Devon Plans Downtown Skyscraper

[centaurian]

Supposively it will be as high as 42 stories. as i ve ''heard'' from someone that has an insight to the the company. but the design is still in the air.
What i d like to see is some design like The Times building, in NY
or something as sweet at the ones in Dubai.

check these super cool structures.













these are some truly wonderful designs that would make okc skyline spectacular.,



these are some iconic buildings that would be super if Devon would design their building like one of these.

[centaurian]

Ok my pic links didnt make it on the board,.
heres the links to those pics of some great buildings.


Pentominium - SkyscraperPage.com

Burj Al Alam - SkyscraperPage.com

Diagrams - SkyscraperPage.com

The New York Times Building


Shenyang City Hang Lung Plaza - SkyscraperPage.com


there ya go.

[Pete]

Supposively it will be as high as 42 stories. as i ve ''heard'' from someone that has an insight to the the company.

Sounds like this is a derivation of the information that Nichols has already shared publicly: minimum of 1 million square feet and floorplates likely between 23 and 27 thousand square feet.

Taking 23,000 into a million, you get about 44 floors. 27,000 yields 37 floors, which is often mentioned as the minimum number.

However, Nichols did say a million would be the minimum and I'm sure they are trying to decide how much room they need for future growth. And if he is talking about usable square footage for their staff, that obviously means there will be more needed for the lobby, common areas and the atrium he's mentioned in the past.

Whoever they hire as architects will have much to say about the height, which will be solely a function of square footage required plus design considerations.

[metro]

This is my fav, although I really like Dubai Towers #4

Burj Al Alam - SkyscraperPage.com

[centaurian]

Yes metro that is a cool one
and to think we helped build them
when we buy gas.

LOL

[soonerfever]

Dubai is insane! But what do you expect when you have cheap labor and that little thing called...what is it? Oh yeah...Oil!

[CuatrodeMayo]

Dubai is not an oil city from what I understand.

[CuatrodeMayo]

Sounds like this is a derivation of the information that Nichols has already shared publicly: minimum of 1 million square feet and floorplates likely between 23 and 27 thousand square feet.

Taking 23,000 into a million, you get about 44 floors. 27,000 yields 37 floors, which is often mentioned as the minimum number.

However, Nichols did say a million would be the minimum and I'm sure they are trying to decide how much room they need for future growth. And if he is talking about usable square footage for their staff, that obviously means there will be more needed for the lobby, common areas and the atrium he's mentioned in the past.

Whoever they hire as architects will have much to say about the height, which will be solely a function of square footage required plus design considerations.

Not to mention elevators take up a massive amount of a floorplan.

[David Pollard]

What I find interesting is that the New York Times building at 52 floors is only 10 floors higher than the height discussed here, and that building is a significant presence on the NYC skyline. Kinds makes you realize that we could be talking about a really BIG building for OKC.

IMO, even if it dwarfs all the other buildings it will be a positive thing for the city as it will set a new standard in downtown construction, and be a huge visibile draw for the area.

[Pete]

I agree, David.

When the 60-story BofA Tower was built in Charlotte, it was quite a bit taller than anything else and I've always thought that building made their skyline rather than minimizing the rest of the structures. And since it was built, a couple of 40-story towers now complement it:

[soonerfever]

Dubai is not an oil city from what I understand.

CuatrodeMayo you are right. I didn't realize this until just know. Dubai's GDP in 05 was $37 billion, but only about 6% of that was from the oil and natural gas industy. From what I have read experts say that Dubai's oil will be exhausted in the next 20 years. Apparently the city's economy is driven on information technology, finance and trade.

[soonerfever]

I agree, David.

When the 60-story BofA Tower was built in Charlotte, it was quite a bit taller than anything else and I've always thought that building made their skyline rather than minimizing the rest of the structures. And since it was built, a couple of 40-story towers now complement it:

Just to add to what Pete was saying. The BOA tower in Charlotte when build was almost 300ft taller than anything else in the city. Since it's completion it has spawned 9+ buildings 25 stories or taller including 5 that are filling in that 300ft gap. However for 10 years the 300ft gap exsisted.

[David Pollard]

Just to add to what Pete was saying. The BOA tower in Charlotte when build was almost 300ft taller than anything else in the city. Since it's completion it has spawned 9+ buildings 25 stories or taller including 5 that are filling in that 300ft gap. However for 10 years the 300ft gap exsisted.

Anyone know how many square feet the BOA tower in Charlotte has?

[solitude]

Charlotte has one nice looking skyline.

David, you make a good point about dwarfing. Anything too tall in downtown OKC would make the overall skyline look less impressive.

[HOT ROD]

I dont think so Solitude. 200 feet would do just fine here, giving us a 700 ft limit on Devon.

Consider this, Chase is a little over 100 feet taller than Kerr McGee. BOK in Tulsa is 150 feet taller than Tulsa's next tallest, yet they all look pretty dang close, right?

A 700 foot Devon tower will add a nice rise to Downtown OKC without significantly altering the 'effect' on the other buildings. I think there would be only ONE direction where Devon would appear to dwarf everything in downtown, and that would be coming from the SW.

But if you look today from the SE, Chase already appears to dwarf the rest of downtown - so we'd actually have a pretty good balance.

