Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Modern Tulsa Architecture Map Project
November 22nd, 2008
Share what you know, help build our map!
The documentation of modern architecture in Tulsa leaves a bit to be desired. There is no extensive list to consult or database to refer to. Yet…
I find researching homes built 50 or 60 years ago is no easy task. Looking to uncover the documented history of Tulsa Architecture As found through a trip to the Downtown public library, the county courthouse, the TFA archives and the real estate MLS it’s still no gimme.
As many of you may be familiar, Google has some seriously advanced mapping features. You’ve probably seen the satellite images of your house from above or the street views they recently added. So why reinvent the wheel, eh? Google also allows users to create and share personal maps. I’ve created a map of Tulsa and have began adding the architectural sights (modern that is). I have used a few different icons to illustrate whatever it is I am mapping, whether it be individual homes, commercial buildings or subdivisions.
What is so great about this is we can collaborate on this project. Surely you know the locations (actual addresses best so we can drill down and do a drive by via street view) of a few modern homes and such around town. Please make mental note and help me add them. Just email me and I will add you to the map. It will necessitate a Google account, which is free and easy to create. I’ve kept it private so not just anyone can get in there and spam this thing with irrelevant markers.
In conclusion, If we can together get a strong list of these properties we will have a complete catalog. Once input I can continue improving the interface, create some custom icons, etc. We can even link picture galleries to each marker if we want.
This is map of Tulsa architecture I created on Google Maps. It focuses on modern homes about town, including some subdivisions I think are notable among other sights. This is a work in progress but I thought I would go ahead and get what I had together up. I hope to continue pinpointing the locations of modern homes and other interesting architectural sites around town as time allows. This is no small task as you might imagine so I would love some help. Please
contact me and I will add you as a contributor. All you need is a Google account and a little patience.
View Larger Map
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)
Tulsa Downtown Living Tour
November 7th, 2008
I just wanted to let you know that next weekend TFA is having the second annual downtown living tour, which will be a tour of 5, I think, downtown residences. The Del Ray Building (Cellar Dweller), Gypsy Coffee House (and loft), Village at Central Park, Reunion Center, Philtower Lofts, and a bonus site at First Street Lofts are the sites for this year. There is also a patron party friday night at the Sophian plaza at 15th & Frisco, I think, I know it’s not downtown but there will be a couple residences open and should be pretty cool.
Get your tickets at Dwelling Spaces downtown.
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (1)
Tulsa Cherry Street Loft Scene
November 3rd, 2008
What started out as a novel idea has become a widespread epidemic. The north Cherry Street area has become quite the rage for the walkable, modern lifestyle. Beginning about three years ago with a single company, today the competition is steep and selection abundant for urban lofts and condos.
I hopped on my bike the other evening to get some exercise and thought I’d check in on the progress of this scene. Living across Cherry street myself (in a historic home) I am through this area often and keep in touch with the movement. It is, however, always a surprise to find numerous historical homes have fallen since my last visit to accommodate the town homes and condos moving in.
As with most urban development there is dispute as to whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. In fact it’s become a little heated in the comments section to this article on tulsa lofts.
I for one think there are some great benefits seen by the new development. Though I’m a big fan of historic preservation I am equally a fan of walkable urbanism. There is unfortunately almost always bad with good and in this case the same applies. We do have to sacrifice a few blocks worth of older homes, but in exchange we gain the opportunity to allow Cherry Street to flourish. The increase in population to the area this development creates is extremely healthy for businesses in the Cherry Street area and will likely spur additional development making this area more desirable and valuable. While this may upset a few historic preservationists it is in my opinion healthy for the district and ultimately healthy for the City of Tulsa.
Do you agree? Have anything to add? This is meant to be a discussion. Please share your thoughts below.
Tags: cherry st., downtown, lofts, urban
Posted in Historical, New, Uncategorized | Comments (2)
Tulsa Mid Century Modern Ranch
October 27th, 2008
Near Southern Hills
1546 East 60th Street
Tulsa, OK 74105
$135,000.00
Rare, All Original, One of a kind
MID-CENTURY MODERN RANCH
as seen in Atomic Ranch Magazine
3 bedrooms, 2 bath, 2 car, 2 living areas with double sided fireplace 1800 Sq. Ft.
Terrazzo floors and vaulted ceilings throughout new ‘Energy-Star’ rated Raycore roof with new decking and 30 year shingles.
Contact David Tinnin
(918) 955-4333
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)
Home Listings
October 16th, 2008
New Service! Introducing Modern Listings.
It’s free to list your modern home on this blog. No strings, nothing! The only qualification is that it must be a modern home in Tulsa. Okay, anywhere in Oklahoma.
It doesn’t even need to be for sale. Maybe you just want to share your killer pad.
Any homeowner or RE agent can participate, just email me at cole@moderntulsa.net with:
1. The details about your home
2. A picture or two of the property
3. A link to where the reader can get more information (only if you choose)
That’s it! Hope to see some cool stuff soon.
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)
The Modernist Manifesto
July 18th, 2008
Why buildings from our recent past are in peril, and why saving them is so crucial.
By Paul Goldberger | From
Preservation | May/June 2008
There is always something a bit anxiety provoking about seeing a building that you have looked at for years but have never actually visited. Will it look as good in reality as it did in all those photographs? Will the real thing have an air of anticlimax after all those years of anticipation? Or will it simply be different from what you expected? Invariably, it looks at least a little bit different, since no photograph can truly convey the reality of space. You have to go into a space, or at least any space worth talking about, to truly appreciate and understand it. It is always better to experience architecture than to talk about it.
I had known of Richard Neutra’s Kaufmann House, in Palm Springs, Calif., for years, but only when I finally stood inside it did I realize how powerful an impact this modernist classic makes, how fully and brilliantly it blurs the distinction between inside and outside. In most of the iconic photographs, the house appears to sit alone in the vast open spaces of the desert. Today, however, the surrounding area has been built up, and the site I found was relatively small, its primary connection not with the expanse of the desert (though you are conscious of the mountains and the totality of the landscape) but with the house’s own, more conventionally sized lawns and terraces. Another thing I didn’t anticipate was how important wood and stone are to this house, to achieving the complex series of counterpoints that Neutra pulled off here—harmonic juxtapositions of mass, of light, of solid and void, of rough and smooth textures.
All of this would not have been as apparent had the Kaufmann House not been lovingly restored, an effort that was as ambitious, in its way, as the creation of the house in the first place. The house had been treated terribly for years—it had gone through a couple of owners, one of whom had tried to turn it into a conventional residence, expanding it in ways that suggested no understanding whatsoever of what Richard Neutra was trying to do when he designed it in 1946. But the challenge went beyond ripping off the mistakes and stripping the house down to its essence. Much of that essence had to be re-created; it was not as if the original house were sitting, undisturbed, underneath the alterations. Windows, doors, floors, partitions, all kinds of elements needed to be re-created. Furniture needed to be found again, or remade to original specifications. And since architects are only now beginning to look at modernist buildings with the preservationist’s eye, some of the challenge was in trying to determine what we might call a system, or even an ethos, of modernist preservation. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)
moderntulsa | 2008 | all right reserved