SandRidge announces its plan for downtown

The Oklahoman
January 29

SandRidge Energy Corp. intends to spend up to $100 million on a makeover of its downtown campus.

Plans unveiled Thursday call for demolishing four surrounding buildings and the addition of a new landscaped plaza, a sixstory mid-rise and reconstruction of Kerr Park.

The two-block campus surrounds a 30-story tower that was once home to Kerr-McGee Corp., and the entire complex is being christened as “SandRidge Commons.”

“We are excited to be a part of downtown Oklahoma City,” said Tom Ward, chief executive officer of SandRidge Energy. “This city is undergoing a rejuvenation unseen anywhere else in the country, which was initiated by the MAPS projects and is now continuing with the arrival of the Oklahoma City Thunder NBA team and corporate participation, including SandRidge Commons.”

The 30-story tower, renamed the SandRidge Building, is an awardwinning modernist landmark designed by renowned architect Pietro Belluschi, best known for New York’s legendary Pan Am Building.

Rob Rogers, founder of New York City-based Rogers Marvel Architects, said he hopes to create a new vibe for the campus with the creation of a new sixstory building that at a height of 110 feet will be almost one-third as tall as the SandRidge Building.

The new building at 120 Robert S. Kerr Ave. will include a ground-floor restaurant that will face Kerr Park and a day care center that will open up on the elevated street-level entrance along Robert S. Kerr. Upper floors will include an assembly hall and fitness center.

The building is designed with protruding floors that will allow for a sundeck and outdoor play area adjacent to the day care, an outdoor climbing wall outside the fitness center and a rooftop basketball court.

“The intent is for the building to be vibrant and active in appearance,” Rogers said. “It is really this kind of beacon of energy and motion adjacent to the park and the commons.”

Rogers said the exterior design is still evolving, but designs currently call for a seethrough glass façade. A similar appearance is proposed for what is now the alley-side east façade of the former Braniff Building — the one old structure on the campus not targeted for demolition.

That improvement, as well as others on the campus are intended to create a common design theme throughout SandRidge Commons, Rogers said.

Some downtown observers have questioned plans to tear down the older buildings. Architect Anthony McDermid, who was once engaged in an unsuccessful plan to convert some of the structures into housing, said one building, the former Kermac Building at the southwest corner of Robert S. Kerr and Robinson, is worth salvaging.

Rogers said his firm considered concerns about tearing down the four buildings — the largest scale clearance downtown since the heyday of Urban Renewal in the 1970s.

“We’ve engaged in sessions with Bob Blackburn (director of the Oklahoma Historical Society) and we’ve been reasonably assured that none of the buildings we are considering tearing down are eligible for historic registry designation,” Rogers said.

The buildings being targeted, he said, are not economically viable due to small floor plates and are structurally unstable.

“There are an array of troubles in trying to find a use for them that come out on the positive side,” Rogers said.

Ward said renovation of the buildings wouldn’t make sense.

“There is no other use we could do,” Ward said. “If we were to leave the buildings standing, they would sit as they are today.”

Rogers said removal of the buildings, along with elimination of part of the parking garage that faces Dean A. McGee Avenue, will create a view of the tower and surrounding campus that will make it more inviting to visitors and will promote more street life.

“The goal is to bring people back to the streets,” Ward said. “The reason for the commons is for it to be a coalition of public and private space. We want our people to be out on the street. We want people visiting the Memorial and the Skirvin, people from downtown, to be using this space, and not just our employees.”