While I am excited at the probability that Devon will build another tower downtown, am I alone in thinking that their downsizing of the Devon Tower was not as carefully thought as they had hoped? What a sight it would have been to have the 75 feet back (maybe 4 floors?). Or even add 50 more feet to get supertall status. (to dream, OKC with a supertall)

Sure, I want more buildings but wouldn't it be nice to have the 925 footer AND a 30-40 storey Devon 'amenities' tower. lol

While I am excited at the probability that Devon will build another tower downtown, am I alone in thinking that their downsizing of the Devon Tower was not as carefully thought as they had hoped? What a sight it would have been to have the 75 feet back (maybe 4 floors?). Or even add 50 more feet to get supertall status. (to dream, OKC with a supertall)

Sure, I want more buildings but wouldn't it be nice to have the 925 footer AND a 30-40 storey Devon 'amenities' tower. lolI'm 100% with you. Any tower that Devon builds I will sit there and think to myself... I just wish they would've included x floors on their original tower. But I will still glad if they build a new one.

I wish someone would take a picture of our skyline from the south west side of Oklahoma City as your driving up north on i-44, I always try not to get too distracted when I'm leaving O-Triple-C because its like the tower is looking me dead in the face lol.

Not from I-44 but it's from the southwest at WRWA:

http://i49.tinypic.com/213n9zr.jpg

Not from I-44 but it's from the southwest at WRWA:

http://i49.tinypic.com/213n9zr.jpg

Beautiful! thank you :)

While I am excited at the probability that Devon will build another tower downtown, am I alone in thinking that their downsizing of the Devon Tower was not as carefully thought as they had hoped? What a sight it would have been to have the 75 feet back (maybe 4 floors?). Or even add 50 more feet to get supertall status. (to dream, OKC with a supertall)

Sure, I want more buildings but wouldn't it be nice to have the 925 footer AND a 30-40 storey Devon 'amenities' tower. lol

There was a special on a few weeks back. There was a brief comment in the special that the FAA didn't like the original planned height. Also, those floors went elsewhere in town to house a data center if memory serves. A sound plan all in all.

There was a special on a few weeks back. There was a brief comment in the special that the FAA didn't like the original planned height. Also, those floors went elsewhere in town to house a data center if memory serves. A sound plan all in all.

The FAA doesn't care. There are taller structures in the city which already have the airspace configured to a higher Minimum Safe Altitude. (transmitters)

There was a special on a few weeks back. There was a brief comment in the special that the FAA didn't like the original planned height. Also, those floors went elsewhere in town to house a data center if memory serves. A sound plan all in all.

Why didn't they like size of it? Does that mean future towers in Oklahoma City have a limit in height?

Why didn't they like size of it? Does that mean future towers in Oklahoma City have a limit in height?
No.

While I keep up with this page every single day, I seemed to have missed the original post about another Devon Tower? I've gone back a few pages to find it, but can't. Can someone fill me in? Thanks!

So if somebody wanted to build something like the Burj Khalifa in OKC it would pass?

The FAA would readjust it's Minimum Safe Altitude for the downtown area.

The FAA would readjust it's Minimum Safe Altitude for the downtown area.I know Tinker is a ways from downtown, but they wouldn't have any say?

While I keep up with this page every single day, I seemed to have missed the original post about another Devon Tower? I've gone back a few pages to find it, but can't. Can someone fill me in? Thanks!

You will find it in the Mystery Tower thread.

Why didn't they like size of it? Does that mean future towers in Oklahoma City have a limit in height?

Don't remember the full exchange. It was just one of several comments in a short narrative by someone from the company. I'll see if we kept the show on dvr and pay more attention to a repeat of we did. Won't be today. Grandbabies will be up soon!

Envious! I would love to tour the building as well. Devon is a company I admire immensely. They are one of the best corporate citizens in the US.

Dave, I was told that they give tours on Saturday. You just have to sign up for them in advance.

Thanks Gary. I will look into that.

I visited yesterday, to look at the Christmas ornaments and some snacks. I like how they have information posted about the imported stonework. Quite impressive, the security guard even offered to take all of us in the photo with the big ornament.

I visited yesterday, to look at the Christmas ornaments and some snacks. I like how they have information posted about the imported stonework. Quite impressive, the security guard even offered to take all of us in the photo with the big ornament.

What kind of snacks did you look at? Lol

China To Build Tallest Skyscraper In 90 Days (http://news.sky.com/story/1014603/china-to-build-tallest-skyscraper-in-90-days)

http://media.treehugger.com/assets/images/2012/11/broad-tower.jpeg

With a 90 day warranty? *rimshot*

Also...

