes the cake. I've never liked that building and think its the ugliest high-rise in town.