Updates on Abundant Life Bldg (Tulsa Club moved to its own thread)

[TulsaGoldenHurriCAN]

I agree.  My experience has been the exact opposite of TulsaGoldenHurriCAN's.  Whenever I mention Tulsa to friends and strangers who live elsewhere, nearly everyone mentions the architecture of ORU.  They're curious about it, and almost always want to see it when they're visiting Tulsa.

About how many people have you talked to who have visited Tulsa total? I've dealt with hundreds visiting Tulsa (maybe over a thousand) and have not heard a single one mention wanting to see the ORU campus before or after talking about what they saw or what stood out. I definitely got that from family and friends growing up and people I knew in college, some did mention that ORU is one of the must-see things in Tulsa. But from out of towners visiting here, I doubt very many know anything about it. I doubt much more than 1 in a 1000 visitors to Tulsa are coming specifically to see ORU as a tourist destination (Going to get kids situated, see a game or event there would be a bit higher).

[dbacksfan 2.0]

Most people I've met ask me if he really asked for $8 million or God would call him home.

[cannon_fodder]

I don't know of any that came specifically to see ORU's campus, just one of the sites to see while you are in town.  The overall architecture is interesting, the sky scrappers in the middle of nowhere, the giant praying hands (which make several lists of roadside attractions as the worlds largest bronze), and some people just like checking out college campuses in general.  

[Bamboo World]

About how many people have you talked to who have visited Tulsa total?

Dozens, perhaps hundreds.

Fewer people than you have.

It's difficult for me to estimate.  I've lived in Tulsa since the 1980s, and in the Tulsa region since the 1960s.  Most of the dozens (perhaps hundreds) of people have expressed interest in seeing the ORU campus.  I can't think of any who have wanted to see the glaring acorn light fixtures around TU.  I can't think of many who have wanted to see anything at TU at all. 

My experience has been very different from yours -- "the exact opposite" was hyperbole.

[RecycleMichael]

I have spoken to as many visitors to Tulsa as any of you. I used to host groups of visitors for the chamber if they had any environmental backgrounds.

Most of the interest were of the Golden Driller, route 66 or art deco buildings, but ORU campus did come up. I took a bunch pf people from Korea to ORU just because they wanted to see the praying hands.

[TulsaGoldenHurriCAN]

Dozens, perhaps hundreds.

Fewer people than you have.

It's difficult for me to estimate.  I've lived in Tulsa since the 1980s, and in the Tulsa region since the 1960s.  Most of the dozens (perhaps hundreds) of people have expressed interest in seeing the ORU campus.  I can't think of any who have wanted to see the glaring acorn light fixtures around TU.  I can't think of many who have wanted to see anything at TU at all. 

My experience has been very different from yours -- "the exact opposite" was hyperbole.

Well I have interacted with more people recently than that and many more coming to visit TU than ORU. Say what you want about the light choices of TU, the campus is beautiful whereas ORU's campus is an eye sore full of outdated crazy sci-fi/third-world looking buildings. It is interesting, but ugly.

You must know a lot of religious people. ORU was more well-known 2-3 decades ago and is still well known mostly among evangelicals and older people, especially in this region. Younger people around the US don't know much about it.

[Bamboo World]

Well I have interacted with more people recently than that...

Yes, I read that in your Dec 12th post here:

Maybe people used to come into town to see ORU architecture, but I interact with hundred of people visiting Tulsa every year...

I took "with hundred" as perhaps "with a hundred" people every year or perhaps as "hundreds" misspelled in your post.

After reading your Dec 13th post, I could see that you had misspelled "hundreds" in your Dec 12th post:

About how many people have you talked to who have visited Tulsa total? I've dealt with hundreds visiting Tulsa (maybe over a thousand)...

I answered your question directly and honestly.  I acknowledged that you deal with more visitors than I do, based on the numbers you mentioned in your Dec 12th and Dec 13th posts.  In my replies, I posted what my experience has been.  My experience has been different from yours.

...Say what you want about the light choices of TU...

Okay: The acorn lights are awful.  I remember the TU campus before the acorn lights.  The glaring acorn lights have made the area around TU worse, not better.

...ORU's campus is an eye sore full of outdated crazy sci-fi/third-world looking buildings. It is interesting, but ugly.

