Today's focus: BOK Tower (formerly known as the One Williams Center)
Before becoming an enduring symbol of the tragedy of 9/11, The World Trade Center towers were known in the architecture community as the building so bland, they made it twice. No frills, no pizazz, just the plainest skyscraper ever built... And then, they decided to make it a matching set.
Tulsa, with its rich history of Art Deco in its architecture, inexplicably decided in 1975 to model this building after the aesthetic equivalent of a full-body yawn. They even went so far as to hire the same architect. It was originally planned as four 1/4 scale replicas of the WTC towers, but after city planners pointed out how stupid of an idea that would be, the design was changed to one tower with a base 1/4 the size of the WTC, and 1/2 its height. It's this little bit of trivia that made me flash back to the math section of my SATs.
It should be noted that this building is the tallest skyscraper in the "Plains States". Irony brews strong in T-Town.
Another note of interest: on September 11, 2001, the BOK Tower was evacuated. You know, in case a small commuter jet was hijacked.
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