Wow, thanks Alonzo.

Very exciting but also a bit sad in a way.

Wow, thanks Alonzo.

Very exciting but also a bit sad in a way.

I have a hole in my stomach, sincerely :-(

We may all need loss counseling once this project wraps up in a few months.


But with any luck, we'll have some new skyscrapers to obsess over in the near future.

Wish I knew this in advance...Tomorrow's going to be ugly. It's too late today. Wed will be the next time I can try something.

After seeing that PS'd photo of the tower without the cranes, I'm excited they are coming down!

The west crane is coming down today! Great news for the completion of the exterior!

The exterior is NOT completed. As the photos show below, there is still glass in the viewable side of the crown left to go in, not to mention they have the glass on the interior side of the exterior crown to put in. They probably have to hoist some mechanical on the roof as well. Their is also some exterior work being done at ground level.

The exterior is NOT completed. As the photos show below, there is still glass in the viewable side of the crown left to go in, not to mention they have the glass on the interior side of the exterior crown to put in. They probably have to hoist some mechanical on the roof as well. Their is also some exterior work being done at ground level.

Crane #1 is staying up. The arm is long enough to reach all interior sides. Looked to me like the pics of the SW triangle were completed behind the crane and that side was already glassed in on the interior so just the interior north and the rest of the SE triangle are all that is left. Easy reach for Crane #1.

Also, I don't think they meant fully completed...just got excited about getting close to completion ;-)

I still think their goal is to get both cranes down before they start moving people in, which is still scheduled for sometime in March.

The glass manufacturer must have caught up because it's all going up really fast now.

With the light winds, today was a good day to start taking the West crane down. It'll probably be gone by morning.

It really doesn't look like its position has changed much since last night around 8pm.

It really doesn't look like its position has changed much since last night around 8pm.

That's what she said.

Where's that Oh Snap pic at? lol

that's what she said.

ha

That west crane is really coming down now. You can see significant movement in the last couple of hours.

I've been looking at the still cam pics within the last hour. It's dropped a couple of notches (using the lines between the windows as a reference for notches) since I last looked 15 minutes ago.

I think each section of the crane mast is about 20 feet, which is like 1.5 floors.

I researched all the building permits for this project and here's the break down in millions (keep in mind that furniture and fixtures don't show in these numbers):

Tower, Rotunda & Garden Wing: $381
Levels 49 & 50: $11 (these are going to be NICE!)
Lobby: $2.5
Rest of the floors: $34
Auditorium: $12
Connection to Underground (through City Center East Garage): $.6
Connection to Colcord: $1
Renovation to Colcord (includes restaurant, new garden, etc.): $5
Fitness Center: $1.7
Parking Garage expansion: $45


That's just under $500 million but might not include the work being done on the outside and the floors of the Garden Wing.

And as stated, does not include furniture and fixtures.

Auditorium: $12 million

Keep that number in mind for future reference.

Originally Posted by jungmuny
But you would think if it is in the plans, it would have already been done, given that buying a large piece of land and demolishing it is one of the easiest things government can do compared to design, vetting, and building. But my bad!

Btw, I'm pretty sure that where a lot of the dust in Will's dust bowl Skydance video came from. That's several acres of dusty ground.

The entire city was hazy with dust that day.
Actually the super dusty Devon photo on page 363 was taken a couple weeks after Will's skydance dustbowl video was shot. Not only that, but there actually wasn't much dust in the suburbs either time. What I'm saying is there is a fairly persistent dust problem downtown. You can blame it on the drought, but expediting the salvage yard relocation certainly couldn't do anything to make it worse.

I remember the Petroleum Club talking about moving to the Devon Tower. Is that still happening or is it going to be another event space with the PC staying at the Chase building?

Also, I have a friend who works at Devon who is going to be officing on the 46th floor. She said she will be moving in around July and will be some of the last.

warren, it was just speculation that the Petroleum Club was moving but that proved to be untrue.

They are staying put at Chase Tower and this will be an entirely new operation, probably run by the in-house personnel Devon has recently hired.


Devon had said they hoped to have everyone moved by the end of June, with the higher floors coming towards the end.

7 February, crane coming down:
http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-WRAReYmSpGQ/TzHA4E-sZMI/AAAAAAAAQhk/ASaf1-fNZF8/s640/106_5146.jpg

http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-1uCMo5tRf5M/TzHEYTz6EFI/AAAAAAAAQic/FaFSN0Y3LO4/s640/106_5145.jpg

Edit: Link fixed

I was at Children's Hospital last night. They have one of the best views of downtown! I need to take my camera up tonight!

The crane is really going down "slow"!

It hasn't moved yet today.

Maybe in six or nine months Pete can change the angle of this camera to face southwest.....if you know what I mean...

It appears they have put on the brakes to detach the bracings that are joined to the structure, then drop until they reach the next pair to remove. Could take a few days for the crane to be completely removed.

It's moving down again.

There is a black spot on the right side of the north crown that appears to be missing glass. Can the east crane reach this area, or can it be replaced from the interior?

I think that spot is actually a vent of some kind -- you can see it better in some of the photos.

Thanks Pete. I didn't think of that. It's an odd place for a vent, and I thought for sure the construction crews would have noticed it if it was a missing window. That makes a little more sense, although, it really doesn't look good in that particular location.

I don't think that's a vent. Either the glass broke and they just put in the frame for now or they left the glass out to get some air circulation in the enclosed portion of the crown while work is being done.

There's no reason to have an ugly vent facing outward when the roof is just right there.

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j286/UnFrSaKn/Downtown%20OKC/Devon%20Tower/January%202012/devontowercrownprogress1-28-12-2.jpg

oops missed a spot!

