The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

ONEOK is going to be modernizing the plaza area in between the building and the parking garage. Construction will begin this week and should be complete by July.

(http://i.imgur.com/sMNziJPl.jpg) (http://imgur.com/sMNziJP)

Good news.  It looked very aged and dilapidated.

I would love to see them finish their building. I know it has the basements to support a 60 story building. That would be very nice for our skyline and bring more class A office space.

I was told 70 by a geology professor back in the early 90's. Can't remember his role in the whole thing, but he was involved in the planning for the building somehow.

This is the plaza on 6th St?

yup

The lights in the drawing are little more than fluorescent tubes on a stick, like the carp you find in front of casinos.
After a few auto-pedestrian incidents caused by glare, they will come in later with yet more lights to "fix" the problem.

...or they could just install some shielded, low-glare lights and skip all that drama.

Or they could build something useful there, like a building. I don't know how that would work with the parking deck below, but corporate plazas like this almost never get used for anything except smoke breaks. Toss in a 1-, 2- or 3-story building on the east and west sides and have a smaller area for sidewalk cafes in the middle. Almost anything would be more useful than a poorly-designed plaza.

+1.

how likely is it that the city traffic engineer is going to approve an unregulated cross-walk in the middle of the block given that they would not approve a cross-walk at 21st and Trenton with a flashing light.

It's a rendering.  Look at the trees.  They're all alive.  There's a cab on the street in Downtown Tulsa...

The mid-block crosswalk already exists. You know, so people can enter the parking garage and leave downtown immediately, without having to walk to a corner only 150 feet away in either direction.

Really. So people who visit/work downtown are smarter than people who live at 21st and Trenton when it comes to crossing streets. Interesting

Or take the elevator down one extra floor so they can use the tunnel.

1) the 60 story foundation is a myth.  The building cannot be "completes."

2) the crosswalk is ridiculous as there is a tunnel connecting the garage to the building and 2 crosswalks 30 feet in either direction.

Not a myth. Cities Service was bought out mid-construction and the building was capped and sold to Oneok. I don't think the actual height was 60 floors when construction started, I think it had already been lowered to 35-40 floors, I don't remember exactly, but I do remember it happening.

Now, could you really feasibly add the additional height on, I don't know. 

1987 article:  http://newsok.com/oneok-agrees-to-buy-tower/article/2010092

"Originally designed to be 52 stories, and then reduced to 37, the plans were modified to the present height of 17 floors after the building was sold during construction"

It's unclear at what point the height changed to 37 floors (before or after foundation)

52 floors then. But it was going to be the tallest building in Oklahoma. At least until the Masons (yes the Masons) completed a new proposed 100 story Scottish Rite tower that was going to the tallest building not in Chicago or New York. That building was of course never built.  If I recall correctly it was going to be built where City Hall is now.

I thought the Cities Service building was the one that sold to Occidental Petroleum to the south of OneOk.

Ooops, wait.  Figured I'd double check that.  According to someone who posted this on Wiki, you'd be correct.  Read on:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/110_West_7th_Building

Never heard that Oneok started life as a replacement for the original Cities building.  Interesting they thought they'd outgrown the 110 tower in a matter of 9 years after being built.

The Cities Service building didn't sell to Occidental Petroleum, that's who bought the who company.

This guy's grandfather bought Cities Service
(http://thedailytruffle.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/winklevoss-facebook-movie-2.jpg)

Let's top it off and move the county jail into that bad boy.

A friend at ONEOK once told me that if they expanded it would be in a new building on an adjacent lot downtown.  This was a couple years ago, and I figured they would probably have their eye on the surface lots on either side of their building along 5th.  I don't know what their current capacity is in that building but ONEOK seems to be doing really well, and is the largest Fortune 500 company in Oklahoma.

They are expanding, by splitting up.  With the employees moving into First Place Tower.