SWB Building - 5th & Detroit

[Nic Nac]

A friend told me he saw some working going on in the SWB Building recently.  Heard of anything going on?  I know it had been for sale.  My apologies if this was discussed in another thread.

[Dana431]

First Baptist Church (FBC) purchased the building from AT&T.  FBC is moving their administrative offices to the fourth floor.  A covered walkway will connect the the building with FBC's east entrance (facing Detroit Ave.) on that block.

[TURobY]

First Baptist Church (FBC) purchased the building from AT&T.  FBC is moving their administrative offices to the fourth floor.  A covered walkway will connect the the building with FBC's east entrance (facing Detroit Ave.) on that block.

It didn't surprise me that FBC got the building. They have a stranglehold with owning that parking lot across the street. When I was talking to the realtor about that building, they said that they had a ton of interest, but FBC wouldn't even consider talk about selling or allowing any new owners to upgrade the parking lot across the street.

[Nic Nac]

First Baptist Church (FBC) purchased the building from AT&T.  FBC is moving their administrative offices to the fourth floor.  A covered walkway will connect the the building with FBC's east entrance (facing Detroit Ave.) on that block.

Makes sense.  Do they plan to lease out the rest?  Do you know if the antenna / tower will come down?  Thanks for the update.

[custosnox]

First Baptist Church (FBC) purchased the building from AT&T.  FBC is moving their administrative offices to the fourth floor.  A covered walkway will connect the the building with FBC's east entrance (facing Detroit Ave.) on that block.

Apparantly they have nixed the covered walkway portion of it for the time being.

[Dana431]

Makes sense.  Do they plan to lease out the rest?  Do you know if the antenna / tower will come down?  Thanks for the update.

FBC has to vacate their south education building (5th & Cinninnati, the former hotel) due to code violations in the next couple of years.  All the classes, storage, etc. will be moved to the SWB building during the next phase of construction.  No plans to remove tower when I was last involved in the project.

[In2neon]

It has a historical designation , so maybe reworking it has to have some oversight, but I would think the tower has some significance in the look, just not the round dish on top...
The unusual, enclosed tower structure is way cool and I hope it stays as part of the overall feel...

[sgrizzle]

FBC has to vacate their south education building (5th & Cinninnati, the former hotel) due to code violations in the next couple of years.  All the classes, storage, etc. will be moved to the SWB building during the next phase of construction.  No plans to remove tower when I was last involved in the project.

So what happens to the old building? Parking lot?

[Conan71]

So what happens to the old building? Parking lot?

Yay! More surface parking in DT!

[SXSW]

So what happens to the old building? Parking lot?

Surely they can use it for something, or sell it.  Though I've said the same thing about Tulsa Club and it's still empty..

First Presbyterian down the street has done a good job of reusing existing buildings around its church, FBC should follow their example.  Definitely not their neighbor Trinity Episcopal which tore down the Tulsa Auto Motel for a surface lot a few years ago.  First Pres. is actually getting rid of its surface lot to the east along Cincinnati for an expansion that starts this summer.

[Conan71]

Surely they can use it for something, or sell it.  Though I've said the same thing about Tulsa Club and it's still empty..

And smoldering on a regular basis

[dbacks fan]

The building on the NW corner is the original Bell switching station for downtown.

http://www.tulsadowntown.org/userFiles/walkbrochurebw.pdf

As for the antenna structure on the roof of the building, those antennas while built in the late 50' early 60's are probably still in use as long haul microwave shots for AT&T/Bell.

http://long-lines.net/tech-equip/radio/BLR0363/089.html

The were designed by Bell Labs/Western Electric and designed to be upgradeable in the future. All they have to do is change the antenna array inside the housing. Also when Bell built their new building on the SE corner the probably rerouted the lines from the antennas to the new building underground.

It's also on the National Historic Register for it's Art Deco Design.

[Dana431]

So what happens to the old building? Parking lot?

No plans were made at that time for the old building.