The $1.6 billion quest to build America’s tallest skyscraper in…Oklahoma
OKLAHOMA CITY—Scot Matteson’s team came before this city’s planning commission last week seeking to tweak a development he plans to build in a parking lot hard up against a railroad track and wrapped around two sides of a U-Haul storage facility. Instead of capping the buildings at the Boardwalk at Bricktown at 345 feet, he’s now thinking one should top out at 1,907—more than twice the height of the tallest building in town, and the biggest in the U.S.
“We figure it would be iconic," said Matteson, a California-based developer who briefly made tabloid news by dating one of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Many offer other names for Matteson’s planned Legends Tower: The Redneck Burj Khalifa, The Burj Khaloma, The Jetsons Meets Las Vegas and Hot Pie in the Sky.
Oklahomans tend to admire Matteson’s bold vision, but many question whether the supertall building, higher than New York’s 1,776-foot One World Trade Center, would ever be built in a stretch of America better known as the place “where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain." Matteson insists the mostly residential, 134-story tower can work given the city’s strong growth and says the project is fully financed, though he declined to provide details on his backers. And then there is the weather.
“I’ll ask you the question that many people ask me every time this project comes up: ‘How are you intending to build a tower this tall in the wind and storms and tornadoes we have in Oklahoma City?’" asked Planning Commission Chairman Camal Pennington. Rob Budetti, managing partner of AO, the project’s California-based architect, said engineers plan a core of concrete walls between 4- and 6-feet thick surrounding the elevator shaft, and windows that can stand the force of
. Read more on livemint.com
