[HumpDay]

When I visited Oklahoma I drove through Bartlesville and noticed that this town has quite a few tall buildings over 250ft. I would have never guessed that this small town has such tall buildings that many large cities lack. Is there a reason why there are tall buildings in this small town? What attracted investors and architect to build these and what are the tenants in these buildings? Will any more be built?

[Goodpasture]

Originally Posted by HumpDay

What attracted investors and architect to build these and what are the tenants in these buildings? Will any more be built?

Investors were home town boys, architects will sell their soul for a fee. Frank Lloyd Wright found the money attractive..............

The Price Tower is a nineteen-story, 221-foot-high tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, that was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It is the only realized skyscraper by Wright, and is one of only two vertically oriented Wright structures extant (the other is the S.C. Johnson Wax Research Tower in Racine, Wisconsin).

The Price Tower was commissioned by Harold C. Price of the H. C. Price Company, a local oil pipeline and chemical firm. It opened to the public in February 1956.

Wright nicknamed the Price Tower, which was built on the Oklahoma prairie, "the tree that escaped the crowded forest," referring not only to the building's construction, but also to the origins of its design. The Price Tower is supported by a central "trunk" of four elevator shafts which are anchored in place by a deep central foundation, as a tree is by its taproot. The nineteen floors of the building are cantilevered from this central core, like the branches of a tree. The outer walls hang from the floors and are clad in patinated copper "leaves." The building is asymmetrical, and like a tree, "looks different from every angle."[3] Wright had championed these design ideas, which other architects had put to use before the construction of the Price Tower, as early as the 1920s in his design for an apartment complex of four cantilevered towers for St. Marks-in-the-Bowerie in downtown New York City. Following the effects of the Great Depression, the project was shelved and adapted by Wright for the Price Company in 1952. Wright, therefore, plucked his "tree" out of the "crowded forest" of Manhattan skyscrapers and placed it on the Oklahoma prairie where it continues to stand uncrowded by neighboring tall buildings.

Link




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU7qMwIRpyU

[HumpDay]

Originally Posted by Goodpasture

Investors were home town boys, architects will sell their soul for a fee. Frank Lloyd Wright found the money attractive..............



Link




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU7qMwIRpyU

Thank you.
How about the other towers?

[StillwaterTownie]

Yeah, Bartlesville can be thankful that Phillips Petroleum didn't locate in Tulsa, instead.

[Goodpasture]

Originally Posted by HumpDay

How about the other towers?

no idea......but you know that oil patch trash........always trying to one up their golfing buddies..........

[Skip OK]

Is the former home to at least three fairly large corporations; Phillips Petroleum, REDA Pump company, and Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Company (ITIO) which later morphed into Cities Service Oil Company.

The Price Tower was built for yet another company, HC Price, a pipeline and chemical company headquartered in Bartlesville.

Most of the other "big buildings in town were built by or for Phillips Petroleum.'

Bartlesville is also the location of one of several "first oil wells in Oklahoma". They can show you the well, Nellie Johnstone Number One, and it was meant to be an oil well (some of the other contenders were drilled for salt or fresh water), so it is probably the "best" candidate.

Bartlesville hosts an annual classical music festival, OK Mozart, which attracts people world wide.]

Fir a town of about 35,000 people Bartlesville consistently fights above its weight class.

[StillwaterTownie]

Originally Posted by Skip OK

Is the former home to at least three fairly large corporations; Phillips Petroleum, REDA Pump company, and Indian Territory Illuminating Oil Company (ITIO) which later morphed into Cities Service Oil Company.

The Price Tower was built for yet another company, HC Price, a pipeline and chemical company headquartered in Bartlesville.

Most of the other "big buildings in town were built by or for Phillips Petroleum.'

Bartlesville is also the location of one of several "first oil wells in Oklahoma". They can show you the well, Nellie Johnstone Number One, and it was meant to be an oil well (some of the other contenders were drilled for salt or fresh water), so it is probably the "best" candidate.

Bartlesville hosts an annual classical music festival, OK Mozart, which attracts people world wide.]

Fir a town of about 35,000 people Bartlesville consistently fights above its weight class.

It should be considered one of the best Oklahoma towns to live in.

[Johnhw2]

I agree but what's the city trend, is it growing or stagnant or shrinking jobs wise? I honestly do not know

[StillwaterTownie]

Originally Posted by Johnhw2

I agree but what's the city trend, is it growing or stagnant or shrinking jobs wise? I honestly do not know

It's been growing slowly from 35,750 in 2010 to 36,498 in 2014.

This article indicates they're hoping to get a big new shopping center: Bartlesville considering new retail development, sales taxes - Tulsa World: Employment

[Wyllyam]

StillwaterTownie (a great contributor btw) I must respectfully add some notes.

Having grown up there, and seeing it at it's most vibrant, it has changed. Live by the greasy black gold, die by the greasy black gold...after the merger and sending it's corporate HQ to Houston for a while, it suffered a lot. My folks have seen it all over 40 years.

It's still a great town, but it has a much more "rural" flavor than it did back then. I can say I believe it's on its way back, and the town was forced to finally start adding some nightlife and other businesses, and I'm glad for them. It's honestly on my short list of places to live, but I certainly didn't want to get laid off there with thousands of others as happened in the 80's when oil, um, "took a little dip". However, if you're insulated against that eventuality, it is a wonderful town. The older housing neighborhoods are amazingly pretty and very affordable.