New Mustang Fuel Corp. HQ, designed by Bockus Payne Associates Architects, shines in OKC
This just in, from Bockus Payne Architects.
–rm
Mustang Fuel Corp. headquarters shines in Oklahoma City
Mustang Fuel Corp. is settling into its new corporate headquarters, east of Broadway Extension a block north of Britton Road. Designed by Bockus Payne Associates Architects of Oklahoma City, the state-of-the-art facility is mid-century modern in design. The building faces west-southwest, providing an impressive view of the downtown Oklahoma City skyline.
David Payne, principal in charge at Bockus Payne, said the owners of Mustang Fuel wanted to capture the essence of their mid-century modern headquarters from 1955-1972.
“It is easy to see the influence of mid-century modern architecture, but we incorporated a few contemporary twists,” Payne said.
The three-story 38,000 sq. ft. facility features mid-century modern architectural design characterized by clean details, ample natural light, and open floor plans with the goal of opening up interior spaces. Horizontal banded windows wrap the structure and add to the mid-century aesthetic. Exterior cantilevered window louvers and architectural concrete banding accentuate the horizontal orientation of the mid-century design.
The focal point of the building’s exterior is the architectural concrete entry on the west side that is highlighted by a splash of “Mustang Fuel” blue on the sun control louvers. The glass curtain wall of the two story atrium lobby is set back from the building facade for energy efficiency, giving the lobby an open feel 
which is bathed in natural light.
In addition to the sun-controlled louvers, other sustainable measures include a ground source geothermal heating and air conditioning system, high efficiency lighting, and occupancy sensor lighting controls.
Turner & Co. was the developer. The general contractor was Timberlake Construction.
The new headquarters positions Mustang Fuel Corp. for continued growth, said Carey Joullian, CEO.
“The features of the new building offer our employees tools to operate more effectively and collaboratively as we move forward,” Joullian said.
Mustang Fuel Corp. began 62 years ago in 1950. Mustang is one of the mid-continent’s leading independent oil and gas companies. Mustang Fuel Corporation is a privately held company headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, along with its wholly owned subsidiaries Mustang Gas Products, LLC, and Mustang Fuel Marketing Company. Mustang’s operations include gas and oil exploration and production, natural gas gathering and processing, and natural gas marketing.
Text: Suzanne Bockus.
Photography: Collin Fleck, Ann Sherman.
AP: California cities ponder seizing underwater mortgages
In the foreclosure-battered inland stretches of California, local government officials desperate for change are weighing a controversial but inventive way to fix troubled mortgages: Condemn them.
Read all about it, from The Associated Press via Boston.com.
What do you think? Creative government solution to a crisis situation? Or shark developers taking advantage of desperate local governments trying to deal with a crisis situation. Or, since almost all dichotomies are galse: Something in between?
–rm
About the alleged 3.8-percent ‘real estate tax’ in the health care law
It’s complicated. Imagine that.
Read all about it, from The Washington Post’s Kenneth Harney, via the Miami Herald.
–rm
NAR: U.S. home prices up in June, sales down on ‘constrained’ supply
Existing-home prices continued to show gains but sales fell in June with tight supplies of affordable homes limiting first-time buyers, according to the National Association of Realtors.
–rm
I’ll bet it’s not 100 on top of ol’ Greenie Peak
Just because it’s 100 degrees out there! From The Oklahoman, page 12B, Jan. 16, 2001.
– rm
A snowy ride on the wild side
Real Estate Editor
RED RIVER, N.M. — Atop Greenie Peak, the air, at 11,500 feet, was so thin and frigid it would have had me gulping icy gasps even were I not clinging for dear life to the handlebars of a contraption the likes of which I’d never even laid eyes on an hour before: a snowmobile.
It was New Year’s Day, in single digits and a way negative wind chill, on a Ski-Doo rented from Red River Sled Shed — and what a way to start the year. I’m not sure what I imagined snowmobiling to be like, but I did not expect it to be like racing a smoke-spewing tractor in road gear, crossed with a bucking machine and a dirt bike, across a giant, frozen Ruffles potato chip.
In hell. Frozen over. From 8,750 feet at the base to 11,500 at the peak — high enough to look down at 10,350-foot top of the Red River Ski Area a few miles south.
What heights for an eastern Oklahoma river bottom boy! Shoot, the tallest points around my old stomping grounds barely approach 900 feet: Wildhorse Mountain south of Sallisaw and Turnham Mountain north of Muldrow, both at 870 feet.
The lowest point at Red River is 10 times higher than the highest points where I grew up. The highest point at Red River is about 10 times the elevation of my home now, Edmond, which averages about 1,200 feet.
No wonder I was woozy.
So in Red River, it was not a pleasant meander up Greenie Peak, imagining “Rocky Mountain High” wafting among the Aspen, ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, and silver and blue spruce. It was more like a could-be death race with heavy metal thrash guitar crashing through the national forest.
