The Mid-Continent Tower is a 36-story

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...

located at 401 South Boston Avenue in

downtown Tulsa Downtown Tulsa is an area of approximately surrounded by an inner-dispersal loop created by Interstate 244, US 64, and US 75. The area serves as Tulsa's financial and business district, and is the focus of a large initiative to draw tourism, which ...

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

. At 156 meters (513 ft) in height, it is the fourth-tallest building in Tulsa and fifth-tallest in Oklahoma. Faced with bright white

terra cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

and crowned with a distinctive

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

roof, it is one of the city's most recognizable buildings. The design is unique because the first 16-story structure was built in 1918. The top 20 stories comprise a separate structure, cantilevered over the first 66 years later. The architects of the addition matched the design of the original structure so carefully that the result is considered a single structure. It is included as a contributing structure in Tulsa's

Oil Capital Historic District The Oil Capital Historic District (OCHD) is an area in downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma that commemorates the success of the oil business in Tulsa during the early 20th century. During this period, Tulsa was widely known as "The Oil Capital of the Worl ...

History

Cosden Building

The Mid-Continent Tower started out as the 16-story Cosden Building, built for oil baron Joshua Cosden in 1918. The Cosden Building was built on the site of the first Tulsa schoolhouse, which was established as a mission in 1885 on Creek Indian land. The Cosden Building was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1979. It was designed by Kansas City architect Henry F. Hoit who also designed a home for Cosden.

Conversion to Mid-Continent Tower

The building was restored in 1980, and in 1984 a new 20-story tower was cantilevered over it, bringing the total number of floors to 36. The tower appears to rest on the Cosden Building, but it is actually supported by an addition built onto the east side of the older structure. The entire project was designed to resemble the style of the Cosden Building as closely as possible, giving the impression of a unified whole even though the two sections of the building were constructed 66 years apart. It remains listed on the National Register of Historic Places under the same number that was issued before the conversion. The building was the home of energy company

Reading & Bates Transocean Ltd. is an American company. It is the world's largest offshore drilling contractor based on revenue and is based in Vernier, Switzerland. The company has offices in 20 countries, including Canada, the United States, Norway, United ...

until it moved to

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

in 1989. The company's departure led the building into

foreclosure Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the collateral for the loan. Formally, a mortg ...

in 1994,

receivership In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver—a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights"—especially in ca ...

in 1997 in which Terry Argue was appointed the receiver, and an extended legal dispute that was resolved only in 2011, when the building was sold by Terry Argue receiver to Tulsa real estate investors John and Chris Bumgarner. Although it is sometimes mentioned in connection with Tulsa's extensive inventory of Art Deco buildings, the Mid-Continent Tower is actually built in a modern version of the Gothic style that was popular before the advent of

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

."A Tulsa icon is up for sale: The Mid-Continent Tower is two buildings in one"
,

KRMG (AM) KRMG (740 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The station is owned by Cox Media Group and airs a conservative news/talk radio format, simulcast with co-owned 102.3 KRMG-FM. The studios and offices are located on South ...

, June 13, 2011.

References

External links

Emporis.comTulsa Preservation Commission
{{s-end Skyscraper office buildings in Tulsa, Oklahoma Office buildings completed in 1918 Office buildings completed in 1984 Gothic Revival architecture in Oklahoma Commercial buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Oklahoma Historic district contributing properties in Oklahoma National Register of Historic Places in Tulsa, Oklahoma

History

Cosden Building

Conversion to Mid-Continent Tower

See also

References

External links