Entire New 13-Story Building Tips Over in Shanghai (http://gizmodo.com/5304233/entire-new-13+story-building-tips-over-in-shanghai/gallery/1)

Also...

Entire New 13-Story Building Tips Over in Shanghai (http://gizmodo.com/5304233/entire-new-13+story-building-tips-over-in-shanghai/gallery/1)

Makes you wonder. How is it possible to build a good foundation in 90 days let alone the entire building?

Happy Holidays from Dallas...

http://i.imgur.com/p3xfl.jpg

China truly is a disappointment to me. I'm so thankful the United States has laws that prevent shabby construction and stunt pulling 90day deadlines.
I would rather a building take a long time to be constructed under good terms than quick construction under shady ones.
Besides, China doesn't have exactly the best track record...

As for Devon, I really enjoy their Christmas decorations.

http://media.treehugger.com/assets/images/2012/11/broad-tower.jpeg


And we thought the Sandridge forest was bad :-P

That's a big dick, lol

Happy Holidays from Dallas...

http://i.imgur.com/p3xfl.jpg

Diagrams - SkyscraperPage.com (http://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?searchID=57016446)

That's why citizen participation in the design process is so important. Although, idk, if I lived in a Chinese city I might want a moat and a forest buffer zone all around me too.

I don't think there's anything in downtown OKC so horrendous that you need a forest buffer zone...it's kind of an insult. I think people who come downtown should (and usually do) want to be part of the great environment we have down there.

China To Build Tallest Skyscraper In 90 Days (http://news.sky.com/story/1014603/china-to-build-tallest-skyscraper-in-90-days)

With a 90 day warranty? *rimshot*


http://www.okctalk.com/current-events-open-topic/32620-china-assemble-worlds-tallest-building-90-days.html

I doubt any of the posters making the snide comments have actually been to China or workked with any construction there. People pass on all sorts of ignorance and bias. I've been on really sophisticated projects there and some not so much...kind of like here in U.S. many people would be shocked to know what is going on in the rest of the world. But they prefer to hang on to outdated and prejudiced beliefs.

What kind of snacks did you look at? Lol

Didn't just look, actually bought, I had gellato, everyone else had latte's. lol

http://media.treehugger.com/assets/images/2012/11/broad-tower.jpeg


Here is a quote from the article:


It is not the first seemingly impossible, fast construction project by the company. In January, they built a 30-story hotel in just 15 days and it is still standing.

The fact that they feel the need to mention that it is still standing is not exactly reassuring.

Here is a quote from the article:



The fact that they feel the need to mention that it is still standing is not exactly reassuring.

So why are they in such a rush to complete these buildings?

I dislike China bashing, especially when it is also off topic. Sweeping generalizations about China are weak-minded. Do we need to have a face-off of construction blunders? Let's not and say we did.

LIKE!

I lived in China for quite a while recently and think some of our China bashing may be a bit of patriotic jealousy moreso than a true generalization. Kind of like, America has been on top for so long, now here comes the Yellow Dragon. Rather than build ourselves 'we' chose to bash their failures (when America has surely had our share). Don't get me wrong, I am as patriotic as the next person but traveling and living Internationally in China and other parts of Asia has helped me to understand that people are people the world over regardless of the political, religious, or ethnic/cultural differences (or the lack thereof) and anybody can have success and failure.

Now to my opinion - Personally, I do not think that tower will be built because Changsha is a lower 2nd-tier provincial capital city in the middle of China (Hunan state); it would be much more credible IMO if it were proposed for Shanghai, Chongqing, Beijing, or Tianjin [China's 4 mega-cities] or even Guangzhou (Canton), HK, Dongguan, Shenzhen [China's Pearl River megaplex]. Just my own knowledge of the country and where things really tend to happen there; it is a sure surprise if this will be built in Changsha Hunan.

OK, the source story doesn't seem to be written by a professional journalist, so I wouldn't concern myself too much with the "still standing" line. That doesn't necessarily discount the overall validity of the story. But a couple of things caught my eye related to numbers.

First, the story claims that the building will be built for 10% of the cost of Burj Khalifa. I guess that is not entirely shocking when you think of it more in terms of manufacture than construction. We all know that China leads the world in inexpensive manufacturing right now, for various reasons, some good and some bad (the politics of which are more appropriate for another thread). But if you consider that they are apparently pre-fabbing units and stacking them on top of each other, 90 days for the actual assembly doesn't seem entirely undoable, especially if that doesn't include the site/foundation work.

By the way, there is a hotel on the Riverwalk in San Antonio that was assembled largely in this way many years ago, including all of the furniture, telephones, lights and even towels and bed linens, I think, being in the rooms BEFORE they were shipped to the site and slid into place.

