Well, many of the details about the Gold Dome renovation have now been released. I'll let you read it for yourself. The Journal Record showed a picture of the interior dome with the ceiling tiles removed......it looks mighty impressive. I've included the picture. Also, I was glad to hear that the dome itself doesn't have any leaks, as Bank ONe suggested. The ceiling tiles were actually causing condensation to build up leading to water drips. Also, glad to hear that all of the offices will have glass walls separating them. This won't allow for much privacy, but it will allow for a more open atmosphere, all culminating on the center lobby.

Anyways, check this out.



Lifting the lid on the Gold Dome renovation
by Janice Francis-Smith
The Journal Record
8/9/2004





"People are always asking, 'When are you going to be in here? When? When?'" said Irene Lam, the optometrist who owns the Gold Dome building. "I tell them, 'Soon.'"
If all goes as planned, the landmark building at 1112 NW 23rd St. in Oklahoma City will be ready for tenants by the first of January, said Tom Waken, the Realtor overseeing the project. Waken is talking with a few potential tenants now, trying to determine how much space each business would need before the contractor starts putting up divider walls.

Though renovating a historic structure has presented some unusual challenges, work is progressing to transform the interior of the former bank into retail and office space and an Asian cultural center. Glass walls will separate the tenant spaces, which will be located around the perimeter of the round structure, from the lobby area at the center. Enclosing the area where the former bank's drive-through used to be will provide space for a proposed restaurant.

Workers have spent the last four weeks just concentrating on asbestos removal, and the building just passed inspection on Aug. 2, said Mark Gifford, the project foreman working for Maccini Construction. Headed by President Ron Rocke, Maccini Construction is handling the renovation.

The ceiling tiles have been removed to expose the interior dome. "That's not the inside of the outer dome you're looking at," said Waken. "That's another dome within the dome. It's been covered up with tile, and it's in really good shape."

Water had marred the old ceiling tiles, leading to the mistaken belief that the roof was leaking, said Waken. "But it was actually rainfall of condensation," said Waken. "A rain cloud had been forming up there."

Like the outer dome, the inner ceiling is constructed of ionized aluminum and patterned somewhat like an angular chrysanthemum, though having been protected from the elements, the gold color is a bit more vibrant than on the outer dome. Plans are to drop "light clouds," hanging fixtures that will softly disperse the light, from the interior dome.

Lam's optometry practice, now located just a few blocks away at 2800 N. Classen Blvd., will be the first business to move in, occupying between 1,500 and 2,000 feet on the first floor. Though estimates of the total square footage of the building vary, Waken said the first floor measures about 22,000 square feet, and the second floor 7,500 square feet.

Renderings of the design by Norman architect Mike Kertok show a slim balcony on the second floor and glass storefronts overlooking the lobby area. The lobby is pictured as a welcoming community space, with a few pieces of furniture and potted plants. The lobby could also be rented out after hours for social gatherings, said Waken.

The renovation will restore as many historic features as possible, including a tiled water fountain at the northeast entrance and a huge vault door on the southwest end of the building, but a few new elements will be added, including an elevator to provide access to the second floor and the building's basement.

Waken is looking for a buyer for the 4,500 safe deposit boxes housed in the back, which are very expensive to buy new, he noted. The area where the safe deposit boxes are now would be well suited to storing the archives belonging to the Asian Cultural Society.

The Oklahoma Historical Society has urged the renovators to preserve the old teller cages, eight of which line the eastern side of the lobby. Though the wooden stalls, cut in a zigzag fashion with simple, gold-colored accents, are a historic feature of the building, their continued presence does pose a challenge for the designer. The project team is working with the Historical Society to find a way to both keep the teller cages and provide easy access to the businesses that will be located on the east side of the bank.

Lam and her husband, ophthalmologist John Belardo, paid $1.1 million for the building in April 2003 to save it from demolition. Built in 1958 to house Citizens National Bank and Trust Co., the building had changed hands a few times through bank acquisitions over the years until 2001, when then-owner Bank One announced its intentions to tear the building down and build a new bank and a Walgreens drugstore.

The building's primary tenant for 43 years - from 1958 to 2001 - was Citizens Bank and its successors. Citizens was closed 18 years ago on Aug. 14, 1986, and reopened as a branch of Liberty National Bank and Trust Co. on Aug. 18, 1986. Liberty was acquired by Bank One in 1997.

Historic preservationists and members of the community fought to preserve the building, however, recognizing its historic significance. The dome was designed by the late R. Buckminster Fuller - inventor, architect, engineer, mathematician, poet and cosmologist.

The geodesic dome is the lightest, strongest and most cost-effective structure ever devised. Fuller's dome is able to cover more space without internal supports than any other enclosure, and it becomes proportionally lighter and stronger the larger it is, according to the Buckminster Fuller Institute.

Fuller's daughter, Allegra Fuller Snyder, contacted Waken to tell the new owners of the Gold Dome building that the U.S. Postal Service released a commemorative stamp in her father's honor on July 12. A celebration may be planned for the near future at the post office closest to the Gold Dome building, at NW 24th Street and N. Western Avenue.