Signature skyline
By ROBERT EVATT World Staff Writer
8/19/2006
What it lacks in height it makes up for in distinction, experts say
They're the first things people see when entering Tulsa.
The mammoth white BOk Tower. The art deco spire on the Boston Avenue Methodist Church. The dark contours of the OneOK building.
Taken together, these dizzyingly tall buildings form a skyline of jutting shapes and colors visible from miles away.
Most cities can claim at least some random hodge-podge of varying buildings, but local architects say Tulsa's skyline is distinguished and memorable.
"We've got a very fine skyline anchored on one side by the Boston Avenue Methodist Church and on the other end by BOk," said Rex Ball, a retired architect and former president of the Tulsa Preservation Commission.
Objectively, how good is Tulsa's skyline?
The architectural Web site www.emporis.com rates city skylines with a weighted scale, giving points for every building above 12 stories and progressively more points as buildings get taller.
Tulsa doesn't make the top 100.
Using Emporis' scale and the Web site's catalogue of the city's 61 tall buildings, the city would score 538. If the 60-floor Cityplex Tower, which is in south Tulsa, is subtracted, the number goes down to 338.
Oklahoma City's 48-building skyline scores 182.
Despite Tulsa's relatively modest scale, Yvonne Elias, an architect at Sparks, said the city's skyline is still striking.
"We have a few more modern buildings than many cities, but we have a good range of more historic buildings instantly recognizable as unique to Tulsa," she said.
Ball said one of the city's most interesting architectural features is that the downtown buildings mostly originate from two separate eras.
By the end of the 1920s, most of the older art deco-inspired buildings were completed, he said. The 23-story Philtower building dominated, though many of the others averaged 10 stories.
"Many of the buildings were the same height, so there was really very little skyline back then," he said.
The relatively uniform look remained to the end of World War II, as few dominant buildings were constructed. That changed as the city's biggest skyscrapers arrived, including the Bank of America building, the OneOK building and the BOk Tower, which will officially turn 30 this November, according to officials from Williams Cos., the building's owner.
Ball said these titans gave Tulsa the memorable and well-spaced range of peaks and valleys we recognize today.
"The buildings aren't too close together so they read individually, and it gives us a very distinctive skyline," he said.
Elias said the spacing of the taller buildings gives viewers maximum visibility from nearly every angle.
"We don't have the buildings crowded so close together that they block out some of the real gems we have," she said.
Aside from the addition of the 15-story, glass-covered WilTel Technology center in 2001, Tulsa's skyline has remained consistent for a generation. But Ball said it will continue to evolve, possibly sooner than most would expect.
"The BOk Center and Convention center may have an effect on the skyline when it's finished, because it's certainly tall enough," he said.
By ROBERT EVATT World Staff Writer
8/19/2006
What it lacks in height it makes up for in distinction, experts say
They're the first things people see when entering Tulsa.
The mammoth white BOk Tower. The art deco spire on the Boston Avenue Methodist Church. The dark contours of the OneOK building.
Taken together, these dizzyingly tall buildings form a skyline of jutting shapes and colors visible from miles away.
Most cities can claim at least some random hodge-podge of varying buildings, but local architects say Tulsa's skyline is distinguished and memorable.
"We've got a very fine skyline anchored on one side by the Boston Avenue Methodist Church and on the other end by BOk," said Rex Ball, a retired architect and former president of the Tulsa Preservation Commission.
Objectively, how good is Tulsa's skyline?
The architectural Web site www.emporis.com rates city skylines with a weighted scale, giving points for every building above 12 stories and progressively more points as buildings get taller.
Tulsa doesn't make the top 100.
Using Emporis' scale and the Web site's catalogue of the city's 61 tall buildings, the city would score 538. If the 60-floor Cityplex Tower, which is in south Tulsa, is subtracted, the number goes down to 338.
Oklahoma City's 48-building skyline scores 182.
Despite Tulsa's relatively modest scale, Yvonne Elias, an architect at Sparks, said the city's skyline is still striking.
"We have a few more modern buildings than many cities, but we have a good range of more historic buildings instantly recognizable as unique to Tulsa," she said.
Ball said one of the city's most interesting architectural features is that the downtown buildings mostly originate from two separate eras.
By the end of the 1920s, most of the older art deco-inspired buildings were completed, he said. The 23-story Philtower building dominated, though many of the others averaged 10 stories.
"Many of the buildings were the same height, so there was really very little skyline back then," he said.
The relatively uniform look remained to the end of World War II, as few dominant buildings were constructed. That changed as the city's biggest skyscrapers arrived, including the Bank of America building, the OneOK building and the BOk Tower, which will officially turn 30 this November, according to officials from Williams Cos., the building's owner.
Ball said these titans gave Tulsa the memorable and well-spaced range of peaks and valleys we recognize today.
"The buildings aren't too close together so they read individually, and it gives us a very distinctive skyline," he said.
Elias said the spacing of the taller buildings gives viewers maximum visibility from nearly every angle.
"We don't have the buildings crowded so close together that they block out some of the real gems we have," she said.
Aside from the addition of the 15-story, glass-covered WilTel Technology center in 2001, Tulsa's skyline has remained consistent for a generation. But Ball said it will continue to evolve, possibly sooner than most would expect.
"The BOk Center and Convention center may have an effect on the skyline when it's finished, because it's certainly tall enough," he said.
