Devon Energy Center

[Insider]

Devon Tower - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Doug will love me for posting this.

The Wikipedia post is incorrect! The building will be 1.9 million square feet, not 2.3. The tower is 1.5 million square feet and the podium is 400,000 square feet (for a total of 1.9 million square feet).

[Luke]

Wikipedia... unreliable open source crap...

[UnFrSaKn]

The Wikipedia post is incorrect! The building will be 1.9 million square feet, not 2.3. The tower is 1.5 million square feet and the podium is 400,000 square feet (for a total of 1.9 million square feet).

I didn't make the page but somebody needs to, and put accurate info on there. A lot of dopey people (including me) read stuff from Wikipedia. Someone needs to make a 'cities tallest' page for OKC, since Tulsa has one. There's almost nothing on there about our buildings downtown. I think it's important to get that out there and help break the stereotypes. An average person will read or look at something that's right there in their face on one website, rather than having enough interest to Google it.

[Pete]

If we could add up all of the owner occupied and leasibles, Im sure OKC would be well above 8M sq feet downtown. Im not sure if Tulsa has any owner occupieds in their downtown.

Just for clarification, BOK Plaza is included in the 5.5 million -- it's only 250,000 square feet anyway.

The only major owner-occupied buildings are Mid America Plaza (Devon) at 300,000, SandRidge Center 480,000 and a few smaller buildings.

I would say only about 1 million square feet are owner occupied, raising the total to 6.5 million sq. ft. -- still way short of what Tulsa has, and I'm sure they have some owner-occupied as well as do all cities.

[OKC74]

No "new" news on the Devon project in the last couple of days...??

[HOT ROD]

Pete, you're leaving off the government buildings. You only illustrated corporate buildings that are owner occupied. What about the Federal Buildings? What about the county and city buildings? Those are owner occupied and there are a significant number of them that make up downtown OKC.

the new federal building should be a significant amount of space, same for the OK county office 'building' and courthouse, and the old federal courthouse.

You're also missing the NGO buildings downtown (like the Oklahoma city community association and a few others like it). those are also owner occupied.

I bet, once you add them all up, along with leasible, it is above 8M.

[HOT ROD]

The Wikipedia post is incorrect! The building will be 1.9 million square feet, not 2.3. The tower is 1.5 million square feet and the podium is 400,000 square feet (for a total of 1.9 million square feet).

Insider, aren't you forgetting the atrium?

[metro]

No "new" news on the Devon project in the last couple of days...??

What kind of "new" news are you wanting? Devon released all the pertinent info, you probably won't see any major announcements until they break ground next fall. They have to put RFP's out and get contractors lined up, etc.

[metro]

Pete, you're leaving off the government buildings. You only illustrated corporate buildings that are owner occupied. What about the Federal Buildings? What about the county and city buildings? Those are owner occupied and there are a significant number of them that make up downtown OKC.

the new federal building should be a significant amount of space, same for the OK county office 'building' and courthouse, and the old federal courthouse.

You're also missing the NGO buildings downtown (like the Oklahoma city community association and a few others like it). those are also owner occupied.

I bet, once you add them all up, along with leasible, it is above 8M.

And the DEQ.

[Thunder]

When will the contractors start to make bids?

How will a contractor be chosen? Lowest bid? Best quality? Speed of time?

[BG918]

When will the contractors start to make bids?

How will a contractor be chosen? Lowest bid? Best quality? Speed of time?

I'd assume Devon will hire a construction manager based on their expertise, background, and quality. I know Flintco has paired with a national construction company that specializes in skyscraper/highrise construction to interview, not sure who else locally but probably Manhattan as well. I've heard some other national companies are in the mix like J.E. Dunn (just opened an OKC office), Balfour Beatty, Turner, etc. After the CM is hired they will work with the architect & engineer in the Pre-Construction phase doing cost estimating and scheduling. Bids for the actual construction would take place after the Pre-Con phase and would begin with the site work/foundation, then electrical/mechanical, then steel/concrete, and so on as work begins. Just the site work, digging the enormous hole for the underground parking and foundation with what could be 100+ ft. deep piers will take several months in itself. Once construction begins you won't actually see the building rise for awhile...

I think they will be doing the parking garage first and then starting the atrium/tower, is that correct?

[Pete]

the new federal building should be a significant amount of space, same for the OK county office 'building' and courthouse, and the old federal courthouse.

The new federal building is 180,000 square feet. The others are smaller still.


And as mentioned, every single decent-sized city has these types of buildings. I don't see evidence to suggest that OKC is any way unique.

[Insider]

No, the atrium square footage is included in the podium square footage. The podium is what they are calling the entire lower structure. Here is what Devon said in a FAQs page it set up for employees...

How big is the building?
The tower is 1.5 million gross square feet and the podium is 400,000 gross square feet. It will be 1.9 million total gross square feet.

Insider, aren't you forgetting the atrium?

