By Murray Evans
The Associated Press
OKLAHOMA CITY — Construction on what will be the tallest building in Oklahoma has reached a key stage and soon will accelerate, a top official from Devon Energy Corp. said Wednesday.
Work began on the company’s new $750 million headquarters building in October on a downtown site now dotted with four tower cranes rising hundreds of feet above the ground. Larry Nichols, Devon’s executive chairman, said workers have finished pouring the concrete on the tower’s sixth floor.
That’s significant because the sixth floor is the last floor in which structural accommodations are required for an adjacent auditorium and rotunda. When the sixth floor is done, Nichols said workers should be able to add a floor every eight days.
Plans call for the 50-story building to be the tallest structure in Oklahoma by next spring, to reach its full height of 850 feet by August 2011 and for Devon employees to begin moving in by early 2013.
“To actually see what you worked so long to plan and make the designs for, to actually see it take shape, is exciting,” Nichols said.
“It’s a hard time to be doing something in a recession,” he said. “It takes a little intestinal fortitude to look out into the future. But the nice thing about building in this (economic) environment is there are not a lot of other projects ongoing and so almost all of our bids that come in are either at budget or under budget.”
Oklahoma’s wild weather in recent months has included one of the snowiest winters on record, one of the worst months in state history for tornadoes and flooding rains in recent weeks, but construction has not been slowed much because of those issues, said John Wood, the vice president for Houston-based developer Hines, which is managing the project.
“You always plan on some weather impact,” said Wood, adding that the installation of exterior glass for the building’s first three floors will begin in September.
The Devon construction is one of a handful ongoing in Oklahoma’s largest city. Another is across the street, where renovation work continues at the Myriad Botanical Gardens.
“When we go out and talk to groups, I sense the community’s pride and excitement,” said Klay Kimker, Devon’s corporate services manager. “They, like us, are very proud of our city and very proud that we have great traction. ... People seem to sense that there is really something going on here.”
Oklahoma’s tallest building now is the 52-story BOK Tower in Tulsa at 667 feet. Oklahoma City’s tallest building is the 36-story Chase Tower at 500 feet.
The nation’s tallest building, the Willis Tower in Chicago, stands 1,451 feet tall.
