Devon Energy Center

[okcpulse]

soonerguru, you may be right, but one truth people need to realize is that most Americans are frightened and unimaginative, and thus when the media mentions the words "BAD RECESSION", Americans panic and start stashing their cash, sometimes unnecessarily, out of fear they will lose their jobs. And that compounds the problem.

Why do you think so many retail and restaurant establishments are beginning to founder? And as far as the financial industry goes... f**k 'em. Serves them right being irresponsible vultures of fortune.

[soonerguru]

okcpulse,

that is an excellent point. We shouldn't freak out. There's no point in that. There are, however, non-mental aspects to this, such as: freeze in interbank lending, four million job losses in a year, implosion of mortgage-based finance sector, implosion of auto industry, unprecedented government debt forecasts, unprecedented government intervention in the economy, the collapse or near collapse of hundreds of banking institutions.

Look. This could be "good for us" if Americans learn to save a little more and live more thrifty lives. But it's silly, demeaning and inaccurate to chalk this all up to people needing to take a Xanax and return to the mall.

[hoya]

Everything is psychological in a sense. Economies are, after all, rooted in the concept that little green slips of paper are worth something. You want to see a bad economic situation, look at countries like Zimbabwe where they have 10,000% inflation. That's the point where people realize that those little slips of paper really aren't worth anything.

This particular inflation has the potential to be really bad, because several things hit at once. Housing prices were out of control, and many banks didn't have the sense to not get involved with that stuff. Auto makers are in trouble because they didn't see the coming oil price rise, and they had no alternatives to gas guzzlers in place. Now oil prices are have come tumbling down because their high prices were unsustainable.

Fortunately, however bad this recession is, we're in a better situation now than we were two years ago, before it hit. Regardless of the guy who was earning $180K a year last year who is cashing unemployment checks now, as a whole, our economy is in a "better place", because we now have a good grasp of the real value of most things. In my opinion, it is better to have a good grasp of your situation rather than continue on in ignorance. We were on a tightrope before. We're still on a tightrope, but now we're clinging on for dear life because someone took off the blindfold.

Second, we're in a better situation because we will soon enter a period of recovery. People are still scared, but as time goes by, and banks don't fail, as automakers rehabilitate their product lines and begin to have higher sales, as gas prices remain reasonable and people don't buy Hummers, our economy will slowly begin to grow again. People will come out of their caves. And this time, they won't be as stupid with their money. At least for a while.

Devon, however, has been wise. Their stock is still strong. They've got tons of cash reserves, and now construction prices are plummeting. They are in a very strong spot.

[plmccordj]

Soonerguru I was already scolded once for speaking politics in here so I will let that go.

[architect5311]

VIEWS..........

[Richard at Remax]

Impressive stuff. Why doesn't google earth have any of okc's buildings in 3D?

[architect5311]

Impressive stuff. Why doesn't google earth have any of okc's buildings in 3D?

Google Earth does have the Cox Convention Center Modeled as well as the State Capital building. As for the rest of downtown OKC......no one has stepped up to do it. Some cities, such as Denver have probably paid a firm to model most of thier CBD, actually mapping the actual photographic images of buildings onto sketchup models. Google Earth Denver is very impressive.........check it out if you haven't seen it.

[architect5311]

Google Earth Denver image.........

[architect5311]

more google earth denver..........







are these sick or what..........

[shane453]

Architect, thanks for the views!

I think Google partners with some cities to do the full 3D renderings. There are a ton of cities that are as good as Denver now. Check out all Florida's major cities, Chicago, NYC, Charlotte and Raleigh, Nashville, Memphis, Minneapolis, and most of California's cities, lots of others. Really wish that OKC would be 3D photorealistic.

[MiEcho]

I'm excited to see it start taking shape downtown; hopefully it will come to fruition even with the economy the way it is...

[dmoor82]

Any new news on this?i hate to see this thread bump down to page two!

[jbrown84]

No, there's not any news. That's no cause for alarm.

[Kerry]

With the drop in construction prices do anyone think there might be a chance this building tops 1000'.

[Thunder]

With the drop in construction prices do anyone think there might be a chance this building tops 1000'.

Devon should get the building to top 2,000' during this time. Great deals!

[CuatrodeMayo]

With the drop in construction prices do anyone think there might be a chance this building tops 1000'.

No.

[Kerry]

If I am not mistaken wasn't there still some uncertainty about what the top of the building looks like. We are only talking another 50 feet or so to top 1000'. Even if it didn't result in more floors, a short spire could put it over 1000'.

[OKC74]

Kerry - I agree! Why not do this and make it just a TAD taller!? But in all honesty...I'm so happy that Devon is making this investment in downtown and in Oklahoma City in general. It will be great for the city...in multiple ways!!

[Kerry]

...I'm so happy that Devon is making this investment in downtown and in Oklahoma City in general. It will be great for the city...in multiple ways!!

I am with you on that. Just 5 years ago I was excited about 2 five story parking garages. That puts things in perspective.

[OKC74]

Ha - so true! I remember asking a few people that work in OKC media a few years ago if they thought we'd EVER see a new highrise downtown...and their answer? A resounding...NO!! LOL.

[jbrown84]

Don't change it. It looks good the way it is.

[bombermwc]

Yeah I'd hate to see them cheese it up by slapping something on at the end. It's already going to be twice as tall as anything else. Do we really need to stand out any more? It's already going to be iconic, so why not leave it alone? We don't really get any super prize for being 1000' or anything.

[edcrunk]

Yeah I'd hate to see them cheese it up by slapping something on at the end. It's already going to be twice as tall as anything else. Do we really need to stand out any more? It's already going to be iconic, so why not leave it alone? We don't really get any super prize for being 1000' or anything.

agreed... we should be more than happy with what we are getting.

[dmoor82]

I hope there will not be decades between the next built highrise after the devon tower!We need a couple of 650ft+ and 1 really tall residential(500ft)!

[Thunder]

This would be fun on top of the tower.