Intriguing… Core to Shore?

Hopefully not Preftakes…

I suspect the buildings on the Sandridge campus, including the India Temple building (?)

That will really make me upset if it is true.

Oklahoma City still has historic buildings? I thought I. M. Pei wiped them all out? Who knew?

Seriously, I thought OKC had demolition review. Isn’t that what saved the Gold Dome?

The City does have demolition review, in a sense; the Downtown Urban Design commission has to approve any demolition. I would surmise that someone is about to publicly air their proposal and is going to try and obtain public support. They’ll need to work hard now!

I hope this city isnt as short sided as it has proven to be in the past…..

Tell us more, Steve, tell us more.

I’d have to know more about it, but it probably is a bad idea. There is plenty of vacant land to build buildings on without tearing down more of our history. How stupid do we have to be? Where are these people going to get a new construction loan in this economy. I say they have to have a guaranteed note with the funds already in an account before we allow another demolition to happen.

What exactly is Preftakes? Never heard of it.

Nicholas Preftakes. He owns much of the property adjacent to where the new Devon building will be.

Let’s hold our collective breaths before condemning a plan that is yet to be seen. As a general matter though, just because a building is “old” doesn’t mean it is worth keeping. Does it have historic, architectural, cultural value, etc.? Just a brick blockhouse that is 100 years old, does not immediately denote a building worth saving.

Unfortunately (depending on your point of view), societies/cities don’t halt their growth at one point in time. We can look to cities outside Oklahoma, for example. London wouldn’t be able to build another building if a 100 year old building couldn’t be torn down–everything in the city is that old or older. I understand the nostalgia factor, and we indeed need to keep vestiges of our past. But they should be just that, reminders of our past. I believe most would agree that it is ludicrous to expect a modern company of 500 employees to house itself in a 100 year old building that was built for ironwork in the age of horses, without at least some improvements to the building. Sometimes that is not enough, the building is not the site of a great moment in history (and no, my grandfather’s working there for 45 years doesn’t count, much to my own personal dismay) and needs to make way for modernity, again, much to the chagrin of many. Bricktown is a fairly good example of mixing old with new. Once more, does the building have historical, architectural, or cultural value? If not, let’s move on. Hey, in the end the sun will explode and all the buildings “new” and “old” will be gone anyway, right?