- A California real estate developer is proposing to build the tallest tower in America in Oklahoma City.
- The planned skyscraper will be 1,907 feet tall, eclipsing the 1,776-foot-tall World Trade Center in New York City.
- The building still needs to get the green light from local officials before any construction work can begin.
Things are looking up – to the upside – for Oklahoma City.
A California real estate developer said it wants to build the tallest tower in the United States on an L-shaped plot of land in the Sooner state capital that currently includes a regular parking lot.
In December, Matteson Capital submitted plans for a stunning 1,750-foot building for the site, located in the Bricktown neighborhood of downtown Oklahoma City. The company said Friday in a statement that it is increasing the height of the proposed skyscraper to 1,907 feet — a “symbolic” number that marks the year Oklahoma became a state.
The current tallest building in the United States is the World Trade Center in New York City, which stands at 1,776 feet.
Don't get too excited: To build a structure of this size in Oklahoma City — where the tallest building is currently the 844-foot Devon Tower, home to a regional oil and natural gas company — Matteson would need to get city approval.
A zoning official told the Oklahoma City Free Press that Mattison would need a complete rezoning, rather than a simple variance, to move forward with the project. The rezoning requires a green light from both the local planning commission and the city council, the Free Press reported.
The “tall tower,” which Matteson calls the “Tower of Legends,” is part of a proposed complex called The Boardwalk at Bricktown, which he said would include three smaller towers around the base of the large tower. The project will contain a total of 1,776 residences, two hotels, shops and restaurants. Above the top there is a restaurant, bar and observation deck.
However, significant progress – if at all – remains elusive. Real estate developers love to showcase lofty projects through attractive designs. However, later on, many may get bogged down by the red tape of permissions to build something that is out of scale for an area, or may end up lacking the finances needed for such an expensive construction site.
In the meantime, it might be fun to look at designs — from architecture firm AO, known so far for designing structures from beach houses to parking lots — and dream.
