From what I see so far - I love it. I was hoping they could re-open California so as to provide a nice terminal view as California Ave is re-urbanized, but they did appear to put some sort of architectural feature at the current terminus so hopefully that will suffice. Lots of retail will be facing the MBG, and dare I ask, could it be a CityTarget?

If that retail section includes a CityTarget, that's worth 20 stories in additional height, IMHO.

Note that the festival plaza will be left in tact, with a new stage, play area, etc.

Really love the way this project relates to everything around it.

We would all love more height but street-level stuff is really much more important to downtown life.

I love that the development doesn't encroach on the festival plaza. Leaves it to hopefully be reopened as a street someday and for now the Botanical Tube sight lines are preserved which I think can become am important, unique asset for the Film Row neighborhood.

We dont need another super block and we averted one here. This is a huge victory.

Only reason I am disappointed is that he said "world class". I do like design just wish it were taller.

Okc! Okc! Okc! Okc! Okc! Okc! Okc! Okc! Okc!

Ok, my two cents, not that anybody cares. A beautiful design, looks really, really nice. But to those of us who thinks our skyline looks stupid with our one skyscraper....the height is very, very disappointing. Lets hope these other projects supposedly on the drawing board will get us away from being the laughing stock of downtown skylines.

I would hardly call OKC the laughingstock of downtown skylines. I too wish there were more taller buildings but it really isn't that bad. I think the stock skyline photos most media publications use of OKC prior to the Devon tower look far worse.

Since when are people not entitled to their own opinion? I don't like it...that is my opinion of the project.

Who was trying to deny you a right to your opinion?

Love the street interaction.

Figured you'd hate all of the curb cuts..?

All this makes me wonder what changed from the time Rainey was first interviewed by Steve until now...

At first he said "at least 20 stories" and both Steve and I had heard that number was going to be close to 30.

Seems like he was either hoping to land another tenant besides OG&E or he couldn't get the funding necessary to build spec space.


I wonder -- other than the retail -- if there will be any spec space at all? Or will this merely be an OG&E building?

They are calling OG&E the "anchor" tenant but I wonder if they will be taking the entire building.

This building will look really slick with the streetcar going in front of it.

I'm very enthusiastic about this development, having had a little more time to digest the info and look at the plans better.

I wonder if OG&E will be the sole occupant of the main building and the office space in the second tower would be spec space.

All this makes me wonder what changed from the time Rainey was first interviewed by Steve until now...

At first he said "at least 20 stories" and both Steve and I had heard that number was going to be close to 30.

Seems like he was either hoping to land another tenant besides OG&E or he couldn't get the funding necessary to build spec space.

I wonder -- other than the retail -- if there will be any spec space at all? Or will this merely be an OG&E building?

They are calling OG&E the "anchor" tenant but I wonder if they will be taking the entire building.

Maybe the plan was to add the housing/hotel on top and just couldn't make it work?

Well, now that the big reveal is overwith, can we rename this thread anything other than "Stage Center Tower"?

Well, now that the big reveal is overwith, can we rename this thread anything other than "Stage Center Tower"?

We will when it is given an official name.

BTW, ADG does seem like an odd choice for an architect.

Smaller (40 people) local firm, only real office building experience is Dobson Communications out near Quail Springs:

our work | adg (http://adgokc.com/our-work)

Larry Nichols made the comment that he thought this was just the beginning of new development.

I suspect the new OG&E spinoff and Enogex decided they wanted their own space.

Oh I think "anchor" is key. I expect diversity in this building for sure.

Do you have any specifics or is this just conjecture due to the use of "anchor"?


I had heard from even before the sale of the property this was always going to be OG&E. Also, we know they had hired someone to scout a new downtown building location.

I hypothesized that Rainey Williams' involvement was mainly due to the touchy nature of the Stage Center site and I'm still not convinced that isn't true.

I was also told that OG&E would need about 14 floors of office space, so if there is any spec space included it would be small.

I wouldn't be surprised if every bit of the main tower is OG&E and that effectively this will be their corporate tower, just spun a different way.

So much for balancing out the skyline...wake me up when a real office tower is proposed...this could have went on NW Expressway.

Lol. The street interaction is great... Why would it fit on NW Expressway? It fits very well downtown.

Here are the two references to "anchor":


OGE Energy Corp. to anchor new tower development


With OGE Energy as our anchor tenant, we are confident our development will be something that Oklahoma City will be proud to have downtown.

Both of these are in the context of the development, not the tower.


I bet OG&E takes that whole building and that that has always been the plan.

