OG&E Tower

[lasomeday]

[bchris02]

Both. The problem is that OKC hasn't changed its thinking since urban renewal.

I think you are right. If this city had learned, there wouldn't be so much support for demolishing a one-of-a-kind piece of art for a mediocre 20-story tower that really won't even change the skyline. If this was a 600 ft tower I would be more supportive but this seems like it's going to be demolishing the Stage Center to build the Valiance Bank tower.

[Rover]

So, let's ask the MOA if the SC is a work of art. Let's find an art collector to invest in it, preserve it, and loan it to the city art community.

[PhiAlpha]

I think you are right. If this city had learned, there wouldn't be so much support for demolishing a one-of-a-kind piece of art for a mediocre 20-story tower that really won't even change the skyline. If this was a 600 ft tower I would be more supportive but this seems like it's going to be demolishing the Stage Center to build the Valiance Bank tower.

No one knows what the height will be yet or what it will look like. This comment is extremely premature.

[Rover]

But, is never too early to panic and be negative. Why hope for the best when you can complain about what it MIGHT or MIGHT NOT be like. Lol.

[adaniel]

I gave up on asking for a little patience a while back. The DOOM squad has been out in full force on this board lately. It's much easier to be against something than to be for it.

Williams is getting his demo permit in December, meaning preliminary designs for this would need to be in by next month. So it shouldn't be much longer.

[Mississippi Blues]

No one knows what the height will be yet or what it will look like. This comment is extremely premature.

Most of his comments on developments are premature in assumption. He also tends to agree with people when they say something generally negative about OKC, whether it's true or not. I think he just has an overall bad taste in his mouth about OKC & it tends to show in a lot of his comments.

Nevertheless, Spartan has a point, but it's still too early to say much else since we know nothing much about the tower.

[Of Sound Mind]

I think you are right. If this city had learned, there wouldn't be so much support for demolishing a one-of-a-kind piece of art for a mediocre 20-story tower that really won't even change the skyline. If this was a 600 ft tower I would be more supportive but this seems like it's going to be demolishing the Stage Center to build the Valiance Bank tower.

One-of-a-kind doesn't always equate to something worth keeping. Stage Center is a perfect example.

[OKVision4U]

One-of-a-kind doesn't always equate to something worth keeping. Stage Center is a perfect example.

... like all that Garage Sale "inventory". If it sells, then it's Merchandise, if it doesn't it's Inventory. Trash or treasure.

Either way, the Stage Center is moving on and a new chapter begins.

[adaniel]

Most of his comments on developments are premature in assumption. He also tends to agree with people when they say something generally negative about OKC, whether it's true or not. I think he just has an overall bad taste in his mouth about OKC & it tends to show in a lot of his comments.

I really don't like to call out other posters, but I have read some of the things he's said about OKC on city-data as I am a very infrequent poster on there. Safe to say he despises this place.

[BDP]

One-of-a-kind doesn't always equate to something worth keeping. Stage Center is a perfect example.

Especially in OKC. Originality is unsustainable here.

[Of Sound Mind]

Especially in OKC. Originality is unsustainable here.

If Stage Center is the best example of "quality" originality, then I'm glad it's unsustainable.

[BDP]

If Stage Center is the best example of "quality" originality, then I'm glad it's unsustainable.

See.

[HangryHippo]

One-of-a-kind doesn't always equate to something worth keeping. Stage Center is a perfect example.

This.

[HangryHippo]

If Stage Center is the best example of "quality" originality, then I'm glad it's unsustainable.

Agreed.

[OKCisOK4me]

I think you are right. If this city had learned, there wouldn't be so much support for demolishing a one-of-a-kind piece of art for a mediocre 20-story tower that really won't even change the skyline. If this was a 600 ft tower I would be more supportive but this seems like it's going to be demolishing the Stage Center to build the Valiance Bank tower.

I'll tell ya what, if this new tower came in at under 600 feet but was designed like Frost Bank Tower in Austin, then I wouldn't give two hoots about what's going in on this spot. I'm certain that Rainey Williams knows how controversial this spot is so it is my hope that the 20-25 story feeler he and his cohorts might be putting out there is just purely speculation and they're truly working on some kind of wonderful.

