Favorite Skyline Shots

[Jim Kyle]

Here's another of my very old photos, taken in the spring of 1956 from midway between NW 4 and NW 5 on Harrison, shortly after sunrise. At the time I was a copy editor for the Oklahoma City Times, working from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. and I parked on Harrison because there were no meters. I took the shot on the way to work one morning.

As I find more old photos, I'll post them.

[UnFrSaKn]

Sure wish the old Petroleum Building still looked like it once did. It was really the first true skyscraper. Much taller than the Colcord.

[Pete]

Here's another of my very old photos, taken in the spring of 1956 from midway between NW 4 and NW 5 on Harrison, shortly after sunrise. At the time I was a copy editor for the Oklahoma City Times, working from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. and I parked on Harrison because there were no meters. I took the shot on the way to work one morning.

As I find more old photos, I'll post them.

So cool! Thanks for sharing.

[Teo9969]

What are the buildings east and north of City Place?

[Pete]

The taller structure just to the right of City Place is what is now the Dowell Center, believe it or not.

[UnFrSaKn]

The Dowell Center is the old Petroleum Building before they refaced the outside and added on to it towards the East.



Building on the left it the one they just tore down to build the "amenities" building in the SandRidge thread.



Dean A McGee & Robinson



Braniff Building on the left background.

[Praedura]

That's a great old skyline shot.

But dig that yellow car! I love it.

[Jim Kyle]

Actually that car was a pale green, which was a very popular color for GM vehicles in the late 40s and early 50s. The slide is pretty faded, and the automatic color restoration program didn't get all the colors correctly...

[Snowman]

Actually that car was a pale green, which was a very popular color for GM vehicles in the late 40s and early 50s. The slide is pretty faded, and the automatic color restoration program didn't get all the colors correctly...

This might be a little closer

[Praedura]

Actually that car was a pale green, which was a very popular color for GM vehicles in the late 40s and early 50s. The slide is pretty faded, and the automatic color restoration program didn't get all the colors correctly...

Ok, dig that pale green car!

Like Snowman, I thought I'd try to edit the photo to see if I could get a greener looking car. I couldn't (without shifting the whole image to green).

But, then I thought I'd see if I could clean it up some (speck removal, etc.) Had a little more luck with that (and completely killed a couple of hours to boot). Here's what I got:

[Jim Kyle]

Thanks very much! I spent an hour or two taking specks out of the sky area but gave up on the rest of the image. I was using the stamp tool in GIMP, with a very small brush and working at 400% zoom. You've done an excellent job! The only remaining blemish I can see is a spot on what I believe to be the old Coca-Cola building (just above the parked cars next to the Printing sugb) that's a darker red than its surroundings, and it's not at all obvious.

[Praedura]

Thanks very much! I spent an hour or two taking specks out of the sky area but gave up on the rest of the image. I was using the stamp tool in GIMP, with a very small brush and working at 400% zoom. You've done an excellent job! The only remaining blemish I can see is a spot on what I believe to be the old Coca-Cola building (just above the parked cars next to the Printing sugb) that's a darker red than its surroundings, and it's not at all obvious.

Thanks! Yeah, I most definitely saw the dark stain on the red building -- that's about the point where I got tired and gave it a rest. Several hours of hand editing pixels gets old. Mostly using a blur tool with a small radius at high zoom. It does a marvelous job of rubbing out specks, but not so good at handling boundaries such as where the blue sky meets the buildings (that's the sloppiest part of my effort -- had to hand pick colors for many individual pixels to make it look reasonable).

It's a great shot of the old downtown. I wished I could step into the picture and mill about for awhile.

The closest thing I can do is watch this film, by the chamber, put out at around the same time as your photo:

City on the March: A Short Story of Oklahoma City. c.1950s. - YouTube

In fact, I think I see the same model of car as the pale green special at the 2:54 mark (well, just the back end of it) in the parking lot of Park Estates Shopping Village.

[Praedura]

Oh, and I just noticed that in that film, at the 3:00 mark, it shows the same view as in your photo. Here's a still:

[UnFrSaKn]

Just noticed? Thought you picked the video for that reason.

[Jim Kyle]

I caught that too. And in the opening title shots I saw an Olds88 in the same light green. My 46 Olds 76 convertible that I drove at OU and my first year of military service was that pale jade tint, which is part of why I remember it so well...

[Praedura]

Photo by Vincent Fryhover

Taken May 30, 2013 -- the day of downtown storm craziness.

[Oh GAWD the Smell!]

That's awesome! I really wanted to get out for pics today...I spent 3 hours mowing and staring at the great clouds. But I had more chores and couldn't even get the camera out of the closet

[PhiAlpha]

Ah the biltmore... Darn it

[UnFrSaKn]

July 1 2013

Construction crane up at the Holiday Inn Express site...

[Pete]

Awesome. Thanks Will!

I *love* the way the Aloft fills out Deep Deuce.

Once that hotel is open and gets cranking DD will really be cooking.

[Praedura]

Awesome. Thanks Will!

I *love* the way the Aloft fills out Deep Deuce.

Once that hotel is open and gets cranking DD will really be cooking.

There's no doubt about it... the Aloft Hotel gives great skyline.

[UnFrSaKn]

The only thing that would complete this photo is one or two more towers to the left side...

[OKCisOK4me]

I think one a lil to the right and slightly behind the AT&T Phone Line building would be welcome too ;-)

[KayneMo]

Came across this amazing image on Aerial Oklahoma Inc!

[UnFrSaKn]

Love it!