Sid, it looks like there will be 2 floors below the surface that will be for parking. So a 6 story parking garage with 4 floors above the surface.

well maybe we haven't let down we will still get a new 30 story plus tower but it might be in the next 10 or so years, lets do a countdown on that lol 2 years of mystery for this oh well that's what happens when rumors flow like crazy and people believe what other people say. Problem is people got let down because they believed what others was saying that it could be 30 stories. Im not let down just glad we are getting more high rise buildings in the okc downtown area just to bad nothing big yet?

OG&E will take up the 16 floors, and the they will add 15 more floors later to occupy everybody else....maybe

If our Downtown is expanding to the south with the CC hotel and C2S, this will really add great density and hopefully there is something taller going in next door where the arts council is located.

Okay, looking at the plans, I have some major issues with the west side of the building on walker. Unless I’m missing something, it doesn’t look walkable at all. Not much of a sidewalk (if there is one), and with the elementary school just across the street, I can’t help but think a situation similar to E.K. Gaylord Blvd and the parking garage is going to take place in terms of walkability.

After seeing the building, I really don't care about how high it is now. I also actually agree that the gardens will benefit from this not being as high. Love the park on top and the building is beautiful. This baby will be huge! Can't satisfy everyone, and I'm still hoping for some major towers in the future...

Any of these stores would be nice to have here

http://sf.racked.com/uploads/2013_02_city-target-prabal-line.jpg

and I might get crap for this, but this would be cool also

http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/wlrn/files/styles/card_wide/public/201308/Walmart_image001_0.png
http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/wlrn/files/styles/card_wide/public/201308/Walmart_image003.png

Either of those would be nice to see in the tower.

Okay, looking at the plans, I have some major issues with the west side of the building on walker. Unless I’m missing something, it doesn’t look walkable at all. Not much of a sidewalk (if there is one), and with the elementary school just across the street, I can’t help but think a situation similar to E.K. Gaylord Blvd and the parking garage is going to take place in terms of walkability.

This is why alleys are important. The back of the building has to go somewhere. Keep this in mind as future development unfold.

Okay, looking at the plans, I have some major issues with the west side of the building on walker. Unless I’m missing something, it doesn’t look walkable at all. Not much of a sidewalk (if there is one), and with the elementary school just across the street, I can’t help but think a situation similar to E.K. Gaylord Blvd and the parking garage is going to take place in terms of walkability.

You can see the sidewalk and landscaping on Walker from this ground-level site plan; I'm sure it will keep the same Project 180 width and attributes that have already been installed:

http://www.okctalk.com/attachments/development-buildings/5459d1387300074-stage-center-tower-sc2.jpg

Now that I had time to soak it in, I think OG&E wanted their own space, and only needed 16 stories, hence a possible second spec tower proposed. And whose to say that if the second tower is designated as office, it may end up being taller? We could be looking at two 16 story towers on this site.

The design is fabulous.

I suspect the second building is truly a Rainey Williams venture which he is still working on.

Love it. This will be great against the West side of the gardens. I, too, wish it was taller, because I feel like once the CCC is gone and buildings are on that block, that we could surround the gardens with very tall buildings. This one will pretty much take up a large part of the footprint west of the gardens.

Oh well, at least it looks like a fantastic design concept.

Q. Who thinks more is better then less?

A. More is better then less, because if there is more less stuff then you might want to have some more. And your parents might not let you because there's only a little left. We want more! We want more! Like you really like it, you want more!!

Its not complicated, more is better.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YCSzjzPOZ8o/UdwMTHeDmXI/AAAAAAAADy4/UPNpKi8ZP2o/s640/safe_image.jpg

I suspect the second building is truly Rainey Williams' venture which he is still working on.

Second building? On this same site?

^

Yes, the hotel/office/residential building shown next to the main tower.

Ok, time for someone to do a quick rendering to see how it is going to look with all the other buildings downtown :)

Its not complicated, more is better.
LOL!
The widely heralded "street interaction" is nice and all, if you work there, but I was hoping for a little highway interaction, as in you could see it from the highway...a little more skyline impact.
At the risk of being berated as a 13 yr-old girl, I was hoping for something significantly taller than our new Bricktown hotel towers.

I can do a quick, rough rendering. Gimme a few minutes. :)

I can do a quick, rough rendering. Gimme a few minutes. :)

You're awesome. TIA.

I suspect the second building is truly a Rainey Williams venture which he is still working on.

The was my thought as well after reading the article and digesting all the contingency language within said article.

LOL!
The widely heralded "street interaction" is nice and all, if you work there, but I was hoping for a little highway interaction, as in you could see it from the highway...a little more skyline impact.
At the risk of being berated as a 13 yr-old girl, I was hoping for something significantly taller than our new Bricktown hotel towers.

I'd guess it'll be double the height of the Bricktown hotel towers at a minimum.

