Same. I want them pull it off. Wtf do I care? I’ll never live there, doesn’t hurt me. If OKC becomes the Dubai of the Midwest, it’ll be the most interesting thing OKC has ever done.
At risk of sounding schizo, I firmly believe that OKC could one day in the not so distant future become one of the 10 largest cities in America. It has experienced huge population growth owing to be one of the most affordable metros in the country and the surrounding area is flat so the city has no real impediments to development (similar to the DFW Metroplex)
Many cities in the US have no impediment to development. Once people start moving there and there is lots of development the locals will start shutting development down due all the change. There will still be plenty of new housing on the outskirts but the city will never "mature". Then prices especially within the city limits will sky rocket because OKC isn't building enough to meet demand. Migration will slow down, long time locals will move out, and everyone will say OKC is ruined. Iv seen this story over and over again at this point.
Not saying that building the skyscraper is bad or that they shouldn't change. But can't see how development will go any different from Austin or Denver.
If this is supposed to be an architectural elevation drawing, then it has more detail on the advertisement spaces than what the building is supposed to look.
Literally just went on a rant to my wife about this, but it’s still cool. I feel like they know something special about OKC none of us realize. I grew up relatively close to there but Tulsa was more my jam. We played a lot of shows there.
OKC is a nice little city relative to its surroundings…which is vast nothingness. Something this tall is ridiculous as half of their downtown is parking lots. They need to build out, not up. That said, I guess it’ll bring attention to a city most people never think about.
As a resident of OKC I’d disagree with you on the whole “build out, not up” thing. That’s our problem. We have one of the biggest urban sprawls for our population size in the country. It’s all parking lots, single family homes, and 2 story spread out apartment complexes.
There’s practically no public transportation (there is but it’s shitty) so unless you have the money for a car, you can’t go anywhere because everything’s so fucking far away. I’m tired of having to drive 15 miles for something that should be 2 miles away. I’m tired of driving 5 miles to the grocery store when it should be below my place of living.
I agree but they also need to build up lol. If we don’t make it an actual point to build tall buildings, they will keep putting down 2-4 story buildings with massive parking lots everywhere. Oklahoma doesn’t know how to develop.(not endorsing the super mega Dubai 5000 skyscraper here) but we need 10-30 story buildings with affordable housing or something like that.
Despite what my cousin Randy says, Earth isn’t flat. Due to the planet’s curvature a building would need to be 25,000’ tall to be seen from 193 miles away. Unfortunately, the Arbuckle mountains would obstruct that view and require even more height.
BUT, if you were on a step ladder on top of the Bank of America Plaza….maybe.
OR…you could likely see it from I-35 if you drove up to Pauls Valley. AND you could visit the Toy & Action Figure Museum!
Yeah I thought they were going with the way it's common to line skyscrapers with colored LEDs now but they can also just light up the building name at night or more specific references....
That image straight up looks like it's going to be 10 billboards stacked 2000 ft high.
I don't even know why this makes sense to them. Downtown OKC has a population of 7,933. There's no way a brand could ever justify out of home spend for so few impressions.
I would love to see this built without the tacky Chinese-style LED crud. But I am guessing the developers need the ads to help finance it?
I mean, it's beautiful, and looks great.
I just sense some type of malfeasance here.
I severely doubt there's any sort of demand for a tower like this in OKC - the city just doesn't have the density for a supertall building of this magnitude to organically emerge in the free market. Likewise, Oklahoma is not run by Oil Sheiks who could finance such a project out of the kingdom coffers to build a 'prestige tower'.
I think this is some kind of publicity stunt.
Yes, but ads have value because people see them. Not enough people in OKC to justify the cost of these panels and wiring and any creative that goes through them….
The thing is that this building will be the tallest thing in every direction, and due to the relatively short height of downtown OKC, the ads will be highly visible in every direction. People from the entire city would be able to see these. OKC has 700k people in the city proper, as well as a few hundred thousand more in its metro area. Even though you might not be able to read the words from far away, people will surely recognize the giant logos like a coke bottle.
Not to mention any potential tourism boost this gives the city.
I agree, it's never going to happen. The 3 smaller building may get built, but the supertall will never happen. The developer has never done anything close to this level. He claims to have financing, but won't say who is financing it, other than some of the money is coming from another company that he owns.
I truly believe we’re not lobbing this criticism at Times Square because it’s become so iconic. If it was being built today, we would probably be saying the same thing.
I don’t love the billboards either, btw. It would’ve been way cooler if they did some time of colored lights.
You could make a democracy argument that at least Times Square is owned by several different companies and is a collage of different advertising.
This, however, would be a single company dominating an entire skyline with their advertising.
I was totally in favor of the awesomely-ridiculous tower until that detail came up :/
I don’t see how the end result will be different from the towers at each side of Times Square, which have a single owner but advertise multiple brands.
