Visit the TFA Archives July 1st
June 18th, 2008
Come put on your white gloves (literally) and see original photos and blueprints of classic Tulsa modern architecture. Should be fun! Thank you TFA for hosting this event. White gloves provided.
Tags: architecture, archives, event, tulsa
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2008 National Preservation Meeting
June 16th, 2008
The final Local Advisory Committee meeting for the
2008 National Preservation Conference will be held on Thursday, June 19, 4:30 - 6:00pm, in the Manchester Room at the
Doubletree Hotel Downtown,
616 W. 7th Street.
Anyone who is interested or in any way involved in the conference should make plans to attend! Representatives from the National Trust for Historic Preservation will be discussing conference program highlights, marketing, and volunteer opportunities.
If you plan to attend, please call (202) 588-6100 or email conference@nthp.org by Friday, June 13.
Tags: conference, perservation
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Google Maps Street View Comes to Tulsa
June 16th, 2008
From batesline
Sometime this past winter (judging from how low the sun is in the sky and the presence of piles of ice storm debris in many photos), Google sent its 360-degree car mounted camera around Tulsa, taking street view photos of nearly every street. (Hat tip to Steve Roemerman, who to a Street View of his old house with his truck parked inside.
Street View images are more recent than Google’s satellite view: The satellite still shows the old Mayo Meadow Shopping Center, while Street View shows Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market. Bell’s Amusement Park is still there on the satellite image, but the replacement slab of asphalt shows up in Street View.
If you were wondering what was there along I-44 before ODOT bulldozed it, Street View can help (at least until they return for another pass). Here are the Monticello Apts. near 51st St and Birmingham Ave. And here’s the entrance to Dick Gordon’s guitar studio at 51st & Trenton.
(Too bad they didn’t have Street View when Beryl Ford started collecting photos.)
There are all sorts of oddities that turn up. So far this is my favorite: The Street View of Cain’s Ballroom shows people in sleeping bags lined up for tickets to some concert.
The folks over at TulsaNow’s public forum are having fun spotting interesting street scenes and speculating on when the photos were taken. User PonderInc wants to know, “So, can we pay them to come back to Tulsa in April and May, when everything’s blooming and green?!”
Tags: cains, google
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Woodward Park
June 12th, 2008
I’m sure many of you have visited the renowned Woodward Park near Utica Square to see the picturesque lake and lovely scenery. I was there the other day enjoying the weather and was drawn to this recreational structure, which has a great look to it. Though weather worn the design of this structure is quite modern. It has a massive cantilevered roof which I think is really cool. Does anyone know who was responsible for designing or commissioning this work of art? Please share in the comments if you do.
Tags: woodward park
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Dubai Goes Green
June 10th, 2008
courtesy of 2modern.com
Starting at the beginning of this year, Dubai instated green building standards and concepts without exception, following in the footsteps of Abu Dhabi which began looking at such initiatives in 2006. Here are a few buildings that are making the mark in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi…and a great POSIT studio/dubai building that gives a whole new meaning to bringing the “outdoors in.”
Abu Dhabi sees it’s first carbon-neutral car-free zero waste city called Masdar by architecture great Norman Foster and his firm, Foster + Partners. It is simply an amazing feat for anywhere in the world, and even more so for the highest hydrocarbon-producing nation on Earth! And with the assistance of MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, the UAE once again brings the world together for a great cause, claiming stake as a nation with international eyes with MIT’s help in establishing Masdar Institute, a technology driven cutting-edge research and education engine…go green!
Tags: dubai, green
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New MoveModern Listing
June 8th, 2008
Here is a cool listing that caught my eye on MoveModern. No, there isn’t an ocean in Tulsa but we can dream can’t we. Thought I’d share. This La Jolla, CA home is currently being offered at $9,975,000
Tags: property listing
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Taizo Kuroda Pottery
June 8th, 2008
Tags: architecture, pottery
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Roadside Architecture Log
June 5th, 2008
Debra Jane Seltzer is a New Yorker on a mission to photograph roadside architecture across the country. Her travels and road trips take her all over the nation, and she documents it all, obviously a keen observer of roadside life. She meticulously categorizes and indexes her photos by state and type, which includes a nice mid century modern section. A fantastic online museum of roadside design, the organization works. I was able to find this beauty - the Neptune Sub building in OKC I have admired in the past.
Tags: oklahoma, photos, travel
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Modern Homes Make Way for I-44
May 28th, 2008
courtesy of Rex Brown at modernoklahoma.blogspot.com
The widening of I-44 through Tulsa passed a new milestone last week.
Skelly Drive between Riverside Drive and Yale Avenue has remained virtually unchanged since it was built in 1957. In 2005 ODOT released this PDF showing plans of the proposed highway widening west of Yale. The massive, and controversial, undertaking of widening this stretch of interstate began on the west end near Riverside. Homes near Peoria have been moved or demolished.
But last week the first recent work on the west side of Yale Avenue was visible as two duplexes were leveled.
This area along the north side of I-44 is the edge of the Patrick Henry neighborhood, an area known for nice examples of Fifties and Sixties architecture. Most of the dwellings being razed to make way for the highway are duplexes between Pittsburgh and Toledo. Unfortunately one block of very nice mid-century homes on 49th Place will also be lost. Not to mention the old brick gateway for Patrick Henry IV!
Some of these doomed houses are unique, and I thought worth documenting. So I grabbed my camera to snap a few pix before the bulldozers arrived. Here’s a view showing the row of homes soon to be torn down, we’re looking east along 49th Place from Knoxville.
Here’s a house I’ve always admired (and pondered why anyone would molest it with porch lights like that). Jackie calls it the Cake Frosting House because of the mortar squishing out between the bricks. It’s quite original, including the gravel roof and skylights over the patio.
This is one of the more unusual houses in the area. It’s interior patio/entryway is very reminiscent of an Eichler, or what we used to call Patio Homes. We usually refer to it as the Office Building House.
There are many other historic Tulsa structures and businesses being moved or demolished to make way for I-44. But widening of of this portion of highway is long overdue. It’s just sad to see them go.
Tags: demolition, I-44 expansion, patrick henry, tulsa
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New Historic Buchner Photo Set
May 13th, 2008
Modern Tulsa is excited to release the new photo set of the Robert E. Buchner collection, which the TFA Archive has graciously allowed Modern Tulsa to display. Buchner designed many of Tulsa’s iconic Modern buildings including the Ponca City Savings and Loan and the Mayo Meadow Liquor Store (which is no longer with us) among many others. A warm thank you goes out to TFA Archives for their effort in providing digital scans of the Robert E. Buchner collection, which is a must see. View the full photo set here.
Mayo Meadow Liquor Store (above) - From the Robert E. Buchner collection, the TFA Archives, photo by ben newby
Barnes Whitehill House, (above) From the Robert E. Buchner collection, the TFA Archives, photo by Bob McCormick
Tags: architecture, modern, robert buchner, tulsa
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