Project "X" - New highrise office tower for OKC?!

[CuatrodeMayo]

Here is an interesting tidbit:

I was at a guest lecture at my school tonight (OSU School of Architecture). The special speaker was Jim Bruza of FSB and one of his associates. For the most part, I was unimpressed by their work. But as they showed the projects they currently have on the drawing board right now, the last project caught my attention. It was what they called "Project X". It consisted of a 30-40 storey highrise with a public plaza at the base. The renderings they showed had the building placed in a backdrop that looked much like OKC. I tried to ask more questions, but due to secrecy agreements, they were not able to disclose anymore than the fact that they were extremely excited about it and that it was looking like the project is going to be a go. As much as they were laboring the fact that they are a huge promoter of OKC, I find their excitement interesting.

This is no rumor...I heard it straight from Jim Bruza himself.

[Spartan]

I am not a Frankfurt Short Bruza fan myself, but I am glad they are doing the tower. Anthony McDermid or (especially) Rand would have come up with something too post modern. It also signifies the firm's entrance into the "Renaissance" which is notable, in my opinion.

I think very, very little of their State Fair crapola.

[Luke]

Very interesting...

[CuatrodeMayo]

Agreed...we were discussing their design upstairs afterwords and basically we think our second year students would put them to shame. I wasn't a fan before tonight and I am less of one now. It's sad.

[Spartan]

You misread me. The tower aint bad; it's good to go conservative with OKC's first new tower in umpteen decades, you don't want to mess with the look and feel of the skyline so much...give things time to balance, there will be more skyscrapers to come.

But where we do agree is where I vehemently hate all of their other designs.

[Kerry]

I was just doing a little on-line research to see if I could find any related news and while I haven't found anything yet - Emporis.com is showing a proposed Embassy Suites in Bricktown. I know this was rumored to be on the way but was there an official annoucement?

The hotel is supposed to 10 stories and 120ft.

[Spartan]

Emporis has had that for a while actually.

[CuatrodeMayo]

I know what you meant. I was refering to their design skill as a whole, not the design of the highrise. My apologies for my lack of clarity.

[stlokc]

Cuatro...
Did they give any indication about who might be behind the tower? Is it a particular company looking for a HQ, or what? The trend now seems to be mixed-use. For example, 5 stories of parking, 20 stories of an unnamed office HQ, 10 stories of condos on top...that could be something a company in OKC who is not looking for all 40 stories of offices might do as an investment.

I would be curious to know more...

[Nuclear_2525]

so OKC is getting a new tower, but its nothing special???

[Spartan]

How do you figure that?

Oh it's just a new tower...

[CuatrodeMayo]

I would be curious to know more...

I tired to get that info out of them but to no avail.

[Spartan]

Are you anti-private message, Cuatrode? I am curious if we are thinking of the same thing...

[John]

What did the tower look like?

Any buildings you could compare it to?

[Spartan]

Yeah, the Empire State Building.

Just kidding.

[CuatrodeMayo]

What did the tower look like?

Any buildings you could compare it to?

From what I remember, it is an all-glass box with some more solid elements flanking it towards the bottom. It was situated diagonally on one corner of its lot. In front of it was a large public plaza with a pond-type feature. The designer did mention that incorporating public areas was a design goal. If there is parking, I couldn't tell where it was.

[BDP]

The designer did mention that incorporating public areas was a design goal.

That sounds promising. We all want a signature design jutting up into the skyline, but its the ground level features that make it useable, imo. However, it's entriely possible to do both and we should hope for both.

I'm guessing it's not residential if it doesn't have balconies. It seems most new residential towers incorporate balconies. However, I would be a little skeptical of the viability of an all office tower in OKC with all the vacancies. Then again we could use some more class A to get business out of the burbs and into the city.

[y_h]

It'd be nice to see a mixed-use high rise go up in downtown OKC. I'd like to see the type of high rise that features three or four floors of retail and restaurant space starting at street level (and perhaps even a small grocery store in the basement), a high-end hotel on top of the retail concourse and then office space further up. Downtown Chicago is full of mixed use towers and we're starting to see the consideration of a few in Clayton (St. Louis's "second downtown" in the central suburbs). A project like this just might spark a retail renaissance in downtown OKC.

[HOT ROD]

I hope so y h.

Continue the Renaissance OKC!!!

[Spartan]

It'd be nice to see a mixed-use high rise go up in downtown OKC. I'd like to see the type of high rise that features three or four floors of retail and restaurant space starting at street level (and perhaps even a small grocery store in the basement), a high-end hotel on top of the retail concourse and then office space further up. Downtown Chicago is full of mixed use towers and we're starting to see the consideration of a few in Clayton (St. Louis's "second downtown" in the central suburbs). A project like this just might spark a retail renaissance in downtown OKC.

Whoa really?

[Spartan]

I was just doing a little on-line research to see if I could find any related news and while I haven't found anything yet - Emporis.com is showing a proposed Embassy Suites in Bricktown. I know this was rumored to be on the way but was there an official annoucement?

The hotel is supposed to 10 stories and 120ft.

No they aren't, or at least, I can't find it...

[brianinok]

This will certainly be exciting if it is confirmed. I just hope that it will be downtown and not in the suburbs. Assuming it looks half-way decent (which I am sure it will-- I haven't seen any towers built in years that look bad), I don't think we can complain at all at how it looks, considering it has been 20+ years since a skyscraper has been built in OKC.

[jbrown84]

I like the idea of it being diagonal to the corner. I don't believe we have any buildings in the CBD that sit diagonal to the relative grid.

[okcguy]

I hope this happens, but I won't get my hopes up until it is confirmed. I think even just one more tower would do wonders for our skyline!

[Doug Loudenback]

I hope this happens, but I won't get my hopes up until it is confirmed. I think even just one more tower would do wonders for our skyline!

Hope is good, but, like you, I'm a "show me" kind of guy. I'll believe it when I see it, and, thus far, all we have is a bit of wholly undocumeted internet fluff as to it's coming to pass ... not enough substance, for me, to be believable. Sources can be coy, and that's fine ... but that mitigates negatively about the credibilty of their report(s).

For now, I'm thinking that this report is just more "pie in the sky." Wish it were not so, and I'll believe it when I see it.