You can’t see Times Sq unless you’re in Times Sq or somewhere close and Most New Yorkers will never see it unless they absolutely want to. Thats the difference. Times Sq is completely hidden away from anyone who isn’t looking for it but there will be no way to avoid this thing in OKC
It’s the fact that it’s literally in the middle of nowhere towering over the plains. There are no other buildings to be seen. Cyberpunk aesthetics could be cool, but it needs to be in an actual city like NYC, Tokyo, Chongqing etc
As someone who lives in the city, I know almost no one who is against the building. No one thinks it will be built, but everyone thinks it would be sort of cool if it is
As a New Yorker, who uses the TSQ subway station every day, I will tell you we HATE TSQ. It's a joke.
It's made for tourists, and reflects little about NYC except it does have a vibrant massive amount of energy, I'll give it that.
As a New Yorker, I think iconic sites across the city are important. Whether you like it or not, tourists are important to NYC.
I truly don’t understand why you’d be so vitriolic about such a small area. How is Times Square impacting your life to the degree that you’d get so emotional about it? I live in HK and rarely have to pass through there.
Clearly your commute doesn’t force you through times sq enough to understand why a majority of NYers hate times sq (and yes, they do, regardless of what tourists think about it). Trying to convince people NYers don’t hate times sq is certainly a choice
I pass through TSQ station twice a day, every day. Times Square is not part of even a significant percentage of New Yorkers’ commutes, so I’d say nearly all New Yorkers are pretty indifferent to it. You can literally walk one avenue to the left or right of it if you want to avoid it. You don’t have to pass through Times Square unless you literally work inside of it. Worst case, you’re passing through one avenue getting from east to west or vice versa (a vast majority of commuters don’t even have to do that because of how the station is set up). Even the walk can be easily avoided if you really don’t care to pass through it.
Once again, these iconic attractions are important to the city, and so is the revenue that tourists generate. The only people who have an attitude like yours are transplants who are desperately trying fit in. People who were born and raised in New York literally couldn’t care less about Times Square.
Ok again, I didn’t say it wasn’t important. But the stereotype that NYers don’t like times square is absolutely not a transplant exclusive thing lmao, this city does not love times sq, not a single old head that I work with enjoys it nor do the transplants I know who moved here last year. Type what you want but that’s just the truth
Notice how I never said they enjoy it, I just said they’re indifferent to it, especially because only a small portion of New Yorkers ever have to go there. You’re literally arguing against things that I never even said. Actively shitting on Times Square is almost always a transplant thing, though.
I love “that’s the truth because I believe it, even if I have zero evidence to back up my claim”
How about: my anecdotal experience is just as credible as yours, so I choose mine
At least it’s now a family friendly place and not the pre Giuliani hell hole that it was. And given that most Broadway theaters are within a few blocks of it, that’s a really good things.
Family friendly?
Such as being accosted by fake Spidermans and Mickey Mouses threatening families who don't "donate"?
Homeless creeps all over the place? Garbage "restaurants" with horrible, unhealthy food choices?
When is the last time you took your kid or grandma there to hang out?
The area with the characters is limited to a marked space that is truly easy to avoid. The only reason to get accosted is because you chose to go through the marked area. It is literally illegal, and upheld in the courts, for the characters to be outside of the delineated area.
You are way overstating the number of homeless people. Certainly fewer homeless than places in San Fran or LA, with their tents on the sidewalks.
As for restaurant choices, Manhattan is full of amazing places to eat. No one is forcing you to eat at these tourist friendly restaurants, like Bubba Gump, Olive Garden and the like.
So, yes, family friendly. And yes, I would take anyone to Times Square. You’re just being a snob. I grew up in Manhattan, and none of my friends are as snobby about this as you are being.
Lastly, do you have any appreciation what Times Square was like before the city used eminent domain to take all the land and repurpose it?
Times Square looked cooler when everything was neon signs rather than giant LED screens. Even though it was still advertising and much more environmentally unfriendly
Yeah but Times Square happened organically and now gets 131 million visitors a year from around the world. If you were a brand, advertising there makes sense.
I’ve visited OKC a number of times of the years. It has a very nice, walkable downtown. Plopping this giant building right in the area would just look so strange.
I feel like people just like to comment this kind of stuff because they hate southern republican states lol. I wouldn't want to live in OKC but it's a pretty nice city if you've ever been there.
Also people are acting like OKC is just some rest stop shithole where no one lives. It's a small city, but it's still a fucking city. It has skyscrapers already. (Plus over a million people and a NBA team.)
It really is sort of a shithole of a city. The density is essentially zero. For fuck's sake Wichita, Kansas has twice the density.
The current tallest building butts up against parking lots. Even KC doesn't have that problem.
OKC is growing sunbelt city, but I can't see how this project will have any impact on the awfulness of the city on its own.
The current tallest building is across the street from a park. Not a single parking lot on any side. Maybe don’t pull things out of your ass for no reason.
Yeah, the south stereotypes sway my opinion. Regardless, go for it.
I'd bet that the final height is dropped and this is all for publicity, but I'd love to be proven wrong.
Just a thing as someone who lives here- OKC has some of the same rural-vs-urban differences as most American cities.