Think runaway train — uphill — of folks aboard eight snowmobiles jerked and bucked almost 6 miles up the mountain by experienced guides on their own machines. Think 15 minutes of maniacal freeform “play” in a meadow just below the peak.
Think runaway train — downhill — as those demon guides and relentless gravity jerked and bucked those now-frozen-silly folks back down the mountain.
I stopped counting how many times I almost lost it — tipped the machine, got thrown or just lost my icy grip — at a dozen. Afterward, I could not feel my hands. Or my butt.
I griped. I moaned. I was sore for a week. I can’t wait to do it again.
What is a ‘Dallas-style’ home?
Art, a reader, writes:
Would you please explain to me what a Dallas-style home is? I have lived in Dallas for the past 45 years and do not recall every hearing the reference. Maybe being there it was not necessary to have a style called a Dallas-style. Thanks for the info.
Art
I wrote back:
Howdy, Art.
Dallas-style, as explained to me: “several gables in the front with a taller entry gable” with a brick, stone or mixed facade. Also, attached is an example, and below is little story I wrote about the style … Lordy, 11 years ago. Might be time for an update!
The story:
A DECADE OF STYLE, SUBSTANCE ‘Dallas style’ remains popular through ’90s
By Richard Mize
Real Estate Editor
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Saturday, January 13, 2001
Edition: CITY, Section: BUSINESS, Page 1-C
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ONE thing about home building in the Oklahoma City area scarcely changed over the past decade.
Buyers, builders and designers were looking south for inspiration in 1991, and they were still looking south in 2000.
“Dallas-style” homes are almost as popular as ever, although some builders are venturing into untested territory to find different kinds of niches.
The label is peculiar to this part of the country. Ask for a “Dallas-style” home somewhere else and you’ll probably draw a blank stare.
A Dallas-style house has a somewhat steeper-pitched roof – a slope of 10 percent to 12 percent – full brick, including bricked gables, and lots of windows. Inside, ceilings are 10 feet high or higher, hallways are uncommon, kitchens are large and floor plans are open.
“I can’t think of any other period where we went a 10-year stretch building the same house,” said Mike Grissom, president of the Central Oklahoma Home Builders Association. “We’ve virtually built the same house for 10 years.”
And Grissom said the style is still popular in – where else? – Dallas.
The staying power of the style has to do with functionality as well as form, said longtime Oklahoma City home builder J.W. Mashburn.
“A lot of it is the low maintenance, the brick gables,” Mashburn said, referring to the lack of wood needing the occasional paint job.
But, he added, “A lot of it is builders are just afraid to step up and make a change – ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ “
The Dallas style does “looks good,” said Robert Fillmore, whose Fillmore Design Group draws plans for thousands of houses a year.
Some builders are branching out to build Southwestern styles, European cottages, homes with French country themes and even some neo-traditional homes that are resurrecting styles from the 1920s and 1930s, Fillmore said.
While style largely has been consistent, size of homes followed national trends.
The 1990s began with average new homes here at around 1,700 to 1,800 square feet and ended with them at around 2,200 square feet, Fillmore said. Nationally, the average size of a new home in 1990 was 2,050 square feet and in 1999 was 2,230 square feet, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
The decade began with the standard new home here having three bedrooms and maybe a study. It ended with four bedrooms as the standard, plus a study or bonus room, he said. Ahead, Fillmore sees more two- and three-bedroom homes, but bonus rooms, studies, playrooms and extra storage space are here to stay.
Grissom said the infrastructure of new homes will continue to reflect consumer interests and desires.
Special nooks and closets to hide cables, wiring and computer and telecommunication equipment are becoming staples in new homes, even though the added cost is passed directly to buyers, he said.
And with natural gas prices up and home heating bills walloping household budgets, homes built with energy conservation in mind are popular again, he said.
Now you know.
–rm
Grubb & Ellis-Levy Beffort’s Anewalt’s Analytics: OK in good company with TX, ND, in income growth
Oklahoma, Texas and North Dakota are the only states whose quarterly income growth equaled or surpassed that of the U.S. for eight of the previous nine quarters, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
Read all about it from research analyst Julie Anewalt of Grubb & Ellis-Levy Beffort in Oklahoma City.
–rm
AIA: Design dragging at U.S. architecture firms
The Architecture Billings Index (ABI) saw more poor conditions last month, indicating a drop in design activity at U.S. architecture firms, and suggesting upcoming weakness in spending on nonresidential construction projects.
Read all about it from the American Institute of Architects.
–rm
NAHB: Homebuilding is back and just keeps getting … backer
Nationwide housing production rose by 6.9 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 760,000 units in June, according to newly released figures from HUD and the U.S. Census Bureau. This is the fastest pace of new-home construction since October of 2008.
Read all about it from the National Association of Home Builders.
–rm
NAHB: Homebuilder Confidence Rises 6 Points for July
It was the largest one-month gain recorded by the index in nearly a decade, and brings the Housing Market Index to its highest point since March 2007, according to the National Association of Home Builders.
–rm
