Dowell Center

[Pete]

The good news is that these changes won't be very noticeable from the street, except for at night when the fake windows are just black nothingness.

But of course we've had 18 floors of black nothingness with the old east facade of the Globe Life building... And both it and the Dowell Center have been empty for long that all these changes will still add a ton more life than that area has seen in decades.

[Steve]

Wrong guys.
Switch from brick was due to the foundation wall not being able to bear the weight.... I am not seeing any indication of Dowell going cheap on this. Yes, the amenities building is still five and one-half stories high. But what I'm now hearing is that these are very tall floor-to-ceiling heights with this structure. Feel free to go on believing the worst on this...

[Pete]

Thanks Steve. I didn't mean to imply he was being cheap, just that he may have needed to make an adjustment once they got into construction. I assure you the wall could have been made to bear the weight and they decided it wasn't worth the work/cost to do it. ANYTHING is possible in construction, the only constraints being time and money.

The detailed plans for the amenities building were approved in May 2011. I suppose they could be reworking them but the floors were already incredibly high; the total structure was 102 feet which would cover the east side of the Dowell Center up to the 13th floor.

And finally, if the amenities building was to be higher and cover up some of the proposed windows, why would Dowell bother putting up the fake facade at all? He's only making changes in the part of the building that will be newly exposed.

Even the revised plans Dowell submitted himself still showed six floors being exposed on the east side.

[Steve]

He denies the windows are fake. He says the windows being put in are real, just that they won't go as low as originally intended because the SandRidge building will be higher than first thought. One can accept or reject his explanation on the facade material. For for what it's worth, I've been covering Dowell for a decade and I've never known him to lie. He just doesn't give enough of a damn as to what other people think to do that... he does what he thinks is best, and that's that.

[Pete]

The only person talking about lies and or being cheap is you, Steve. Just trying to understand the plan.


First of all, it does seem like originally floors 12-18 were to be exposed and now it will only be 13-18.


Secondly, I'll post exactly what he submitted and let you and everyone else draw their own conclusions.

The first image is from his original application; the rest from the changes in January.

[LuccaBrasi]

It's pretty easy to draw a conclusion from those drawings.......

[wschnitt]

The last picture clearly shows the highest floor with a metal panel when I SAW windows in there!!

[Pete]

The last picture clearly shows the highest floor with a metal panel when I SAW windows in there!!

Did you actually see light coming through the pane?

Or perhaps it was just a metal panel made to look like a window?

[wschnitt]

Transparent Metal?? You could see ladders through the glass and then when i got to the north of the building by 4th and gaylord, I could see the reflection.

[Steve]

The only person talking about lies and or being cheap is you, Steve. Just trying to understand the plan.

Pete, I know you weren't - I was responding to Just the Facts and Rover. In the interest of doing a quick post and moving on with a story, I failed to clearly state who I was responding to.
I'm confused by this whole matter.... again, it's not like Dowell to tell me something that's not true. But I see where you're getting this information. The photo I took today doesn't help at all....

[Pete]

Thanks once again, Steve.

You can definitely see a ladder through that top window so I can't reconcile this with the plans they submitted in January.

Maybe the top three floors will have glass and the other three will just have blanks that look similar? Or maybe all six floors will still have glass? Either way that doesn't match up with the last plans they submitted to the DDRC.


And it has to be said, this really isn't that big of a deal! I tend to get so caught up in trying to understand something that I can forget the sum total isn't very significant.

[Steve]

Pete, I can't explain the DDRC item either...

[metro]

Wrong guys.
Switch from brick was due to the foundation wall not being able to bear the weight.... I am not seeing any indication of Dowell going cheap on this. Yes, the amenities building is still five and one-half stories high. But what I'm now hearing is that these are very tall floor-to-ceiling heights with this structure. Feel free to go on believing the worst on this...

One can just eyeball from the rendering that they are tall floor to ceiling heights. I agree with you, I think it will come out well. I however liked the parking garage and it's mid century modern design. I wish the amenities building was replacing Kerr Park, and we were making a denser block though.

[Snowman]

Transparent Metal?? You could see ladders through the glass and then when i got to the north of the building by 4th and gaylord, I could see the reflection.

While transparent metal does exist, it is prohibitively more expensive than a standard window with a load bearing frame.

[wschnitt]

See the ladder through the window to the left of the upper right corner?

[UnFrSaKn]

Anyone ever consider asking, "Hey Mr. Dowell, mind if I take a look at your windows? What do you have going on there?"

[Pete]

The two windows in the upper right look to be slightly different color than the others, so it could be those are the only transparent ones.

[metro]

The two windows in the upper right look to be slightly different color than the others, so it could be those are the only transparent ones.

It could be some are tinted and some aren't yet, OR the way the sun is hitting it. I could be wrong, but just two other scenarios.

[Just the facts]

One can just eyeball from the rendering that they are tall floor to ceiling heights. I agree with you, I think it will come out well. I however liked the parking garage and it's mid century modern design. I wish the amenities building was replacing Kerr Park, and we were making a denser block though.

From what I saw in old photos the parking garage wasn't bad. What made it look ugle was that crappy facade someone bolted to it.

[Urbanized]

Transparent metal was invented by these guys in 1986:

[wschnitt]

That is exactly what I was thinking when I first made the comment.

[Pete]

I also posted these on the Sandridge thread.

Dowell Center is now finished on the east side; that is as low as they need to go (13th floor), as the new SR amenities building will go right up to that finished line.

[bombermwc]

OK so i don't understand something with that building. Was there a large atrium in the middle of the thing with a really small section on the other side? It seems like the thing is just shaped very strangely.

[Pete]

There were offices on the north side and a parking garage on the south.

I believe the area in the middle was used for elevators to move cars up and down.

[Spartan]

Pete, I know you weren't - I was responding to Just the Facts and Rover. In the interest of doing a quick post and moving on with a story, I failed to clearly state who I was responding to.
I'm confused by this whole matter.... again, it's not like Dowell to tell me something that's not true. But I see where you're getting this information. The photo I took today doesn't help at all....

That actually looks pretty good. One of these days I would love to get to see the top floor, which I've heard is a mid-century mod masterpiece.