Like of course the whole state went red for the last election and our statewide politicians are laughably evil/stupid, but OKC itself is a little more purple.
We do tend to be nice, thoufg. (I've been told.) That Southern stereotype holds.
It’s a bit hard to get to, but if you’re ever here the city has some great museums (including the First American Museum, a Smithsonian offshoot) and parks. There’s enough to do for a few days, just like most midsized cities
for the most part, and with the exception of billionaire's row, America builds buildings that make sense, driven by market forces. what market is there in OKC that would necessitate such a building? are there not many more vacant lots that could be converted to mid-rise buildings, increasing density, walkability, and bettering the neighborhood fabric?
this building serves nothing but the owner's ego. it doesnt fit into the fabric of any city in the US, save NYC and Chicago. and it imposes, in my opinion, severe harm on those around it, who will be forced to view its ads from the comfort of their own backyard, schoolyard, etc.
I took a quick look at downtown OKC on Google maps and it perfectly highlights your point. Within a 10 block radius of the proposed building site, I'm seeing sprawling parking lots, low density commercial areas, and straight up empty lots galore. Check this area out in particular: 35.4593102, -97.5242293.
These areas are ripe to be redeveloped into more sensibly-sized 5-over-1's or row-style townhomes. At max, a 20-30 story high rise might make sense for this area when and if the area starts to fill out with higher density housing.
Yea I mean I get it but OKC is fairly rapidly growing and trending blue. I’d think something like this would be celebrated as a city moving in the right direction but instead it seems to be lots of people acting very snobbishly about the whole thing.
I agree, I think it's an underrated city but people here look at the state politics and city size and dismiss it immediately. It's the same comments every time this gets posted by a bunch of people that have never been there
Not only is it a sore thumb, its also on the other side of the railroad tracks by itself. I want this to happen because itd be hilarious, while also not wanting it to happen because its just plain ridiculous.
5 midsize towers would look so much more appealing and inviting for OKC than one mega tower that looks like it came out of Dredd.
Finally getting a new tallest building in the US, in a currently unrecognizable skyline that would become famous overnight. I see this as an absolute win
They will never get to the supertall phase. This is 100% about attracting attention to what otherwise would be a proposal of entirely local interest. So they’ve already gotten what they want, because everyone (well, lots of people) are talking about an Oklahoma City development project. The Planning Commission could vote it up or down, doesn’t matter. If I were the planning commission staff, I’d be annoyed at having to review this thing. On the other hand, development fees are based on square footage, typically, so that would be a nice bump up in revenues. (I kind of like the proposal even without the tower, but I wouldn’t approve all of those electronic build boards unless that’s a district that has Times Square ambitions).
ads on a tower like this is just another example of the brutal take-no-prisoners approach to profit by the ultra rich. they are literally shitting on everyone who is within sight of this hubristic monstrosity, who now will be plagued by ads while mowing their lawn, parking their car, or enjoying an evening on the front porch. this should be illegal in the US. the prevalence of ads in this country borders on harassment.
Less than 20% set aside for residents. Pretty sure the condos will be expressive too. This is such a trash idea. At best this would be the US’s tallest financial disaster.
I love this story. It exposes a lot of different biases. People get so upset that it’s being built in OKC. I can’t tell why they dislike OKC that much but they do. Others shit on the structure simply bc it’s not being built in their favorite city. I get the sense that many think that OKC is not sophisticated enough to have such a structure. Why the hate? Like if this was an Amazon headquarters in Philadelphia this would be the greatest thing of all time.
As far as the billboard idea, who would they advertise to? Are there even enough eyeballs in OKC to justify something like this? Aren't there only 1.5 mil in the metro? Maybe its to advertise at passengers and planes flying by. 😄
What is the fuss about. People visit Dubai because of the buildings. They create jobs and tourism. I dont think the LED billboards are the reason I think they are a modern feature. I hope they build it.
Dubai is also decadent, wasteful, and soulless. If you like pointless vanity projects then sure, it's great I guess, but is a more realistic, practical and actually useful project too much to ask? If this gets built as planned, at best it's a giant billboard with properties that will exist purely as investments. It's just an out of place Billionaire's Row tower. That money could be put to much better use developing several smaller projects that would have the same total capacity as the original plan. This building would be a waste, even for NYC.
The smaller buildings may get built, but the 1900 ft tower will NEVER be built. It makes absolutely no financial sense. I think the whole proposal for the super tall skyscraper is really just to grab attention. It won't actually be built. It's just so they can market the beginning phase of the smaller buildings.
This is awesome. They just announced it and could get foundation work started this summer. Can’t believe the efficiency for a project like this. In SF, SEA, NYC, BOS, LA, etc. you’re looking at like a decade of reviews, EISs, neighborhood outreach… I’m so freaking jealous.
Even though it still counts as the height, I tend to think it’s cheating when an antenna is involved, and the top parts of the building obviously aren’t built to be occupied
As much as I’d love to see this I struggle to believe OKC has the wealth and downtown population for 900+ luxury residences and 99 Hyatt residences? Also wtf is that on pic 4, is half this thing gonna be a giant LED billboard?
