Cover Story
February 2010
by Michael Champlin
Photo by Michael Champlin.
Top of the Town
The University Club Tower was completed in 1966, which might help explain some of its space-aged sensibilities. We may think it a rather odd choice now -- a concrete, yellow-green cylinder with pie-shaped apartments and dizzying circular hallways -- but in 1966 the building was high-tech and futuristic, a child of the space race and the age of an uncertain future. The sixties were a booming, albeit somewhat bizarre (at least by current standards), time in Tulsa Architecture, and saw the construction of many staples in Tulsa modernism: ORU, the Convention Center, Old City Hall, Central Library, East Central High School -- and the list goes on.
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At its completion the tower housed in its top the ritzy "University Club" for which the building is named. The panoramic view from the 32nd floor certainly would have provided an excellent backdrop for a fancy party -- or just a cocktail. But those days are gone now, the top stories converted to penthouses and commercial use in the building just a distant memory. In fact, the building's single use makes it the tallest residential building in the state of Oklahoma.
The building also holds another interesting distinction: it was the first project in the United States to be designed with the aid of a computer. The computer was used to run a series of calculations to determine the necessary thickness of concrete columns to support the structure, doing in moments what would have taken an engineer countless hours.
Addie Bowlin, who lives on the 24th floor with her husband Randy, said she had long admired the building from afar, and finally decided to take the plunge. "I'm a sucker for untraditional room dimensions, and each apartment in this building is shaped like a pie piece. Also there is a trash chute that says 'Rubbish.' That doesn't hurt."
Whatever the contemporary city dweller might say about the building, it has its share of modern conveniences: a subterranean olympic-sized swimming pool, a built-in parking garage, and private balconies. "We love to grill, and because the building is made of concrete we are allowed to grill on our balcony" Bowlin said, "that was a big plus in our decision to move in." She cited the view from her living room (which faces downtown Tulsa) as the biggest perk of living in the tower, and added "The lights below are so beautiful at night; it may sound cliché, but the city looks so peaceful from up here." Indeed, the building's location atop a hill just south of the urban center makes its views spectacular--and ensures its prominence on the Tulsa skyline.
But what about living so high in the sky? When asked if she was afraid of heights, Bowlin responded: "I'm not afraid of heights, but sometimes I look straight down from our balcony and I get that brush-with-death shudder."
The University Club Tower is located at 1722 South Carson Avenue in Tulsa.
Thanks to Addie Bowlin, who can be found on twitter @schmaddie.
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