Courtesy of AO
- A California real-estate developer is proposing to build America's tallest tower in Oklahoma City.
- The planned skyscraper would be 1,907 feet tall, trumping NYC's One World Trade Center at 1,776.
- The building still needs to be greenlit by local officials before any construction could start.
Things are looking up — way up — for Oklahoma City.
A California real-estate development firm said it wants to build the tallest tower in the US on an L-shaped plot in the Sooner State capital that currently holds a mundane parking lot.
In December, Matteson Capital filed plans for an already eye-popping 1,750-foot-tall building for the site, located in a downtown Oklahoma City neighborhood called Bricktown. On Friday, the company said in a statement that it is increasing the height of its proposed skyscraper to 1,907 feet — a "symbolic" figure that is a nod to the year Oklahoma became a state.
The current tallest building in the US is New York City's One World Trade Center, which stands at a patriotic 1,776 feet.
Don't get too excited: To build a structure this big in Oklahoma City — where the current tallest building is the 844-foot-tall Devon Tower, home to a regional oil and natural gas company — Matteson will need to get city approval.
A zoning official told the Oklahoma City Free Press that Matteson will need a full rezoning, rather than a more minor variance, to go ahead with the project. A rezoning requires a green light from both the local planning commission and the city council, the Free Press reported.
The "supertall," which Matteson is dubbing the Legends Tower, is part of a proposed complex called The Boardwalk at Bricktown, which it said would include three smaller towers around the base of the big one. The pitched development would contain a total of 1,776 residences, two hotels, stores, and restaurants. Atop the tall one would sit a restaurant, a bar, and an observation deck.
Still, a groundbreaking — if it ever happens — is a long way off. Real-estate developers love to pitch lofty projects with glitzy renderings. Later, though, many may get bogged down by the red tape of permissions to build something so out of scale for an area, or end up lacking the financing for such an expensive construction site.
In the meantime, it can be fun to look at the renderings — from architecture firm AO, thus far known for designing structures from beach houses to parking lots — and dream.