Awesomely Bad Tulsa Architecture

What’s built as modern today can be an out-dated eyesore tomorrow.  For every Philtower, there is a University Club.

Some designs we praise, while others make us cringe.

For some Awesomely Bad Tulsa Architecture, here’s a list:

10.  University Club Apartments

According to the legend I’ve made up, in the 1960s a couple of hippy architects passed a bong between each other and said, “I want to know what’s like to live in a corn cob.  You dig?”  That pot-filled dream is now a reality.

9.  East Central High School

Oddly, Tulsa Public Schools never considered this location for the Tulsa Academic Center.  It resembles a prison.  The lack of windows emphasizes the trapped awkward feeling teenagers already have.

8.  Midtown Village Shopping Center

Developers demolished the empty Children’s Medical Center and replaced it with this mostly-empty shopping center.  Except for the labyrinth of one-way roads, difficult highway access and neighboring run-down drug infested apartment complexes, there is no reason why this shopping center should be empty after three-years.  I remember another mostly vacant shopping center.  Eastland Mall.  Whatever happened to that place?

7.  Roof Tile Privacy Fence

Technically, not Tulsa architecture, but it deserves a nod for ingenuity.  It’s fast.  It’s free.  It’s bendy. With the foreclosure crisis in full swing, there are thousands of abandoned homes with unused roofs.  It’s a great opportunity to build your own.

When I took the photo, I felt the fence.  They are roof shingles.

6.  The Cave House

(Photo courtesy of www.cavehousetulsa.com.)

The house was built in the 1920s as a chicken restaurant.  The myth is that the restaurant was a cover.  The real business was alcohol.  This was during prohibition.  Today, it’s a WTF landmark opened to tours.

5.  Borg Cube City Hall

Standard government math.  Buy the new building for $76 million.  Save $15.2 million in energy over a ten-year period.  I believe the new city hall will be more efficient.  Borg cubes always are.

It’s also known as the dirty ice-cube.

4.  Casa Viva

Take a closed Tulsa Landmark, change one word, remove the fun and palatable food, and you have Casa Viva.  Casa Bonita = Awesomely Good.  Casa Viva = Awesomely Bad.

3.  Diamond Tower

This non-towering tower was built in 1957 for Oral Roberts.  As many times as Roberts talked to God, you would think his taste in architecture would’ve been mentioned. 

2.  Prayer Tower 

[Photo removed by request.] (I’ll take a new picture this weekend.)  

Another Oral Roberts marvel. According to ORU’s Web site, the Prayer tower is “located in the center of the campus to symbolize that prayer is of utmost importance, the
200-foot-tall Prayer Tower serves as the visitors center. Constructed in the likeness of a
modern-day cross, the Prayer Tower’s upward spiral is a reflection of man’s relationship with
God.”  I think it looks likes the sword of a gay barbarian.  Conan the Fabulous?

1.  BOK Center

(Photo courtesy of BigOkie.) (Update: BigOkie’s photo is gone.  I added my own.)

Before ground broke on the BOK Center, Tulsans cringed at the design.  It has been described as a roll of duct tape, chromed dog feces and a giant air conditioning duct. I think it looks like the overlords have landed and taken over the city.  It’s modern, but so was the Diamond Tower.