[BDP]

Guys, you don't have to worry about it. I don't know why you get so irritated that people like something you don't or that some used to appreciate something that you don't. But you will get your way and Oklahoma City will be a little less unfamiliar and we will be guaranteed to have ZERO notable performing arts venues left (I think the Civic Center is a great venue, but it's hard to find a city without something like the Civic Center) . I always had a blast at SC and it was my favorite community theater out of the ones I have been, which include ones in LA, Dallas, SF, and Chicago. But, I get it, no one gives a crap here and that's why it's in such terrible shape to begin with. Most of those places are junkers and it was over reaching to do something more ambitious in OKC. Like I said before, OKC does not deserve something as original as Stage Center, because something that different actually pisses people off here so much they get giddy about it being destroyed.

Now, if only the architect had used a round barn as inspiration, then it'd be protected forever. lol.

[Dubya61]

But you will get your way ... and we will be guaranteed to have ZERO notable performing arts venues left (I think the Civic Center is a great venue, but it's hard to find a city without something like the Civic Center). I always had a blast at SC and it was my favorite community theater out of the ones I have been, which include ones in LA, Dallas, SF, and Chicago. But, I get it, no one gives a crap here and that's why it's in such terrible shape to begin with.

But,
1) even if Stage Center is not demolished and the tower goes somewhere else, you will be guaranteed to have ZERO notable performing arts venues left.
-----> Stage Center DIED in 2010 and is still hemorrhaging cash!
2) you will never have a blast at SC again.
3) lots of people give a crap here about SC, but not to the tune it'll take to fix it up and make it usable again.
Rant all you want but it will take a Butt Load of money to make it so you can enjoy SC the way it was made to be enjoyed again and no one seems to be ponying up that kind of cash.
Have you got any ideas on how to make it usable, again?

[HangryHippo]

Guys, you don't have to worry about it. I don't know why you get so irritated that people like something you don't or that some used to appreciate something that you don't. But you will get your way and Oklahoma City will be a little less unfamiliar and we will be guaranteed to have ZERO notable performing arts venues left (I think the Civic Center is a great venue, but it's hard to find a city without something like the Civic Center) . I always had a blast at SC and it was my favorite community theater out of the ones I have been, which include ones in LA, Dallas, SF, and Chicago. But, I get it, no one gives a crap here and that's why it's in such terrible shape to begin with. Most of those places are junkers and it was over reaching to do something more ambitious in OKC. Like I said before, OKC does not deserve something as original as Stage Center, because something that different actually pisses people off here so much they get giddy about it being destroyed.

Now, if only the architect had used a round barn as inspiration, then it'd be protected forever. lol.

BDP, perhaps you could control some of the hyperbole. I'm not pissed off that you like it, but your ranting about OKC not deserving something as original as Stage Center is melodramatic. And I'm certainly not giddy it's being destroyed as there are other sites where a new tower could go. But it's not a notable performing arts venue. It's abandoned and rotting away. Something better has come along.

[OKVision4U]

Guys, you don't have to worry about it. I don't know why you get so irritated that people like something you don't or that some used to appreciate something that you don't. But you will get your way and Oklahoma City will be a little less unfamiliar and we will be guaranteed to have ZERO notable performing arts venues left (I think the Civic Center is a great venue, but it's hard to find a city without something like the Civic Center) . I always had a blast at SC and it was my favorite community theater out of the ones I have been, which include ones in LA, Dallas, SF, and Chicago. But, I get it, no one gives a crap here and that's why it's in such terrible shape to begin with. Most of those places are junkers and it was over reaching to do something more ambitious in OKC. Like I said before, OKC does not deserve something as original as Stage Center, because something that different actually pisses people off here so much they get giddy about it being destroyed.

Now, if only the architect had used a round barn as inspiration, then it'd be protected forever. lol.

...or, if the Stage Center was on the Historic Route 66, then it would have received more "acclaim" , thus remaining. Hello 20-28 story New Chapter in OKC.