And especially assuming the "charlotte" effect happens to OKC, Devon at 700 feet would take the state title, add a MUCH needed height and prestigue boost to DOKC, all without significantly ridiculing the surrounding skyscrapers. This is especially true since we could assume the tower won't be a huge box - since it will be iconic; 700 feet tower with a spire or whatever would work PERFECT!

[soonerfever]

Anyone know how many square feet the BOA tower in Charlotte has?

According to Skyscraper.com it is about 1.4 million ft2, 60 stories, and 871 ft tall.

[BG918]

This is what approx. 650 ft. would look like from west of downtown, where the best skyline views are IMO...

[solitude]

This is what approx. 650 ft. would look like from west of downtown, where the best skyline views are IMO...

Good job, BG18!

You seem well versed in skyscraperology - are you familar with this building in Singapore?



Another view:



And just for good measure, a night view of Singapore:

[MikeOKC]

The building with the arrow is an impressive tower. That's really a very breathtaking skyline.

[jbrown84]

This is what approx. 650 ft. would look like from west of downtown, where the best skyline views are IMO...

You've placed it too far south. It should be covering up the Colcord and current Devon Tower.

Below Chase, just peeking above the trees is the orange brick building that is on the NW corner of Hudson & Sheridan. The new tower should be in line with that and the Colcord.

[edcrunk]

i was watching juwana mann and they had tons of charlotte skyline shots. i was thinking how nice their skyline looked and i log on and everyone's talking about charlotte.
kinda weird.... but not that weird tho.
oh and solitude, i love the singapore skyline! ihad never really seen it until i visited tokyo in '03 and saw it in multiple travel mags over there. since i can't read japanese, i couldn't figure out which city it was til i got back home.

[OUGrad05]

Hello all, I finally decided to register after lurking for awhile.

I grew up in OKC and now live in the Tulsa area. I'm very excited about the developments in OKC and quite frankly OKC>Tulsa.

Looks like I should have moved away a LONG time ago, because when I moved away in 05 things took off like a rocket lol.

Now about this Devon Tower. I'm hoping that just maybe, MAYBE they've already worked out the details and when I'm down for ISHM in about 10 days they'll unveil it for the rest of us in the industry? I realize thats probably not going to happen but it'd be sweet.

I wouldn't worry too much about this tower dwarfing others in the downtown area. What I would be more concerned about is the tower increasing already moderately high vacancy rates in downtown. That would drive down prices and further discourage more building in the area. I know that Nichols cares greatly about the community and is not going to do something detrimental to downtown. So if the tower is over 1M sq ft I wouldn't expect it to come in more than 1.2M. The other consideration that I'm sure Devon is thinking about is the potential for a crash in energy prices. Which is not only possible but even likely. Right now the price of oil has far outstripped supply/demand dynamics. Most in the industry agree based on supply/demand that oil should be in the 60 to 80 dollar a barrel range. But due to a weaker dollar and substantial hedging in commodities the price has skyrocketed the last 12 months. That will almost certainly turn around to a degree, and just as irrational exuberance has driven the price UP, it could easily drive the price way down.

The good news is that long term trends show prices at a level that supports profitibility and exploration in the industry and that shows little sign of changing. However, temporary depressions in the price of oil and to a lesser extent natural gas are entirely possible. This current pricing bubble has many in the industry a bit worried that it could crash pretty hard for a short period of time 18 to 36 months.

I said that simply to say I wouldn't expect a building much bigger than 1.2M sq feet. I also would say anything bigger could be a bigger detriment to downtown than a positive. Hopefully Devon will build along with AF, I could also see Chesapeake making a move downtown within the next 10 years as well. Chesapeake seems to be planning for downturns in the industry based on their recent business moves into commerical office space and retail. They have also cautioned many states where they operate to prepare for a fall in energy prices. I think that could eventually lead chesapeake to expand beyond their current campus or even turn that into a highly specialized training/education facility within the industry??? Just some things I've thought about....

[OUGrad05]

i was watching juwana mann and they had tons of charlotte skyline shots. i was thinking how nice their skyline looked and i log on and everyone's talking about charlotte.
kinda weird.... but not that weird tho.
oh and solitude, i love the singapore skyline! ihad never really seen it until i visited tokyo in '03 and saw it in multiple travel mags over there. since i can't read japanese, i couldn't figure out which city it was til i got back home.

Charlotte was very similar to OKC 10 and 15 years ago and has since seen some rapid growth and some substantial business plays come to their city. Thats why Charlotte was brought up.

[Chicken In The Rough]

Check out some of the wild architecture happening in Toronto. It is definitely a haven for skyscrapers with over 100 currently under construction and another 300 proposed!



http://www.jeffsells.ca/wp-content/u...impression.jpg

I believe they have broken ground on both of these. I would love to see some creativity in Devon's tower, but maybe not this much creativity.

[edcrunk]

hey ou grad, the large vacancy rate is largely due to the first national center... the new owners are dragging thir feet with the remodel.
with devon vacating chase it could eff with things for a minute. but with tom ward's sandridge taking over the old KMG bldg and devon's commitment to downtown (plus core to shore in the future) i think more companies will follow suit. combined with all the housing going in around deep deuce, the triangle and midtown... i wouldn't worry.