A few fun facts about the tower:

-Some employees will begin to move in March 16.
-Hope to have everyone moved in by summer.
-Total capacity (including Garden Wing) is about 2,800.
-A connection to the underground Conncourse is planned and will be built in the future. The connection will be available on the second floor just northwest of the escalators coming up to the first floor of the Rotunda.
-The LED lights are programmable to achieve any color achievable on a computer screen (over 1M).

Wow, March 16th is only a little over a month away.

Also, Devon is listed as having 2,600 OKC employees so it seems they will be near capacity almost immediately.

A few fun facts about the tower:

-Some employees will begin to move in March 16.
-Hope to have everyone moved in by summer.
-Total capacity (including Garden Wing) is about 2,800.
-A connection to the underground Conncourse is planned and will be built in the future. The connection will be available on the second floor just northwest of the escalators coming up to the first floor of the Rotunda.
-The LED lights are programmable to achieve any color achievable on a computer screen (over 1M).

the connection to the conncourse is in final planning stages (going to be built by the city p180)

Pic of crane coming from my place.
http://distilleryimage4.instagram.com/db687c2e533a11e1a87612313804ec91_7.jpg

the connection to the conncourse is in final planning stages (going to be built by the city p180)

The connection runs through the third level of the City Center East Garage and is either complete or nearly complete. The plans have long been approved and a building permit was issued months ago. I could see it under construction on some of the photos.

It ties into the existing Skywalk between the garage and Oklahoma Tower.

Wow, March 16th is only a little over a month away.

Also, Devon is listed as having 2,600 OKC employees so it seems they will be near capacity almost immediately.

Not sure how many employees are positioned at the records/data center, but it's a sizeable facility out by WRWA.

Wow, March 16th is only a little over a month away.

Also, Devon is listed as having 2,600 OKC employees so it seems they will be near capacity almost immediately.
But some are field employees as well as the IT is going out by the airport.

I know those two facilities are about 150,000 square feet combined but I doubt they employ more than 100 at that site.

If you look at the most recent Google aerial from 10/12/11 (a Wednesday) there are less than 40 cars in the parking lot, split pretty much equally between the two buildings. The entire lot only holds about 100 cars.

Very little glass left to install. That means we'll see the other crane coming down soon.

The connection runs through the third level of the City Center East Garage and is either complete or nearly complete. The plans have long been approved and a building permit was issued months ago. I could see it under construction on some of the photos.

It ties into the existing Skywalk between the garage and Oklahoma Tower.

the contract to build the connection is item VI on the FEB 13 Devon Implementation committee Agenda for 690k ... it then will be approved by council next tuesday

also item 7 added 7250 to the architectural contract for the same project

So, Project 180 is now being billed to connect Devon Tower to the skywalk??

Looking back through the documents the budget was for $550K and architecture fees were $55K. With these latest numbers, that bumps the total bill to more than $750,000.

Used to seeing cranes in the sky for over 2 years, it will be weird when they are not there anymore, I am already having a feeling of emptiness, no excitement, no more progression.

So, Project 180 is now being billed to connect Devon Tower to the skywalk??

Looking back through the documents the budget was for $550K and architecture fees were $55K. With these latest numbers, that bumps the total bill to more than $750,000.

to be fair .. it is the devon tiff ..... and this project is not on thier property and is a valued connection

It's only the Devon TIF in the respect the tax dollars they were have paid to the general fund are now being redirected to streets and parks in the CBD. It's not for their use or to be used for their development.

AND this was never listed in the scope of Project 180; at least none that I've seen after combing through all their public materials and presentations.


The bridge from Devon Tower to the garage is already built. This $750K is to create an enclosed, air-conditioned corridor that links to the skywalk. As it stands now, you could still walk through the third level of the garage and it is generally enclosed, just not climate-controlled.

Is the East crane coming down now? To this day I still can't remember which is crane #1 and #2.

East crane is #1

You can see on the webcam the east crane is still over the top of the building. The good news is we'll have a lot better angle to see the sections coming down.

The west crane is about half-way down now.

FYI, the first floor at the bottom of the webcam is level 19.

Near the top of it looked like the sections were moving.

I can't tell on the still cam...

The Oklahoman webcam is back online and it looks like the east crane is still being used to place panels on the back of the crown.

I'm quite sure they'll need it for this purpose until that job is completed and they still have a ways to go.

The west crane just dipped below the view of the webcam... It's about 2/3rds of the way down now and moving fast.

It would be great is someone could get some photos of the Devon work at ground level: Garden Wing, park, auditorium, lobby, Colcord connection, etc. That stuff is moving fast and I'm sure much has changed since the last photos over a week ago.

Yea, I think they want to get that west crane down and wrapped up before this snow storm coming in this weekend. They are probably going to make a lot of progress today and tomm with the tower, to gain some ground before the snow storm, because if we end up getting the 4 - 6 inches on Sunday night, they might loose a few days of construction time.

if we end up getting the 4 - 6 inches on Sunday night...
Who's presently forecasting that much snow? Even Mike Morgasm was backing off his hyperbolic predictions from earlier in the week.

It would be neat to see the crane de-constructed in a high speed video. What do they do with the boom once it is as far down as it can go? What do they do with the concrete base after removal?

Once the boom is all the way at the bottom, they'll use a crawler crane to disassemble the remainder.

The base of the west crane is right near the main south entrance so I'm sure they'll remove most of it and leave the remainder below grade.

Who's presently forecasting that much snow? Even Mike Morgasm was backing off his hyperbolic predictions from earlier in the week.

Doomsday Morgan strikes again...