Devon Energy Center

[betts]

The "my tower is bigger than your tower" stuff is so short-lived anyway. It probably wouldn't be long before some other tower in the region topped it. We aren't going to miss those four stories, since the site on which it will sit is considerably less than 50 right now. I'm just thrilled they're going forward with plans to build it, as it's a beautiful building and will be a tremendous addition to the OKC skyline. Let's not sweat the "small" stuff.

[okcpulse]

Klay Kimker, Devon’s vice president of administration... said the change [in height] is unrelated to the national economy and still would have occurred if oil were selling at $145 a barrel.


...Riiiiiiiight.

Don't be so shortsighted, ronronnie. You are flipping out over whole 17 feet? Are you f-ing kidding me? Put a 925 ft tall tower next to a 908 ft tower and no matter how close or how far you are, you will not even see a difference. Heck, do a quick sketch in AutoCAD 2009. That should be enough to put the whining to rest.

Besides, read the article. They decided to build their data center offsite near Will Rogers World Airport. Being in the IT field, that's a smart move. That is what reduced the building from 54 to 50 floors. It's good for disaster recovery, which is very important for IT and for the company.

And with Larry Nichols as such a huge fan of DT OKC, much less the city itself, why in the hell would he decide to uproot to Hellston? Do your homework.

[kevinpate]

Finally read the article. Appears those floors still get built, just built elsewhere in OKC instead of right there in the same tower. In other words, they are doing what's perceived as being a sounder decision for the company rather than merely grabbing, however briefly, 'mine's bigger' rights.

No issues with the explanation here, but then I care so little about Dallas, 98% of more of Texas for that matter, that having a taller building than them isn't a hot button for me anyway.

Bottom line - Lots of eggs sometimes do need more than one basket, and they've decided this is one of those times.

[OKCisOK4me]

I'd rather OKC have that stubby middle finger than a taller middle finger for all those visitors coming in on a drive up I-44 from the airport ;-)

[circuitboard]

Ok you guys have convinced me that I just need to be happy a tower is being built, 908 is nothing to sneeze at. It is still going to be the largest in Oklahoma, even BOK in Tulsa is only 667. So I am excited, can't wait until constructions begins!

[Steve]

It's 850 feet high.

[lasomeday]

Are you saying the final height is going to be 850 feet tall now? Not even 900 feet tall?

Are you sure the story is right 12 offices a floor instead of 10? Is that supposed to be 12 per area and the office is set up in the three walled areas? Meaning there will be 36 offices per floor instead of 30? 12 per floor is insanely inefficiently. They have 25 a floor currently in the Chase building.

[dismayed]

Agree, besides it isn't like the ego's down in Texas would be able to cope. You know within a few years they would HAVE to build a slightly taller building than the Devon Tower... just because.

[Steve]

lasomeday, that was a hypothetical, not meant to reflect actual office count per floor

[bluedogok]

It could be for the configuration they want it averages to 12 offices per floor and open office filled with cubicles. Very few corporations do all offices anymore, most is a mix of office/cubicles. The only projects that I have done that were all office (except for admin) were smaller law firms.

[jbrown84]

Wait. Is it 908 or 850??

[ThunderB]

Where are you guys getting this 908 feet? I did not see that in any story.

[Steve]

Back story: For a couple of weeks I've been chasing a tip that the Devon tower was going to have less floors than originally planned. For whatever reason, officials at Devon were unprepared to announce any changes - something I can understand - they probably didn't want a story done until they were sure of the change. Meanwhile, there was a pre-arranged presentation with the old info Thursday which I covered. And it was at that presentation where the 908 feet change appeared, reflecting earlier changes in the floor-to-floor height, but not the changes on interior space use. On Friday Devon officials agreed to share with me the newest changes.
It is 850 feet high. I am not very surprised by this change - such things happen during design. I will be surprised if we see any further major changes.
Final note: don't get hung up on the 12 offices on a floor detail - it's a hypothetical illustration of what happened.

[andimthomas]

Ugh great.

[andimthomas]

This might sound ungreatful and all, but I think they should just move their headquarters to Houston if they're just going to keep letting us down. You don't get the entire population excited for something that hasn't happened in awhile, then take it all back. I won't be surprised if they drop the height again before construction starts. Sooner or later- this building will just look the same as the rest of downtown OKC. Short and fat.

