ENERGY TOWER proposed to rival the Eiffel Tower??

[OU Adonis]

I say it needs to look like an OLD derrick.

Oil will be dead and buried in 100-150 years, thats when it will become a TRUE landmark. There will people be coming around to see something thats truely ancient history.

[bretthexum]

Yeah... I'm not on board this one. I know if I lived out of OK I wouldn't come here just to see a huge oil derrick. Maybe it's just me...

[BDP]

I know if I lived out of OK I wouldn't come here just to see a huge oil derrick.

I wouldn't either, but people go many places for stuff like this (St. Louis, anyone?). I mean, think about how many people visit a round barn or a giant thermometer.

If it's big, people will want to see it.

[Will]

After watching the video, I would like to add my name to the NO! crowd. That thing is an eyesore. Now, I actually like the concept, and if they could modify the design to make it a little more pleasing to the eye, then I might change my mind. But based on the initial disign, I hope that comes nowhere close to being built.

[Jesseda]

I would love to see this done, maybe have entertainment on the ground like a paradise pier on the ok river (ferris wheel), I think it would be a great thing to add it all together.

[SouthsideSooner]

I wouldn't either, but people go many places for stuff like this (St. Louis, anyone?). I mean, think about how many people visit a round barn or a giant thermometer.

If it's big, people will want to see it.

.....and even if it's not the only reason that someone visits OKC, it gives people one more thing to do when they're here and one more reason to come.

[OKCMallen]

meh.

[sroberts24]

i don't go anywhere just to see something nor if i lived somewhere else would i come to see a big ugly oil derrick.... But since so many people do drive thru okc on 44, 35, or 40 it would be a good lil stop but........

i hate the design on the video, but there is a lot of potential there and i think if u get the right people doing it, it could be really cool, but it looks like something that would have been built in the 60's or 70's not now

Make it look cooler and more appealing and i'm on board, but the lawmaker dude in the video is the cheesiest dude i ever seen, i could see how he would come up with that design, hah

[wsucougz]

I'm out.

[MikeLucky]

This isn't about turnstiles and restaurant meals.....

It SHOULD be about creating something that people from California, New York, Florida, Canada, Germany, etc. sees on television or in a picture and says, "hey look, I can tell instantly that that's Oklahoma City."

When you see the space needle, you know it's Seattle.....
When you see the Eiffel Tower, you know it's Paris.....
When you see the Arch, you know it's St. Louis.....

If this is done right it can be iconic, but it does need to be done right..... and NOT so we can sell t-shirts and meals......

[FritterGirl]

The Memorial gates are much more iconic than any "x,000 foot" oil derrick could ever be. An icon comes about by meaning, not by forced ideas.

The oil derrick is NOT iconic, at least in its current incarnation per the video.

People don't need something "representative" shoved down their throats in order to derive meaning from it. In fact, often the opposite occurs.

[AFCM]

I personally like the giant earth-embedded arrows you see while leaving the airport. I don't know how you would work in an observation deck, but I always thought those were so cool and unique. I'd like to see a concept of that originality and simplicity.

Of couse, we could always just erect a giant freaky-painted buffalo.

[BDP]

An icon comes about by meaning, not by forced ideas.

I don't know about that. The Eiffel Tower, The St. Louis Arch, The Space Needle, and many similar structures were really just built as center pieces for fairs. In fact, there's really less meaning to those than there would be for this in concept, however they have become more iconic than this probably ever would be.

If you meant to say that, because it's concept has meaning, then it has less chance of being iconic, then you may have a point, as many "icons" were conceived and built for nothing more than their iconic potential, as were the ones I listed above. And it seems a lot of the criticism here is more about aesthetic than meaning. It seems people would be open to the idea more if it didn't look or represent anything (specifically, an oil derrick), but would rather that it just look cool.

[BoulderSooner]

I'm not sure about this. Oil is not the future. Our dependence on oil may very well be our economic undoing. Not to mention environmental concerns. Bad timing.

we will be using oil based energy for the next 100 years at least

[bornhere]

That's close to the ugliest thing I've seen proposed, at least in this area. What's that little house at the top – a Bass Pro outlet store?

[BDP]

we will be using oil based energy for the next 100 years at least

Maybe, but it will be a significantly less dominate portion of the mix. My guess is 50% petroleum based energy and 50% other stuff. A lot of my oil buddies think oil will be less a part of the mix than that, I'm just skeptical.

[sgt. pepper]

I think people needs to stop commenting on the looks of it in the video. i'm sure (hopefully) that it is just a concept drawing. i think that somebody just talking about doing something like this is great. This derrick could be pretty cool if done right.......please do it right.

[autoMATTic]

I personally like the giant earth-embedded arrows you see while leaving the airport.

I thought that was waiving wheat. Hmm.

[stlokc]

I agree completely with FritterGirl. This feels cheesy and forced, kind of like Las Vegas without the obvious "Of course this is supposed to be kitsch" mentality.

I live in St. Louis and the arch was built as part of a years-long international design competition regarding the frontier and western expansion, manifest destiny and all that. It has a museum underneath. They could have thrown up a 50-story statue of a covered wagon. They didn't. You can like or dislike the arch, but it feels much more iconic than something like this.

We already have the "world's largest horse statues" galloping across the canal. If money is going to be spent, I would much rather see it going to enhance the new park or Union Station or to some other real cultural pursuit for downtown, like an aquarium or contemporary art museum or something like that.

I think this thing, if built, would be more akin to those cars shoved in the dirt outside Amarillo.

Just my $0.02.

[JLCinOKC]

I'm going to have to give this a thumbs down.

[foodiefan]

. . . how 'bout we just finish the Land Run Monument?? Historic, artistic, adn very original!!

[mmonroe]

Rand Elliott.. lol

The "IDEA" is nice, the actually undertaking... please make it pretty.

[TaurusNYC]

Not long ago (as late as the 1970s) Oklahoma City had dozens, maybe hundreds of real oil derricks dotting the landscape. it was quite a sight, and it was obvious that oil was the engine that drove the OKC economy. Sadly, most of the oil derricks have been taken down. It would have been great if the city had somehow preserved them. It definitely made the city unique.

[kevinpate]

Maybe Devon could finish the land run monument and put a rocking D brand on each critter they cover, then Chesapeake could jump in and have their brand on any other critters. these folks get into a one upsmanship and we could end up with the monument spanning all the way to Meridian landing .... kewwwlllllll

[Patrick]

Yeah Kerry. You, myself and Rob Anderson came up with this several years ago. Remember when I sent out mailings to all of the major local corporations to get them signed on as donors for the idea. They all rejected it.