Developer plans to build OKC skyscraper twice as tall as Devon Tower

[Jeff9000]

“A developer with a reputation of pulling off big ideas now plans to build the 2nd-tallest skyscraper in the U.S. in Oklahoma City near Bricktown.“
-Steve Lackmeyer, The Oklahoman

December 18, 2024

$$$ http://https://www.oklahoman.com/sto...s/71937684007/

Height: 1750 Feet (533.4m)

[jmcmahon]

The weblink displays "this site can't be reached".

Here's another link I found about it. https://www.oklahoman.com/picture-ga...n/71944622007/

I thought Devon was out of place. Imho this new proposal is a total monstrosity. The location is pathetically horrible, even worse than where Devon is.

It would even look ridiculous in the midst of the other established high-rises.

There needs to be an influx of street level activity and construction of additional towers between 300'-700' around it in order to remotely compliment anything like this.

OKC has 1 of the most underwhelming downtowns. I don't see how this supertall boondoggle would do much of anything to improve the city center.

[Jeff9000]

Thanks for the link….ill try and fix the one I have as soon as I can figure out how to edit

Your criticisms are fair. I think to fully correct the issues of downtown OKC, we’d have to fully understand how it got to where it is today.

The OKC skyline and city life downtown before Bricktown was redeveloped with MAPS1, the Paycom Center (originally Ford Ctr) and then Devon Tower came along was mostly developed during the oil & gas boom of yesteryear.

The problem with that was a two-fold issue. The first was there was very little development of commercial retail in those buildings to keep business after 5pm, the other was the lack of residential apartments, condos or towers in the vicinity to compliment those businesse. It was all corporate 9-5 jobs, creating a ghost town after 6pm each weekday and all weekend.

As we can see, Bricktown was the beginning of reforming the area. The Arena not only brought pride to the city but also more activities to drive interest there along with the park and convention center.

So now here we are with the large corporate building of Devon Tower supplying many of the commercial needs of the city, but to your point it does look out of place due to its massive girth and height, when compared to the next tallest tower (Cotter Ranch at 500 feet).

My hope as well as most others interested in OKC were hopeful that the Devon Tower would be the start of a new building boom. I think it has been, just not as quick as we had hoped or as visible — Chesapeake considered building one them selves before going with their new beautiful campus outside of downtown.

This new proposed tower (along w its approved Phase 1) is more of the solution. It will bring thousands more ppl with good salaries to live and play in downtown.

If the massive super tall tower comes anywhere near its vision, it will signal to the whole country and world that OKC is open, and I do believe it will speed up the progress and development of downtown, and hopefully spur even more tall buildings in the near future that will compliment the other towers and start to form a true skyline for downtown.

I see photos from as recent as 1975 of Miami, Florida and it resembles nothing like the beauty it truly is today. And the majority of those are condos. Now I understand OKC is no Miami, so I’m not insinuating that’s what OKC will look like in 50 years, but…….

It’s a start in the right direction and I believe within another generation or two OKC can and will start to look like the top 20 city is already is!