[pickles]

Guys, you don't have to worry about it. I don't know why you get so irritated that people like something you don't or that some used to appreciate something that you don't. But you will get your way and Oklahoma City will be a little less unfamiliar and we will be guaranteed to have ZERO notable performing arts venues left (I think the Civic Center is a great venue, but it's hard to find a city without something like the Civic Center) . I always had a blast at SC and it was my favorite community theater out of the ones I have been, which include ones in LA, Dallas, SF, and Chicago. But, I get it, no one gives a crap here and that's why it's in such terrible shape to begin with. Most of those places are junkers and it was over reaching to do something more ambitious in OKC. Like I said before, OKC does not deserve something as original as Stage Center, because something that different actually pisses people off here so much they get giddy about it being destroyed.

Now, if only the architect had used a round barn as inspiration, then it'd be protected forever. lol.

There is so much here to dislike that it is hard to know where to begin. This city supported Stage Center as long as it made sense to do so. The building simply could not last forever as a functioning space for human interaction because that is, at its heart, not why it was designed. It is an exercise in theory and style, and while it may be worthwhile that it challenged certain orthodoxies about how such buildings can support crowds and activity over long periods of time, it cannot continue to serve that purpose because certain realities have asserted themselves. It is a costly ecological disaster plopped into the center of the city from a mental space where economic realities are an unwelcome constraint on the human spirit. And so, it has run its course. That is sad, but so it goes.

[PWitty]

Honestly, what is the alternative to not demolising the Stage Center? Fencing it off and letting it sit there and just hope and pray someone eventually revives it? If someone valuable enough in the arts or the architecture community thought enough of the Stage Center to save it then it would have probably happened by now I would imagine.

[BDP]

BDP, perhaps you could control some of the hyperbole. I'm not pissed off that you like it, but your ranting about OKC not deserving something as original as Stage Center is melodramatic.

No doubt. I was just trying to match the "off with their heads!" type tone of those who hated it. But there is some truth to it. There is little originality here and what little there is rarely appreciated to any level where it is sustainable. We never seem to have much that many people here feel actually is worth saving. OKVision4U is probably right though, if it were on route 66 people may see value in it. That's probably the only reason people actually pulled off saving the Dome.

But,
1) even if Stage Center is not demolished and the tower goes somewhere else, you will be guaranteed to have ZERO notable performing arts venues left.
-----> Stage Center DIED in 2010 and is still hemorrhaging cash!
2) you will never have a blast at SC again.
3) lots of people give a crap here about SC, but not to the tune it'll take to fix it up and make it usable again.
Rant all you want but it will take a Butt Load of money to make it so you can enjoy SC the way it was made to be enjoyed again and no one seems to be ponying up that kind of cash.
Have you got any ideas on how to make it usable, again?

My comments are more about how it probably never should have been built here in the first place. I have already written the stage center off. And there is absolutely no way to make it feasible again, because it's just not that important to people here. In another place and another time, it might have a chance. But not now and certainly not in Oklahoma City.

[Jim Kyle]

There is little originality here and what little there is rarely appreciated to any level where it is sustainable.

Try looking at NW 36 and Walker's northeast corner for an original building that has stood the test of time, or around NW 23 and Classen (I'm thinking of the Milk Bottle, not the dome, since you've already noticed the dome). There's a poured-concrete building on SW 59 a block or so east of May Avenue that was originally a residence but now houses a business; with its concrete roof, it withstood a tornado not long after it was built. The city does support original ideas; it just doesn't hang on to all of its mistakes.

[GaryOKC6]

No doubt. I was just trying to match the "off with their heads!" type tone of those who hated it. But there is some truth to it. There is little originality here and what little there is rarely appreciated to any level where it is sustainable. We never seem to have much that many people here feel actually is worth saving. OKVision4U is probably right though, if it were on route 66 people may see value in it. That's probably the only reason people actually pulled off saving the Dome.



My comments are more about how it probably never should have been built here in the first place. I have already written the stage center off. And there is absolutely no way to make it feasible again, because it's just not that important to people here. In another place and another time, it might have a chance. But not now and certainly not in Oklahoma City.

Well if another community thought that it was a better fit it could actually be disassembled and moved.