A new story for an old building: Sixth floor of The Heritage to be all glass

By: Molly M. Fleming The Journal Record May 19, 2016

OKLAHOMA CITY – Heritage Trust is planning about $40 million in renovations to the former Journal Record Building, now called The Heritage, at NW Sixth Street and N. Robinson Avenue, including the addition of an all-glass sixth floor. Robyn Zurfluh with Smith Dalia Architecture presented the addition at Thursday’s Downtown Design Review Committee meeting.

She said the addition is needed to make the building’s finance structure work.

The sixth floor will not be centered on top of the building because the unusual structural grid makes that impossible.

Built in 1923, it served as a Masonic Lodge, then the Home State Theatre, and later the office for the Journal Record Publishing Co. In 1995, it was in the backdrop of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing coverage.

Additionally, Zurfluh said, the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum leaders didn’t want the addition to disrupt the site line from the memorial grounds. Therefore, the addition was set farther to the north, making it asymmetrical on the front.

The glass addition will provide light to the fifth-floor offices. Closed-off windows on the south and north sides will be reopened, and the front doors are being removed and replaced with doors more in keeping with the historic building.

“I’m very appreciative of the effort to bring the main entry back to the historical entry,” said Cory Baitz, DDRC member.

The Planning Department’s historic preservation officer, Katie Friddle, said she did not have any objection to the addition. She said her only concern was its size and how it fit in proportion to the existing building.

Although the plan calls for nothing but office space, DDRC Chairperson Betsy Brunsteter said the addition reminded her of additions to historic buildings in Washington, D.C., which are used as restaurants. She said she appreciated that it did not match the historic façade because then it was clear it was an addition.

Heritage Trust Co. co-chairman Bond Payne said construction on the new floor will start in July, and he expects it to be finished by early 2017. He said the building is 30 percent occupied, with tenants including his company and Saxum public relations firm. He said he expects occupancy to be at 50 percent by the time construction starts.