What really jumped out at me was the cost, according to the story anyway. Burj Khalifa cost $1.5 billion to build (surprising in and of itself that Burj was only twice the cost of Devon Tower), but the story says this building would be done for 10% of THAT cost, or $150 million(!!!!). If that is a true cost figure, I wouldn't be surprised if the building IS built, even if it only a second- (or third-)tier city as far as China is concerned.

I doubt any of the posters making the snide comments have actually been to China or workked with any construction there. People pass on all sorts of ignorance and bias. I've been on really sophisticated projects there and some not so much...kind of like here in U.S. many people would be shocked to know what is going on in the rest of the world. But they prefer to hang on to outdated and prejudiced beliefs.
...and some of us have worked on Chinese projects for American companies (3M, GM, Quaker Oats/Gatorade) and found that their entire gov't mandated process is corrupt, more so than here in the US, granted that was in the late 80's maybe they have improved. I spent from the middle of 1995 to early 1998 doing nothing but foreign work (Japan, China, Ireland, Russia, Mexico) and they were no doubt the worst to deal with. The whole "design bureau" setup is nothing more than a bribe, the work they did was absolutely horrendous and we had to redo everything they did. They did prelim drawings in Autocad of a Gatorade plant in Guangzhou and every sheet had a different "base" plan on it, nothing coordinated between the two. Eventually we took control of it and paid the "design bureau" as though they actually did some work. When it came to actual construction, just like here there were good ones and bad ones. Another co-worker who did apartment buildings in Guangzhou for another OKC based firm had pretty good experiences on his project. My main concern is the lack of building standards which allows the bad ones to build really bad things of which there are many more examples of in China than there is in the US in the same time period, mainly because their building industry is still maturing when ours is somewhat more mature. No doubt they will improve as time goes on from things like the Shanghai collapse. I just don't think building fast, especially a tower for the sake of building fast is a good idea anywhere.

The Telegraph - Nine held over Shanghai building collapse (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/5685963/Nine-held-over-Shanghai-building-collapse.html)

Excuse me, after taking a second look my math might be a little off, as the comparison with Burj Khalifa was a $ per square meter comparison, and the overall floor area of each building is surely not identical. But the fact remains that the price discussed would be tiny compared with what it would cost to build a similar-sized building here, using traditional construction methods.

Some pics from my first trip to the Devon Tower after attending the tree lighting. Not as good as a lot of others here, and I lacked a tripod, but was super impressed (coming from someone from NYC). They sure didn't skimp on the ornaments!

290429052906290729082909

Thanks for the photos!

Looking awesome down there.

A few Devon shots...

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8485/8214944011_882a175ed3.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilovemalania/8214944011/)
Seasons Greetings (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilovemalania/8214944011/) by iLoveMalania (http://www.flickr.com/people/ilovemalania/), on Flickr

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8060/8216025528_ddaa491da5.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilovemalania/8216025528/)
Ornamental (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilovemalania/8216025528/) by iLoveMalania (http://www.flickr.com/people/ilovemalania/), on Flickr

OK, the source story doesn't seem to be written by a professional journalist, so I wouldn't concern myself too much with the "still standing" line.


I'm just saying I've read a lot of stories about the Devon Tower and no matter the professionalism of the journalist they've never felt compelled to mention that the Devon Tower is still standing.

Is that really all they did in the MG for christmas decorations? It looks like all they did was wrap the trunks of the trees. I figured they would go all out this year.

I stll see there is a window out in one of the pics. Wow! I thought that issue was already taken care of by now. Wish they could get all the windows in and be done with it! This has been going on for quite awhile.

And the LED lighting is still far from complete, with a bunch of non-op fixtures.

Strange how long it's taken to resolve these issues when everything else was done so quickly and to such high standards.

Is it possible that the problems are with the contractors and not Devon?

I know the biggest issue with fixing the windows and the LED lighting was getting access to the building maintenance unit (BMU), the crane on top of the building.

For whatever reason, it wasn't available for an extended period and it doesn't seem they've been using it much lately, if at all.

http://mattbridgesphoto.com/intranet/okctalk/IMG_7233.jpg

We had my partners birthday dinner at Flint Saturday night. A group of 8 and the food at flint was top notch. after Dinner went up to Vast for a drink at the bar. The space is awesome and a great view at night. I am not sure what time the restaurant closes but when we got up to the bar at 930 the place was empty. there were about 6-10 people in the bar and only one table of people eating in the restaurant. we had a great time in the bar and were very impressed. Also walked around Devon Friday evening taking pictures of the decorations, I think they did a great job!

Yesterday was also a Monday after a holiday weekend, I'm sure probably their slowest night of the week.