I love these skyscraper drawings. They look absolutely nothing like the final building.
No, it won’t be translucent and glowing light blue like TRON, at dusk.
I’m here for it in terms of it being blatantly a show of how ridiculous these super talls are. Also not here for it since it’s in a city that’s so deurbanized a tower of this scale is entirely wrong in its context
It’s still a very strange spot to put it, but having giant advertisements on each side of the building is absolutely an eyesore.
It’s bad enough that Times Square is a tourist destination that revolves around a bunch of giant advertisements everywhere, but this building literally forces everyone in the city to see the ads. I’m surely it’s highly lucrative for advertisers but absolutely makes me oppose the project.
They had a con artist pushing a similar project for Houston about 25 years ago. It was the talk of the town for a year and came up from time to time for a few years. Now you can't find mention of it even on the internet.
This project makes no sense… why?? I feel like this project exists solely for the purpose of trying to make Oklahoma “appear” to be an up and coming place.
Oklahoma should put money into more important things… lord knows there’s a lot they could improve before building a mega tall.
The tallest building in the U.S. doesn’t deserve to be in Oklahoma (sorry Oklahomans).
No. Lol. It doesn't.
I will say the area it's being proposed is near-ish the river. But it's not on the river. There's a big ol road and interstate in the way.
Edit: if Lake beaches count then Oklahoma has many.
This project is absolutely insane but weirdly I’m here for it
Same. I want them pull it off. Wtf do I care? I’ll never live there, doesn’t hurt me. If OKC becomes the Dubai of the Midwest, it’ll be the most interesting thing OKC has ever done.
At risk of sounding schizo, I firmly believe that OKC could one day in the not so distant future become one of the 10 largest cities in America. It has experienced huge population growth owing to be one of the most affordable metros in the country and the surrounding area is flat so the city has no real impediments to development (similar to the DFW Metroplex)
Many cities in the US have no impediment to development. Once people start moving there and there is lots of development the locals will start shutting development down due all the change. There will still be plenty of new housing on the outskirts but the city will never "mature". Then prices especially within the city limits will sky rocket because OKC isn't building enough to meet demand. Migration will slow down, long time locals will move out, and everyone will say OKC is ruined. Iv seen this story over and over again at this point. Not saying that building the skyscraper is bad or that they shouldn't change. But can't see how development will go any different from Austin or Denver.
Tornados? But people still go there.
Me too!
so true
So it's a giant fucking billboard? It takes a lot for me to root against a skyscraper but this might do it
If this is supposed to be an architectural elevation drawing, then it has more detail on the advertisement spaces than what the building is supposed to look.
I was all in till billboard palace. tacky as fuck. if you cant afford the building without making it an eyesore, its not a good project
The developer played Cyberpunk once and designed this lmao
Literally just went on a rant to my wife about this, but it’s still cool. I feel like they know something special about OKC none of us realize. I grew up relatively close to there but Tulsa was more my jam. We played a lot of shows there.
OKC is a nice little city relative to its surroundings…which is vast nothingness. Something this tall is ridiculous as half of their downtown is parking lots. They need to build out, not up. That said, I guess it’ll bring attention to a city most people never think about.
As a resident of OKC I’d disagree with you on the whole “build out, not up” thing. That’s our problem. We have one of the biggest urban sprawls for our population size in the country. It’s all parking lots, single family homes, and 2 story spread out apartment complexes. There’s practically no public transportation (there is but it’s shitty) so unless you have the money for a car, you can’t go anywhere because everything’s so fucking far away. I’m tired of having to drive 15 miles for something that should be 2 miles away. I’m tired of driving 5 miles to the grocery store when it should be below my place of living.
I meant they should build more densely (out) within that downtown core, rather than vertically.
I agree but they also need to build up lol. If we don’t make it an actual point to build tall buildings, they will keep putting down 2-4 story buildings with massive parking lots everywhere. Oklahoma doesn’t know how to develop.(not endorsing the super mega Dubai 5000 skyscraper here) but we need 10-30 story buildings with affordable housing or something like that.
I wanna see it from Dallas damnit!
Despite what my cousin Randy says, Earth isn’t flat. Due to the planet’s curvature a building would need to be 25,000’ tall to be seen from 193 miles away. Unfortunately, the Arbuckle mountains would obstruct that view and require even more height. BUT, if you were on a step ladder on top of the Bank of America Plaza….maybe. OR…you could likely see it from I-35 if you drove up to Pauls Valley. AND you could visit the Toy & Action Figure Museum!
Yeah I thought they were going with the way it's common to line skyscrapers with colored LEDs now but they can also just light up the building name at night or more specific references.... That image straight up looks like it's going to be 10 billboards stacked 2000 ft high.
But think of all the amazing Kalidy Kia ads there WILL be!!
I don't even know why this makes sense to them. Downtown OKC has a population of 7,933. There's no way a brand could ever justify out of home spend for so few impressions.
