A Tulsa icon is up for sale

(Tulsa, OK) – An iconic piece of the downtown Tulsa skyline is up for sale.  The Mid-Continent Tower at 4^th and Boston has been in receivership for over a decade and now bids are due by this July 15^th.

Whoever buys the 36 story structure will actually get two buildings in one.  The original 16 story portion that was built in 1918 and the 20 story addition that was constructed in the 1980s.

Tulsa architect Herb Fritz says the tower portion that was added is actually cantilevered over the old building.  “If you go look on the floors that are just above the old building there are two stories of structure, nothing but structure, that cantilever the building so it’s tall and then it sticks out and just sort of hangs loose out there and then goes up another 18 or 20 floors.”

Both the old and new portions of the building use extensive use of terra cotta on the exterior.  The new portion was done very well, almost too well.  Fritz says “As I remember there was some discussion at the time that it was such a good copy of the original that maybe it shouldn’t remain on the national register any longer but I think that slowly faded and the building is still on the national register.”

Tulsa is noted for its wealth of Art Deco architecture but don’t mistakenly put the Mid-Continent Tower in that category.  It’s considered Tudor Gothic architecture, a style that was popular just before the Art Deco era.

The old portion of the Mid-Continent Tower was originally built by the Cosden Oil and Gas Company and was the tallest building in Tulsa in 1918.  The tower portion was completed in 1984 by the Reading and Bates Corporation.  That addition has garnered numerous awards.