A “white-tablecloth restaurant” and community space are likely to be a part of the main lobby of the future 27-story BOK Park Plaza being built downtown. Civic leaders mixed with developers, designers, contractors and tenants of the tower for a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday against a backdrop that included garage piers already rising out of the ground.
The downtown skyline keeps growing. Just weeks after the Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority agreed to a deal with Chicago-based Clayco that will result in two office and two apartment towers, Houston-based Hines is preparing to build a 27-story tower designed by the renown architects who imagined Devon Energy Center.
In presentations to the National Association of Real Estate Editors in Houston, Hines executives used Devon Energy’s iconic skyscraper as an exemplar. It’s iconic form has re-energized, re-urbanized downtown and is just the kind of thing millennials might find appealing.
On Earth Day, Devon Energy Center was certified as the largest building in Oklahoma to earn gold certification for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.
The Devon Energy Center dedication marked the end of a nearly three-year construction project. “This building is a symbol of Devon's growth and of Oklahoma City's growth,” said CEO John Richels.
Hundreds of construction workers, joined by a small contingent of Devon Energy Corp. executives, celebrated the topping out of the company's new 50-story headquarters Wednesday with the traditional placement of an evergreen tree at its highest point.