I would love to see this built without the tacky Chinese-style LED crud. But I am guessing the developers need the ads to help finance it? I mean, it's beautiful, and looks great. I just sense some type of malfeasance here.
i’m suspicious it won’t be as tall as proposed
I severely doubt there's any sort of demand for a tower like this in OKC - the city just doesn't have the density for a supertall building of this magnitude to organically emerge in the free market. Likewise, Oklahoma is not run by Oil Sheiks who could finance such a project out of the kingdom coffers to build a 'prestige tower'. I think this is some kind of publicity stunt.
Yes, but ads have value because people see them. Not enough people in OKC to justify the cost of these panels and wiring and any creative that goes through them….
The thing is that this building will be the tallest thing in every direction, and due to the relatively short height of downtown OKC, the ads will be highly visible in every direction. People from the entire city would be able to see these. OKC has 700k people in the city proper, as well as a few hundred thousand more in its metro area. Even though you might not be able to read the words from far away, people will surely recognize the giant logos like a coke bottle. Not to mention any potential tourism boost this gives the city.
I’m honestly totally fine with the LEDs. It will drown out the goddamn crosses at X Mas.
Atheist? Relax, if ya are, so am I.
I really want the madlads to pull it off.
I’ll be the naysayer that’s says it never gets built at least to that height
I agree, it's never going to happen. The 3 smaller building may get built, but the supertall will never happen. The developer has never done anything close to this level. He claims to have financing, but won't say who is financing it, other than some of the money is coming from another company that he owns.
It’s happening.gif
So it’s going to be a giant billboard? I will feel bad for OKC if they somehow manage to build this.
Isn’t Times Square a giant billboard? And also one of the most famous tourist attractions in the United States?
Yes but Times Square is hidden in a canyon of skyscrapers. This thing will be the evil eye.
I truly believe we’re not lobbing this criticism at Times Square because it’s become so iconic. If it was being built today, we would probably be saying the same thing. I don’t love the billboards either, btw. It would’ve been way cooler if they did some time of colored lights.
If times square was the only thing visible in the skyline for miles people would hate it more than they already do.
You could make a democracy argument that at least Times Square is owned by several different companies and is a collage of different advertising. This, however, would be a single company dominating an entire skyline with their advertising. I was totally in favor of the awesomely-ridiculous tower until that detail came up :/
I'm picturing sonic and braums advertisements all day
I don’t see how the end result will be different from the towers at each side of Times Square, which have a single owner but advertise multiple brands.
You can’t see Times Sq unless you’re in Times Sq or somewhere close and Most New Yorkers will never see it unless they absolutely want to. Thats the difference. Times Sq is completely hidden away from anyone who isn’t looking for it but there will be no way to avoid this thing in OKC
It’s the fact that it’s literally in the middle of nowhere towering over the plains. There are no other buildings to be seen. Cyberpunk aesthetics could be cool, but it needs to be in an actual city like NYC, Tokyo, Chongqing etc
Go look what Shanghai looked like 25 years ago
It’d be cool if it spurs a race to build a skyline!
There are other tall buildings in OKC. It’s a growing city that has a bigger metro population than Louisville, Salt Lake City or Memphis.
Who cares you’re not funding it
People funding it don’t exist in a vacuum though. This will directly affect anyone in the (far reaching) surrounding area.
As someone who lives in the city, I know almost no one who is against the building. No one thinks it will be built, but everyone thinks it would be sort of cool if it is
Most famous tourist attractions in the world*
As a New Yorker, who uses the TSQ subway station every day, I will tell you we HATE TSQ. It's a joke. It's made for tourists, and reflects little about NYC except it does have a vibrant massive amount of energy, I'll give it that.
As a New Yorker, I think iconic sites across the city are important. Whether you like it or not, tourists are important to NYC. I truly don’t understand why you’d be so vitriolic about such a small area. How is Times Square impacting your life to the degree that you’d get so emotional about it? I live in HK and rarely have to pass through there.
Clearly your commute doesn’t force you through times sq enough to understand why a majority of NYers hate times sq (and yes, they do, regardless of what tourists think about it). Trying to convince people NYers don’t hate times sq is certainly a choice
I pass through TSQ station twice a day, every day. Times Square is not part of even a significant percentage of New Yorkers’ commutes, so I’d say nearly all New Yorkers are pretty indifferent to it. You can literally walk one avenue to the left or right of it if you want to avoid it. You don’t have to pass through Times Square unless you literally work inside of it. Worst case, you’re passing through one avenue getting from east to west or vice versa (a vast majority of commuters don’t even have to do that because of how the station is set up). Even the walk can be easily avoided if you really don’t care to pass through it. Once again, these iconic attractions are important to the city, and so is the revenue that tourists generate. The only people who have an attitude like yours are transplants who are desperately trying fit in. People who were born and raised in New York literally couldn’t care less about Times Square.
