An Oklahoma lawmaker, Shane Jet, has a tourism-generating dream of turning the Oklahoma oil boom into an iconic landmark rivaling the Eiffel Tower. Story appeared on Oklahoma Horizon, as noted this morning at www.okctalk.com.
This is the first I’ve heard about it.
May 28th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
The idea is great but the design is terrible. If you want something to be iconic you need to make it look amazing and as of right now that design is more of an eyesore. I hope that they take that into consideration if they decide to build it.
May 28th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
I think Rob Anderson and I came up with this idea years ago.
May 28th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Yes, I remember that as well, Patrick.
May 30th, 2008 at 9:24 am
It looks like a frickin birdhouse. We don’t need that. The guy needs to hire a new design team if this is to be a reality.
May 31st, 2008 at 11:40 am
If we can build that, we can build an 800-foot Sonic Extra-Long Chili Cheese Coney. Same promotional value, and it doesn’t detract from the skyline - unless, of course, you position the frank vertically.
May 31st, 2008 at 11:47 am
Ok, so we have bids for a giant $100 million oil rig, an 800-foot Sonic extra-long Chili Cheese Coney. Do I have any takers for a floating Del Rancho Steak Sandwich Supreme, a 900-foot-high Braum’s double dip ice cream cone or the world’s largest Love’s Country Store?
June 1st, 2008 at 7:45 pm
I agree, I don’t particularly like the design, especially of the crow’s nest–more like a bird house, as Braden says. Please re-think that! But I love the idea and the tourists it’ll draw, the geyser, and that it’ll span the river. Think Seattle space needle, St. Louis arches. The Los Angeles airport. Every time anyone sees the derrick, OKC will immediately come to mind, just as it does when we see the arches or space needle. Since OKC doesn’t have mountains or the ocean to attract visitors, we have to create our own attractions. And we DON’T NEED something that confirms most out-of-staters’ opinions about OKC–that we’re unprogressive, uneducated rednecks.
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:42 am
Funny. I thought of something similar over the weekend before I read about this. But, my design used the oil derrick design more as an exo-skeleton frame for a large building that could be iconic. It could have mixed uses; shopping on lower levels, housing and hotel on mid levels, and indoor and outdoor observation decks on top with a restaurant at the very top. But, I do like the idea of having this derrick span the river and the geiser would be cool too. Just hope they use a real progressive and innovative design firm if it ever gets built. An oil derrick is a perfect representation of Oklahoma City’s past and present.
June 2nd, 2008 at 11:04 pm
[…] I get into how big of a tool Shane Jett is, let me clear up something. I found this clip at Steve Lackmeyer’s OKCcentral Blog. In the comments section, some guy named “Patrick” says: I think Rob Anderson and I […]
June 4th, 2008 at 8:44 am
Maybe we could encourage some of the local corporate biggies to try to buy the big oil derrick at Six Flags in Arlington, Texas.
June 8th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
Interesting idea, we do need something like this to symbolize OKC and make it stand out more. However, the design must go, it needs to look more modern or unique. But I seriously doubt this idea has much of a chance to become reality. Good concept tho.
June 15th, 2008 at 1:38 am
I’m depressed to see so many comments supporting this monstrosity of a design (if you can even call it design). The idea of a tall iconic structure is nothing new, but shaping it like ANYTHING that actually exists on a smaller scale is HORRIBLE. The architectural community ridicules such things, like the longaburger basket building, the guitar museum shaped like an electric guitar, or the middle eastern airport shaped like an airplane….it’s STUPID.
Notice cities with iconic structures that work well such as Paris and Seattle have iconic structures that are simply that…iconic. They don’t LOOK like anything you’ve seen before. It’s not a “blown up” something. It’s its own thing; and that’s the only way it should be. We don’t need to redesign it to look like a better oil derrick…it needs to be redesigned to NOT look like any “thing” .
Lord help us if this thing gets built.