[Thunder]

Now it is 850?! That's it. I don't want it anymore. The final height will be 300.

[ThunderB]

By the time it is completed, it will be a strip mall

[ronronnie1]

It's not like 4 floors suddenly made Oklahoma City's skyline better than Dallas's anyway, so I have no idea why anyone is hung up on that.

No, but OkC's skyline would have been TALLER. Besides, once they go trimming here and trimming there - before you know it, it'll end up like Leadership Square. Supposed to be an 80 story tower - but turned out 2 squat little towers you can't even see from a mile away.

I don't know. I just hope they STICK TO THIS NEW PLAN at least. I'm just not holding my breath on this.

[ronronnie1]

WOW - I just read Steve's confirmation that the height has AGAIN been chopped down to 850 feet. Tomorrow it'll be 790 feet, and by Monday it'll be just twenty feet shy of Chase tower.

Ugh - I'm over it. I don't give a sh!t if they build it or not.

[jbrown84]

Now it is 850?! That's it. I don't want it anymore. The final height will be 300.

This might sound ungreatful and all, but I think they should just move their headquarters to Houston if they're just going to keep letting us down. You don't get the entire population excited for something that hasn't happened in awhile, then take it all back. I won't be surprised if they drop the height again before construction starts. Sooner or later- this building will just look the same as the rest of downtown OKC. Short and fat.

WOW. You both are being completely ridiculous.

[Richard at Remax]

wtf is the matter with you people? if it was originally going to be 850ft then you guys would be jumping through circles. They don't have to build anything at all and last time I checked I am pretty sure they are paying for it and not you so if they want to chop off a few floors then fine by me. Get over yourselves.

[SWOKC 4 me]

wtf is the matter with you people? if it was originally going to be 850ft then you guys would be jumping through circles. They don't have to build anything at all and last time I checked I am pretty sure they are paying for it and not you so if they want to chop off a few floors then fine by me. Get over yourselves.

I agree....and what this tower will mean for OKC can't even be measured in feet in my opinion.

[metro]

This might sound ungreatful and all, but I think they should just move their headquarters to Houston if they're just going to keep letting us down. You don't get the entire population excited for something that hasn't happened in awhile, then take it all back. I won't be surprised if they drop the height again before construction starts. Sooner or later- this building will just look the same as the rest of downtown OKC. Short and fat.

Now it is 850?! That's it. I don't want it anymore. The final height will be 300.

WOW - I just read Steve's confirmation that the height has AGAIN been chopped down to 850 feet. Tomorrow it'll be 790 feet, and by Monday it'll be just twenty feet shy of Chase tower.

Ugh - I'm over it. I don't give a sh!t if they build it or not.

As jbrown said, you guys are ridiculous and don't live in reality. Yeah it's a little bummer but no big deal in the grand scheme of things. You're living in a fantasy land, I'm glad you all aren't involved with city planning. You do realize this will still be ridiculously tall, and we haven't had a major tower built in almost 30 years? Furthermore Devon is a major player that employs thousands of well paid employees locally. This has a trickle down effect in every category of our local economy. Some people just don't get it.

[hoya]

This might sound ungreatful and all, but I think they should just move their headquarters to Houston if they're just going to keep letting us down. You don't get the entire population excited for something that hasn't happened in awhile, then take it all back. I won't be surprised if they drop the height again before construction starts. Sooner or later- this building will just look the same as the rest of downtown OKC. Short and fat.

This might sound like I'm an a-hole, but I think you need a diaper change.

Is it disappointing? Sure, but it's still a major addition to the skyline.

[kevinpate]

Out of curiosity, if for any reason they decided it made sense for a few additional floors of folks to be located elsewhere, and the tower actually dropped to say even 680, wouldn't that still be the biggest honkin single company development erected in OKC, perhaps Oklahoma, in the last couple of decades?

I don't track building heights, but it seems to me this project would still be huge news for the metro if it were a series of, oh, I dunno, say 3-5 story cookie cutter buildings arranged all neat and tidy together (not to draw any comparisons with another local group or anything.)

Any way you stack it, slice it, dice it or mold it, it's a heap big pile of glass and steel that isn't there today. How can that be bad?