BOK Tower (named for the

Bank of Oklahoma BOK Financial Corporation — pronounced as letters, "B-O-K" — is a financial services holding company headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Offering a full complement of retail and commercial banking products and services across the American Midw ...

; formerly known as One Williams Center) is a skyscraper 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, wh ...

, Oklahoma. At 203 m (667 ft) in height, the 52-story tower was the tallest building in Oklahoma until surpassed by Devon Tower in 2011. It was built in 1976 and designed by

Minoru Yamasaki was an American architect, best known for designing the original World Trade Center in New York City and several other large-scale projects. Yamasaki was one of the most prominent architects of the 20th century. He and fellow architect Edward ...

& Associates, the same architect who designed the

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may refer to: Buildings * List of World Trade Centers * World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...

's Twin Towers in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. This structure is very similar to the WTC towers in appearance and construction.

Design and history

BOK Tower's lobby has marble walls and wall hangings similar to those in the former World Trade Center's Twin Towers in New York. BOK Tower was built for the

Williams Companies The Williams Companies, Inc., is an American energy company based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Its core business is natural gas processing and transportation, with additional petroleum and electricity generation assets. A Fortune 500 company, its commo ...

, whose CEO at the time, John Williams, was impressed by the Twin Towers and originally wanted to build two 25-story replicas in Tulsa. However, prior to construction, Williams was informed that having two separate towers would require more elevators than a single, larger tower. The plan for a quarter scale replica was then changed to a single 52-story tower, double the height of the two planned towers. The similarities to the World Trade Center led executives to joke that the architects just halved the plans for a World Trade Center tower. BOK Tower, as completed, was the tallest building in Oklahoma and contained of office space. Within four months of its completion, BOK Tower was 80 percent occupied. In December 2005, a water main broke and flooded electrical equipment in the basement. In 2006, BOK Tower underwent $16 million in repairs and renovations. $6 million was spent on renovated pedestrian bridges,

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

coating for the base, new fitness centers, and windows. The remaining $10 million was used to fix damage from the 2005 flood.

References

{{s-end Skyscraper office buildings in Tulsa, Oklahoma Bank company headquarters in the United States Buildings and structures in Tulsa, Oklahoma Office buildings completed in 1976 Minoru Yamasaki buildings International style architecture in Oklahoma

Design and history

See also

References