[architect5311]

What kind of "new" news are you wanting? Devon released all the pertinent info, you probably won't see any major announcements until they break ground next fall. They have to put RFP's out and get contractors lined up, etc.

What you saw released was a Schematic Design submission. From the architects end the next step in the process will be the Design Development Phase then the Construction Document Phase. Kendall/Heaton Architects will be the Architect of Record , actually taking the project over from Pickard Chilton (Design Architects) producing the Construction Documents (Drawings and Specs). Typically Design Development includes design refinement, development of detailed drawings and specs, and building systems integration. (in a nutshell). The production of the Construction Documents will probably take 6 to 8 months alone. IMO

The design development submission should include updated renderings, possibly some animations, etc.............. we should see more in the months to come.

As far as the project delivery method, this project could be negotiated with one or more General Contractors (a GC team) in a design/build delivery. Or in the design, bid, build senario it could be awarded to a GC or GC team.

[gmwise]

I like Devon's plans.

[CCOKC]

My stepfather is one of the job superintendents for the Embassy Suites in Norman and I visited his jobsite a few weeks ago. I find construction to be totally fascinating. I say the stack of blueprints for the hotel and I can only imagine what the Devon tower's will look like. I could never keep up with all of the details that would go into a building of this size. I think it will be so cool to see the project to go from a picture on a page to real steel and glass and everything else that goes into it.

[Pete]

As I mentioned earlier, I've managed some office build-out construction projects, the largest of which was about $5 million.

And even that was impossibly complex. Working with the architects, engineers, interior designers, contractors and various vendors that supplied furniture, carpeting, lighting, fabrics, etc.... Even after all the plans were drawn and every piece of furniture and scrap of fabric and surface was selected, every single day there was some small crisis with something not being ready on time, a back-order, an unexpected construction variable, etc.

One 'little hitch' involved going into the space below and putting in huge steel reinforcement plates for a vault. Could only be done after hours and every single night they had to tear down the suspended ceiling then completely replace it so the tenant below won't be disturbed before the next day. This went on for a couple of weeks!

And then of course, the furniture would arrive in bulk and there were always mistakes or things didn't fit exactly as planned. Or, a key inspection didn't go smoothly, etc., etc.

I simply can't fathom the scale of this type of project. At least Devon has assembled an all-star team of architects and developers who have delivered tons of these types of buildings.

And it's being built on a large vacant site and Devon owns the only property (The Colcord) that will be directly impacted. That should make things a little less complicated than trying to pull something like this off in the middle of Manhattan.

[David Pollard]

This is a bit of a side-topic, but does anyone know what Devon's plans are for the Colcord? I remember that years ago there was an idea to increase the space by building a reflective addition that would make it appear that the west wing was actually completed.

In my opinion, it would be best if Devon would choose to actually complete the west wing of the Colcord in the origianal style, much as was done with that wonderful building in Tulsa whose name escapes me right now. Question one is if there will be enough room left for a west wing after the Devon tower is built. A custom-built addition could fit in very well with the new tower and ground level retail and atrium. Question, or better, idea number two is to actually take an addition even further and build a cantilevered addition on TOP of the Colcord that matches the old building. I do believe that this is what also was done in Tulsa. Could be a striking building, all in white, west addition complete, with a magnificient tower next to the new Devon tower. Nice, 5 start hotel rooms in the heart of the city. Any takers?

[jbrown84]

That was discussed in the thread about them purchasing the hotel. I would only be in favor of adding the wing as originally planned, but that doesn't appear to be in their plans.

I would expect only minor upgrades as well as more cash flow to do things like raise employee salaries and increase the staffing numbers.

[Pete]

From the looks of the Devon site plan, their tower will be pretty close to The Colcord so I don't think there will be room to do much expansion of the hotel.

[bluedogok]

Even much smaller projects can be complex, add in a retrofit and it just increases the complexity. When I was doing the JDM Place renovation it seemed that I was having to go down there a couple of times a week because of things that were discovered during demolition because there were many things hidden from view that we didn't know about. It was interesting though and the problem solving was always a challenge that I enjoyed trying to figure out.

[Kerry]

I replaced my kitchen sink and it required 5 trips to Lowes/Home Depot. That should keep things in perspective for me.

[CuatrodeMayo]

In my opinion, it would be best if Devon would choose to actually complete the west wing of the Colcord in the origianal style, much as was done with that wonderful building in Tulsa whose name escapes me right now. Question one is if there will be enough room left for a west wing after the Devon tower is built. A custom-built addition could fit in very well with the new tower and ground level retail and atrium. Question, or better, idea number two is to actually take an addition even further and build a cantilevered addition on TOP of the Colcord that matches the old building. I do believe that this is what also was done in Tulsa. ?

Mid-Con building.

[metro]

I seriously doubt Devon is going to add a new wing to the Colcord. It would be nice, but I think it is a pipe dream for now.

[westsidesooner]

How about just connecting the Colcord to the new tower lobby with a small glass enclosed pedestrian hall or skywlk?