...and some of us have worked on Chinese projects for American companies (3M, GM, Quaker Oats/Gatorade) and found that their entire gov't mandated process is corrupt, more so than here in the US, granted that was in the late 80's maybe they have improved. I spent from the middle of 1995 to early 1998 doing nothing but foreign work (Japan, China, Ireland, Russia, Mexico) and they were no doubt the worst to deal with. The whole "design bureau" setup is nothing more than a bribe, the work they did was absolutely horrendous and we had to redo everything they did. They did prelim drawings in Autocad of a Gatorade plant in Guangzhou and every sheet had a different "base" plan on it, nothing coordinated between the two. Eventually we took control of it and paid the "design bureau" as though they actually did some work. When it came to actual construction, just like here there were good ones and bad ones. Another co-worker who did apartment buildings in Guangzhou for another OKC based firm had pretty good experiences on his project. My main concern is the lack of building standards which allows the bad ones to build really bad things of which there are many more examples of in China than there is in the US in the same time period, mainly because their building industry is still maturing when ours is somewhat more mature. No doubt they will improve as time goes on from things like the Shanghai collapse. I just don't think building fast, especially a tower for the sake of building fast is a good idea anywhere.

The Telegraph - Nine held over Shanghai building collapse (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/5685963/Nine-held-over-Shanghai-building-collapse.html)

I totally agree with what you said above. I have worked on projects and been on site for any number of large projects in China, and mostly they were fairly high quality. I agree about the design schools/bureaus who were required to do local "work", but did little. For the most part, we didn't see them getting in the way of a quality project, but were a financial and administrative obstacle if you weren't careful. But, most of my projects were designed by major US, British, French and Canadian designers and with international contractors. I think most of their problems have occurred not only because of corruption but also because of the exploding demand and such a low level of inventory. My point was to not paint with a total broad brush...there is often a China stereotype that many Americans use and have no idea what they are talking about. There is a lot of great and modern quality development going on there.

We had my partners birthday dinner at Flint Saturday night. A group of 8 and the food at flint was top notch. after Dinner went up to Vast for a drink at the bar. The space is awesome and a great view at night. I am not sure what time the restaurant closes but when we got up to the bar at 930 the place was empty. there were about 6-10 people in the bar and only one table of people eating in the restaurant. we had a great time in the bar and were very impressed. Also walked around Devon Friday evening taking pictures of the decorations, I think they did a great job!

This is weird because the word on the street is that it is "impossible" to get in there the rest of the year. Does one have to get reservations? If so, are there any available or not? Vast may want to work a bit on its viral marketing strategy, because a lot of people I know don't even bother trying to get a reservation there because they've heard they cannot.

Yesterday was also a Monday after a holiday weekend, I'm sure probably their slowest night of the week.

It was saturday night. I would think the busiest for dining. true it was after a holiday but with all the talk about being booked out for months it seemed wierd to be empty.

Walked by the Devon HQ last night and the white lights in the trees are awesome along with the ornaments.........as impressive as the CHK campus, just not as large.

Looks like they are also about to put in a signalized mid-block crosswalk on Sheridan. They have paint outlines of the crosswalk "Piano Keys" on Sheridan, and fixtures for a traffic signal. (Actual poles not up yet, though.)

The last of the broken windows are being replaced right now. Just a crew of two working on the lift.

Just FYI, was at Vast last night... next reservation spot for a Friday or Saturday is mid January unless you want to eat at 5:30 or 9:30. Farther out if you have more than 4 in your party.

Just FYI, was at Vast last night... next reservation spot for a Friday or Saturday is mid January unless you want to eat at 5:30 or 9:30. Farther out if you have more than 4 in your party.

How was it ?

How was it ?

We ate at Flint and went to the bar at Vast. We hadn't been able to get reservations at Vast on any Friday or Saturday when we could go.

At Flint, the food was good, but not great. However, the service and the administration of the order was lacking proper execution. They have a new exec. chef, but still should have been managed better. I will go again, but am not so enthusiastic. I hope next time is better.

At Vast, the view at night is big league. I am excited to dine there and have reserved a table by the window. I may not eat, may just sit and stare.

Looks like they are also about to put in a signalized mid-block crosswalk on Sheridan. They have paint outlines of the crosswalk "Piano Keys" on Sheridan, and fixtures for a traffic signal. (Actual poles not up yet, though.)

Cool. It doesn't make sense to have to walk out the front door and the down to a interestion to cross the street.

Cool. It doesn't make sense to have to walk out the front door and the down to a interestion to cross the street.

Considering the intersection is placed mid block on the "superblock" it is essentially a pedestrian intersection on Harvey Ave. Sorry that doesn't conform to your principles.