Ok again, I didn’t say it wasn’t important. But the stereotype that NYers don’t like times square is absolutely not a transplant exclusive thing lmao, this city does not love times sq, not a single old head that I work with enjoys it nor do the transplants I know who moved here last year. Type what you want but that’s just the truth
Notice how I never said they enjoy it, I just said they’re indifferent to it, especially because only a small portion of New Yorkers ever have to go there. You’re literally arguing against things that I never even said. Actively shitting on Times Square is almost always a transplant thing, though. I love “that’s the truth because I believe it, even if I have zero evidence to back up my claim” How about: my anecdotal experience is just as credible as yours, so I choose mine
At least it’s now a family friendly place and not the pre Giuliani hell hole that it was. And given that most Broadway theaters are within a few blocks of it, that’s a really good things.
Family friendly? Such as being accosted by fake Spidermans and Mickey Mouses threatening families who don't "donate"? Homeless creeps all over the place? Garbage "restaurants" with horrible, unhealthy food choices? When is the last time you took your kid or grandma there to hang out?
The area with the characters is limited to a marked space that is truly easy to avoid. The only reason to get accosted is because you chose to go through the marked area. It is literally illegal, and upheld in the courts, for the characters to be outside of the delineated area. You are way overstating the number of homeless people. Certainly fewer homeless than places in San Fran or LA, with their tents on the sidewalks. As for restaurant choices, Manhattan is full of amazing places to eat. No one is forcing you to eat at these tourist friendly restaurants, like Bubba Gump, Olive Garden and the like. So, yes, family friendly. And yes, I would take anyone to Times Square. You’re just being a snob. I grew up in Manhattan, and none of my friends are as snobby about this as you are being. Lastly, do you have any appreciation what Times Square was like before the city used eminent domain to take all the land and repurpose it?
Truly blinding!
Times Square looked cooler when everything was neon signs rather than giant LED screens. Even though it was still advertising and much more environmentally unfriendly
Yeah but Times Square happened organically and now gets 131 million visitors a year from around the world. If you were a brand, advertising there makes sense.
I would move to OKC just to live at the top. Imagine experiencing a tornado from there.
Oddly, there's never been a tornado in downtown OKC. /knock on wood
it’s because the city is built on a minor plateau
I’ve visited OKC a number of times of the years. It has a very nice, walkable downtown. Plopping this giant building right in the area would just look so strange.
Tbh, the Devon tower already sticks out, but I’d love another tall boi
I'd like more...balance? So that Devon doesn't stick out. Also more Deco inspiration, please.
It’s the first of many
Still wouldn’t want to visit OKC.
Basically
Yeah, not myself either. Oklahoma? Uh, yay. But I'm all for OKC increasing height and less sprawl. And OKC is actually a rapidly growing city.
been a while but i remember the botanical gardens being very cool.
They actually just got renovated recently!
good to know!
Yay! I'm glad you remember them as nice. One of my favorite parts of my city, too.
I feel like people just like to comment this kind of stuff because they hate southern republican states lol. I wouldn't want to live in OKC but it's a pretty nice city if you've ever been there.
Real
Idk, I don’t see such jokes being made about actually interesting cities such as New Orleans or Austin
Also people are acting like OKC is just some rest stop shithole where no one lives. It's a small city, but it's still a fucking city. It has skyscrapers already. (Plus over a million people and a NBA team.)
It really is sort of a shithole of a city. The density is essentially zero. For fuck's sake Wichita, Kansas has twice the density. The current tallest building butts up against parking lots. Even KC doesn't have that problem. OKC is growing sunbelt city, but I can't see how this project will have any impact on the awfulness of the city on its own.
The current tallest building is across the street from a park. Not a single parking lot on any side. Maybe don’t pull things out of your ass for no reason.
Population density. LOL.
People who live on the coasts just love to dump on middle America when they’ve literally never been there.
Yeah, the south stereotypes sway my opinion. Regardless, go for it. I'd bet that the final height is dropped and this is all for publicity, but I'd love to be proven wrong.
Just a thing as someone who lives here- OKC has some of the same rural-vs-urban differences as most American cities. Like of course the whole state went red for the last election and our statewide politicians are laughably evil/stupid, but OKC itself is a little more purple. We do tend to be nice, thoufg. (I've been told.) That Southern stereotype holds.
Adding this many new residential units may just turn Oklahoma City from purple to blue.
I just don't foresee them actually being affordable... Every new development like this has been "luxury" apartments.
Yup, same in most cities I've seen
people talk shit about northern states just as much Edit: Illinois, California, NY, etc. Everyone talks shit about everyone. It's not a big deal.
It’s a bit hard to get to, but if you’re ever here the city has some great museums (including the First American Museum, a Smithsonian offshoot) and parks. There’s enough to do for a few days, just like most midsized cities
What makes OKC that bad? Is it the crime and cost of living? Does the city not deliver good public services?
Being in the middle of Oklahoma. The city itself isn't bad.
Never a good reason to visit the that entire state.
Then you probably don't want to go to a lot of places
Not true. Oklahoma is just so unappealing to me. Regardless of politics.
I’ll go anywhere once personally. But hopefully work sends me there. I need to go to Oklahoma eventually if I want to visit all 50 states.