You must know a lot of religious people. ORU was more well-known 2-3 decades ago and is still well known mostly among evangelicals and older people, especially in this region. Younger people around the US don't know much about it.

You've made some presumptions about the people I know.  But whether I know many religious people or few, what does that have to do with strangers and visitors who express their curiosity about ORU to me?  I'm not an expert on ORU, self-appointed or otherwise.  But strangers and visitors ask me about ORU, anyway.

I didn't mention my opinion about ORU's campus, nor did I mention much or anything at all about the opinion of strangers and visitors who've asked me about ORU for decades, and continue to ask me about ORU, frequently and regularly.  Some consider the ORU campus buildings to be bizarre.  Some consider them to be ugly.  Some consider them to be beautiful.
   

[Weatherdemon]

I don't get the hate of the ORU campus.
It's unique and pretty cool IMO.

The gold Legion of Doom is my favorite and it was fun watching the hospital go up from my childhood home in Jenks.
A lot of people I've talked to from out of town have asked if it's worth going to and I always tell them yes,it is.

And IIRC, he did asked for several millions of dollars or God would take him home. I never understood how that actually worked though...

[TulsaGoldenHurriCAN]

   

Haha ok bud...

[TulsaGoldenHurriCAN]

I don't get the hate of the ORU campus.
It's unique and pretty cool IMO.

The gold Legion of Doom is my favorite and it was fun watching the hospital go up from my childhood home in Jenks.
A lot of people I've talked to from out of town have asked if it's worth going to and I always tell them yes,it is.

And IIRC, he did asked for several millions of dollars or God would take him home. I never understood how that actually worked though...

I don't hate it. It's interesting and weird. I think it's pretty ugly overall but reasons to see it are similar to the reasons for visiting the old victorian neighborhoods in Detroit that are falling apart, or skid row in LA or North Korea. It is a bit of a morbid curiosity to see the remains of a once booming "empire" that is out-dated and bizarre looking. Retro-futurism at its  best and worst.

[Townsend]

I don't get the hate of the ORU campus.
It's unique and pretty cool IMO.

The gold Legion of Doom is my favorite and it was fun watching the hospital go up from my childhood home in Jenks.
A lot of people I've talked to from out of town have asked if it's worth going to and I always tell them yes,it is.

And IIRC, he did asked for several millions of dollars or God would take him home. I never understood how that actually worked though...

Not hate...have to care about something to hate it.  It's unattractive and outdated...all the blacktop is awful.

My memory tells me that the final millions needed for Oral to stay here on Earth were paid by a dog track owner in Florida.

While Oral was sick in bed and in a weakened state, the devil came to take him.  Mrs. Roberts battled the devil mano a mano and won!

Later she tripped over a parking lot bump and died.

[Breadburner]

Here is a good fast read.....

https://www.amazon.com/Give-Me-That-Prime-Time-Religion/dp/0801530911

[cannon_fodder]

FOCUS!

We have strayed from the Abundant Life Building to ORUs campus to discussions of Oral Roberts himself.  Which is fine thread drift indeed... but if we want to discuss Oral Roberts lets go start a thread in politics because that is likely to go downhill fast.

[SXSW]

Can we separate this discussion into two threads: (1) Tulsa Club, which is a real project at this point and will be a crown jewel for downtown on the same level of the Mayo and (2) Abundant Life, which continues to rot away with no viable plan and needs to meet an ARK Wrecking crew ASAP..

[TulsaGoldenHurriCAN]

Not hate...have to care about something to hate it.  It's unattractive and outdated...all the blacktop is awful.

Back to the Abundant Life building, that is a complete eye sore. It has some of the 3rd-world-esque features that became prominent in many of Oral's buildings: gaudy, strange shape, lack of or oddly-placed windows, GOLD, strange proportions, zig-zags and angles, mid-century-esque elements, exceptionally unsightly when not maintained (and tough to maintain).

Could it be fixed up to be some sort of eccentric, creative looking building? Perhaps by someone with a great eye, but would probably be expensive. I don't see it being demolished and replaced with another  building any time soon.

The photo of it at night actually makes it look like it has potential:

Still ugly, but proper lighting and a fresh paint job makes it look a bit  more like a PAC with an interestingly-textured top part. Maybe the sides could be almost completely replaced like they're doing at that former black-glass building at 6th and Boston.