Devon / Colcord

This was to be the final installment of the tales of February 17, 2012, with my fearless adventure partner Cher-ron Lee but plans have changed.  This will be the next to the last post regarding that adventure-filled Friday in February.

Following our time spent Underground, we walked the sidewalks of the city for some time.  The eventual goal was to get as close as possible to the new Devon Tower and, you know, just to see what there was to see!  The Devon Tower wasn't completely finished at the time; there was still one crane up and various other cosmetic projects in the works.  We wandered around downtown getting a good look at some beautiful buildings, walked around construction areas (all the while expecting to be banished at any moment), saw a little brick storefront Subway restaurant (I love those!  The one in Blanchard is my fav!) and even taking a shortcut through a building.  Then suddenly there on the other side was the towering awesomeness that Devon built.  And we came out on the best side possible - the only one I really care about - where the Devon Tower is being connected to the Colcord!!

I have been fascinated by the Colcord for some time.  As those who know me best know, I am something of a hotel aficionado.  I ran across a mention of the Colcord online many years ago and really only remember one fact, but it is the most significant one:  The Colcord was the first skyscraper in Oklahoma City (and probably Oklahoma, though I haven't found anything to confirm that yet).  When Rick and I were making regular trips downtown for Blazers hockey, YardDawgz football, concerts and such I snapped more than a couple of pics of the Colcord as we would whiz by!  According to some web browsing I did yesterday, the Colcord is on the National Register of Historic Places and also has a tenuous connection to one of my two favorite events in history:  the Chicago World's Fair of 1893!  (The other favorite history event being The Great War, natch.)  It seems the architect of the building was a protégé of Louis Sullivan who was one of the architects of the glorious White City.

Free commercial here for those of you who have NOT read The Devil in the White City:  Stop.  Seriously.  Right now.  Go buy it.  Do not waste your time and money on the paperback.  Get the hardback version with the picture pages.  Prepare to be blown away.  Oh, and while you are at it, get two copies so I can have my own and stop borrowing Becky's!  :-)

Back to the Devon Tower / Colcord Hotel:  A few months ago I was talking about the Devon Tower with my brother-in-law who worked on the Devon Tower in the latter half of building. Naturally I freaked out on him when he told me that they were getting ready to connect the Devon Tower with the Colcord.  !!!!!!  CONNECT THE NEW TALLEST BUILDING IN OKLAHOMA WITH THE FIRST SKYSCRAPER IN OKLAHOMA?!  Oh, I am down.  Down like a clown Charlie Brown. 

I shot some decent pictures looking up at the Devon Tower; unfortunately from our restricted area I didn't get a good shot of the connection in the works or of the Colcord itself.  Nevertheless I was uber-excited to be there!  Maybe someday I can get pics from inside the Devon Tower or even (be still my heart) from inside the Colcord!  :-)

The place we were standing was very close to being under the crane on the Devon Tower; from the distance the illusion was that we were directly under it.  We had been hearing loud noises that reverberated over all of downtown and once we were there it didn't take long to realize that the noise was the crane slowly making its way down.  I never thought about humongousoid cranes on skyscrapers before and certainly never realized that it takes days to get one down!

Extra Fun fact about the crane that Cher-ron and I were standing under:  We were there on Friday.  On Monday, central Oklahoma experienced some serious winds.  That crane?  Yeah - it slammed into the building and showered down glass.  Yikes! 

Once we were finished there - and by finished I mean our phones were dead and further pictures were out of the question - we hoofed it back to our parking spot where we chilled for a bit before beginning the next adventure:  Cox Convention Center.  Barons.  Hockey.  Sustenance.  Oh yeah.