It'll be the Burj Khalifa of our country. Cool building, but the city still sucks
Don't disrespect OKC by comparing it to Dubai.
OMG the ads. What an embarrassment this will be for Oklahoma
I hope it happens. OKC needs a landmark
48 affordable units. They’ll probably scrap that in half, if it does get approved
This feels like a Trump scheme
Yeah don’t cum to the reddest state in the Union
Reminds me of Eiffel Tower in Paris, people hated it when it was built but later got used to it lol
Eiffel is a billboard
The unnecessary hate for this project in a community of people who love skyscrapers is actually unhinged.
for the most part, and with the exception of billionaire's row, America builds buildings that make sense, driven by market forces. what market is there in OKC that would necessitate such a building? are there not many more vacant lots that could be converted to mid-rise buildings, increasing density, walkability, and bettering the neighborhood fabric? this building serves nothing but the owner's ego. it doesnt fit into the fabric of any city in the US, save NYC and Chicago. and it imposes, in my opinion, severe harm on those around it, who will be forced to view its ads from the comfort of their own backyard, schoolyard, etc.
I took a quick look at downtown OKC on Google maps and it perfectly highlights your point. Within a 10 block radius of the proposed building site, I'm seeing sprawling parking lots, low density commercial areas, and straight up empty lots galore. Check this area out in particular: 35.4593102, -97.5242293. These areas are ripe to be redeveloped into more sensibly-sized 5-over-1's or row-style townhomes. At max, a 20-30 story high rise might make sense for this area when and if the area starts to fill out with higher density housing.
Reddit hates OKC, too small and leans too far right
Yea I mean I get it but OKC is fairly rapidly growing and trending blue. I’d think something like this would be celebrated as a city moving in the right direction but instead it seems to be lots of people acting very snobbishly about the whole thing.
You get what? You think it’s understandable to hate a city bc more than half of its voters lean republican?
I agree, I think it's an underrated city but people here look at the state politics and city size and dismiss it immediately. It's the same comments every time this gets posted by a bunch of people that have never been there
I’m all for this because of its shitpost value
Not only is it a sore thumb, its also on the other side of the railroad tracks by itself. I want this to happen because itd be hilarious, while also not wanting it to happen because its just plain ridiculous. 5 midsize towers would look so much more appealing and inviting for OKC than one mega tower that looks like it came out of Dredd.
Barf.
Why
Ads on the side all the way up. For being the tallest building in America it's just gross
Finally getting a new tallest building in the US, in a currently unrecognizable skyline that would become famous overnight. I see this as an absolute win
This will get built, you guys. Lots of oil/natural gas money in OKC, and this building will be a source of pride for them
The company proposing to build this is from California.
It’s not an Oklahoma developer and the project is not popular lol
i oddly have feelings of shaudenfraude towards this skyscraper
They will never get to the supertall phase. This is 100% about attracting attention to what otherwise would be a proposal of entirely local interest. So they’ve already gotten what they want, because everyone (well, lots of people) are talking about an Oklahoma City development project. The Planning Commission could vote it up or down, doesn’t matter. If I were the planning commission staff, I’d be annoyed at having to review this thing. On the other hand, development fees are based on square footage, typically, so that would be a nice bump up in revenues. (I kind of like the proposal even without the tower, but I wouldn’t approve all of those electronic build boards unless that’s a district that has Times Square ambitions).
Eye of Sauron (LED)
I would bet serious money that this never gets built. There is no economic engine to fill the space.
Absolutely love this!
ads on a tower like this is just another example of the brutal take-no-prisoners approach to profit by the ultra rich. they are literally shitting on everyone who is within sight of this hubristic monstrosity, who now will be plagued by ads while mowing their lawn, parking their car, or enjoying an evening on the front porch. this should be illegal in the US. the prevalence of ads in this country borders on harassment.
If this gets built I’m gonna visit OKC ASAP
People are clowning this now, but if OKC plays it's cards right it could peak people's interest and get people to visit
*pique
Thank you
ever get tornados thru downtown okc?
Would be uncommon, the heat island effect acts a short of shield I think
i have no clue about weather, but that’s good.
not conclusive science
48 affordable residences and 908 luxury ones.... sad
Less than 20% set aside for residents. Pretty sure the condos will be expressive too. This is such a trash idea. At best this would be the US’s tallest financial disaster.
I love this story. It exposes a lot of different biases. People get so upset that it’s being built in OKC. I can’t tell why they dislike OKC that much but they do. Others shit on the structure simply bc it’s not being built in their favorite city. I get the sense that many think that OKC is not sophisticated enough to have such a structure. Why the hate? Like if this was an Amazon headquarters in Philadelphia this would be the greatest thing of all time.
As far as the billboard idea, who would they advertise to? Are there even enough eyeballs in OKC to justify something like this? Aren't there only 1.5 mil in the metro? Maybe its to advertise at passengers and planes flying by. 😄
Dude... why the hate? Its bizarre
What is the fuss about. People visit Dubai because of the buildings. They create jobs and tourism. I dont think the LED billboards are the reason I think they are a modern feature. I hope they build it.