What are the odds that the second tower (hotel/office/residential) is much more significant/substantial than the renderings show? There weren't many details about it, and it looks a little boring (just a box). Is there a chance that Rainey just put it like that to show that there is something going there but didn't want to release more details? Or do you think that what we see is what we are getting?

^

Steve's article says 8-12 stories.

I'd guess it'll be double the height of the Bricktown hotel towers at a minimum.Much better and maybe more significant than I'm imagining. I'm sure the forthcoming rendering/sketch will give a better idea of proportions.

Steve's article says 8-12 stories.

You're right. I guess my question is is it possible that the 8-12 stories could change since we don't know exactly what is going in that building? Is it possible that the 8-12 stories is just a temporary figure for now, or is that final?

Rough SketchUp renderings, portraying the new building at 300' tall (which is probably slightly too tall):
546554665467

http://www.okctalk.com/attachments/development-buildings/5465d1387315160-stage-center-tower-stage-ctr-tower-1.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/attachments/development-buildings/5466d1387315161-stage-center-tower-stage-ctr-tower-2.jpg


http://www.okctalk.com/attachments/development-buildings/5467d1387315163-stage-center-tower-stage-ctr-tower-3.jpg

Again, picture a building about the size of the Continental building if not a little taller if that helps. The Continental building is 262 feet at 19 stories which is 13.75 feet per floor. The Devon tower is 850 feet with 50 floors for 17 feet per floor. If we were to take Devon's height per floor and times it by 15, we would be right around the Continental building height.

So basically this will kind of replace the hole that demolishing the biltmore left on the skyline (a block further west of course). Obviously not as cool in design but similar in height.

Thanks, KayneMo!

Wonder what these guys will have to say.

New 15 floor building for downtown.... OKC (http://www.tulsanow.org/forum/index.php?topic=20347.0)

The Stage Center Tower will be approximately 235 feet wide (or long -- fronting Hudson), 119 feet across at it's maximum (smaller at the ends due to the curvature).

The three faces on the Devon Tower are approximately 155 feet wide on the bottom half and 125 feet wide at the highest point.

Rough math would place Floors 5-15 (as shown on the cross section in the article above) at 235,000sq raw feet.

The 4th floor conference center is 190 ft x 80ft. A raw 15,200 square feet.

Offices on the 2nd and 3rd floor would be 55,930 raw square feet. Retail space on Floor 1 would be roughly 20,000 square feet.

(Just my math and using site lines and meaurement from Google Earth.)

Purple is the tower footprint (without curves) and the green is the conference room footprint.

http://gyazo.com/3d5fee76968ca4a18011872933902f34.png

I see the daycare on Ground Level on the SW corner of the lot, but is there going to be any street-level space for shops on the west end where the garage is or just garage space?

And what's the "Down" arrow going to on the Ground level? There is no correlating "Up" that I can see.

Guys, Denver in chocked full of beauitful mid-rise buildings. In fact, it is mostly mid-rise stock. Most buildings, nearly all in fact, have great street interaction.

I measure success on the building's street interaction first. Height is way down on my list. We don't need to look like Dubai with a handful of really tall buildings all sitting by themselves on every block. I like this approach. Obviously, I wish the parking went bellow ground but that's just not going to happen until the city starts building a fund for that purpose. So I'm not going to worry as much about that. The green roof is lovely. I hope more people try that in future developments.

I wholeheartedly agree.

Looks like part of the 2nd building will front Walker along with the daycare.

The rest will be garage and the related entrances and exits -- only way to get in and out:

http://www.okctalk.com/attachments/development-buildings/5459d1387300074-stage-center-tower-sc2.jpg

Not sure if there's any extra info from other sources.

New Downtown OKC Tower To Serve As Headquarters For OGE - News9.com - Oklahoma City, OK - News, Weather, Video and Sports | (http://www.news9.com/story/24241236/new-downtown-okc-tower-to-serve-as-headquarters-for-oge)

So what's the down arrow south of the Daycare going to?

Wow, they just filed their application for the Downtown Design Review committee.

No details yet, but I suppose this is a combo demo/develop application.

I was JUST about to ask if that happened, since the news9 article states: "Kestrel says by 4 p.m. Tuesday, it will file for a demolition permit from the Downtown Design Review Committee."

So what's the down arrow south of the Daycare going to?

Under ground access. This has 2 levels of parking under the building, 4 levels above ground level.

Under ground access. This has 2 levels of parking under the building, 4 levels above ground level.

So how do they get out? is it connected to the garage on the North side?

Is the footprint of the below ground floors bigger than the 4 floors above ground?

Perhaps a delivery/service ramp to a below grade dock.