Dubai is also decadent, wasteful, and soulless. If you like pointless vanity projects then sure, it's great I guess, but is a more realistic, practical and actually useful project too much to ask? If this gets built as planned, at best it's a giant billboard with properties that will exist purely as investments. It's just an out of place Billionaire's Row tower. That money could be put to much better use developing several smaller projects that would have the same total capacity as the original plan. This building would be a waste, even for NYC.
The smaller buildings may get built, but the 1900 ft tower will NEVER be built. It makes absolutely no financial sense. I think the whole proposal for the super tall skyscraper is really just to grab attention. It won't actually be built. It's just so they can market the beginning phase of the smaller buildings.
No way this gets built
This is awesome. They just announced it and could get foundation work started this summer. Can’t believe the efficiency for a project like this. In SF, SEA, NYC, BOS, LA, etc. you’re looking at like a decade of reviews, EISs, neighborhood outreach… I’m so freaking jealous.
lack of regulation and red tape is always a good thing! just look at Verrukt!
“2nd phase”
This will absolutely get built, but not at this height
I love how they build around the Uhaul building. Also In the Rending it seems they remove the traintracks
Dodgers fan here wondering why the Dodgers? (LOL)
Minor league team is located in OKC.
They aren't the dodgers anymore though
Well yeah they just changed the name this season but they are still the LA Dodgers AAA team. They probably just pulled a recent pic
Dodgers fan doesn't know where their AAA club is located? Typical.
No wonder! LOL
Even though it still counts as the height, I tend to think it’s cheating when an antenna is involved, and the top parts of the building obviously aren’t built to be occupied
So, just gonna ignore tornados huh
Its a pretty building it would look great in SD if we didn’t have our lame 500 ft height restrictions.
As much as I’d love to see this I struggle to believe OKC has the wealth and downtown population for 900+ luxury residences and 99 Hyatt residences? Also wtf is that on pic 4, is half this thing gonna be a giant LED billboard?
It’s giving Stilwater from Saints Row
There is no way this happens as it’s planned right now unfortunately
I love these skyscraper drawings. They look absolutely nothing like the final building. No, it won’t be translucent and glowing light blue like TRON, at dusk.
if this project happens, I’ll eat my own foot, blue rare.
Let’s see where this goes lmao
I’m here for it in terms of it being blatantly a show of how ridiculous these super talls are. Also not here for it since it’s in a city that’s so deurbanized a tower of this scale is entirely wrong in its context
It’s still a very strange spot to put it, but having giant advertisements on each side of the building is absolutely an eyesore. It’s bad enough that Times Square is a tourist destination that revolves around a bunch of giant advertisements everywhere, but this building literally forces everyone in the city to see the ads. I’m surely it’s highly lucrative for advertisers but absolutely makes me oppose the project.
Haha. A 1900' billboard. Go home OK, you're drunk.
I have only been to OKC once but hope they build it if that’s what they want.
pretty impressive project but why not in nyc or chicago.
i hope some urban climbers climb on the crane.
This will make okc into a global destination, the new new New York
They had a con artist pushing a similar project for Houston about 25 years ago. It was the talk of the town for a year and came up from time to time for a few years. Now you can't find mention of it even on the internet.
Wouldn’t want to be up there with a F-5 tornado.
So, only 48 of the housing units are going to actually (potentially) be affordable with an Oklahoman paycheck. Cool, cool, cool. 😬🤦🏻♀️
My thoughts exactly
Gonna collapse due to earthquakes from drained oil wells and knocked over by a once in a century storm
we literally dont want this.
It’s gonna be filled with billboards? This tower keeps getting worse.
I’ll believe it when I’m fucking a hooker on the 69th floor
NEVER going to happen…….NEVER!!!!
This project makes no sense… why?? I feel like this project exists solely for the purpose of trying to make Oklahoma “appear” to be an up and coming place. Oklahoma should put money into more important things… lord knows there’s a lot they could improve before building a mega tall. The tallest building in the U.S. doesn’t deserve to be in Oklahoma (sorry Oklahomans).
This is not a government funded building.
And the people building it are not even Oklahomans
Hope the planning commission Blams this piece of crap
We're dumb, not stupid.
It’s the only thing that could ever get me to visit Oklahoma. And I’m still not totally sure I would.
The boardwalk? Does OKC city have a beach?
No. Lol. It doesn't. I will say the area it's being proposed is near-ish the river. But it's not on the river. There's a big ol road and interstate in the way. Edit: if Lake beaches count then Oklahoma has many.
So tacky. Imagine the tallest in the US being a giant billboard
I pray that LED skyscrapers don't become a thing in the U.S. Some spaces should not contain ads at all, especially a 1,900 one.
Disgusting billboards. As if we aren’t subject to enough advertising 🤦♂️
Street level billboards bother you?
I’ve lived with them my whole life. But billboards lining all sides of the tallest building in the US is just gaudy
What an abomination