Beautiful nights in T-town, in any season, when it's not storming or enveloped in a 'temperature extreme', can be magical if you just know where to look. And when we purchased our tickets to Top of the Town, a fundraiser benefitting the Child Care Resource Center, last January, we were taking our chances. So how sweet it was that last Thursday night was such a beautiful backdrop to such a fun evening! For that, and so much more, we are very thankful!
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| The recommendation that we study the map/routes carefully and plan our evening, selecting the venues we wanted to visit, was the best advice ever. As it was, our Fitbits had 18,000 steps on them by the night's end and there were 12 venues we skipped. We filled up the four hour event time just perfectly! |
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We got great on-street parking in a central location and headed toward our first stop, Aloft, at 200 Civic Center Plaza, while the early evening sun was still high in the sky. From the outside, Aloft looks a lot like the former City Hall. It was built in 1969 and has historic preservation status. From the inside it has the appearance of Mid-Century Modern and high-tech convenience with touches of industrial style. Out on their patio we enjoyed chips, salsa, queso and frozen Jack & Coke shots while we listened to some good acoustic guitar stylings. From there we headed across Civic Center Plaza up Fourth Street, with our next destination being The Vault at Seventh and Cincinnati, 7 blocks to our southeast.
The Vault Restaurant resides in the iconic mid-century building that was originally built to house the First National Auto Bank built from 1958-1959. At the time it was the world's largest auto bank with 6 drive through lanes. The bank had a private conference room named the Tom Tom room that was said to have hosted over 350 meetings a year. The Tom Tom Room patio is where we enjoyed crab and caper canapes, bruschetta, and refreshing lemon water.
Rob fondly remembers accompanying his dad to take care of banking business there in the late '50s-early '60s. |
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Our next stop was 2 blocks north at the Courtyard Marriot in the Atlas Life building. This historic 12-story office building, completed in 1922, is sandwiched between the Philtower and the Mid-Continent Tower. At the top is an ornate cornice surmounted by a crouching statue of Atlas. The building is seven bays wide at the base, narrowing to three above the second floor to allow some separation from the taller buildings on either side. It was designed as an inverted 'T' to represent Tulsa. In 2010 it was converted to a hotel.
We enjoyed a glass of wine in the second floor lobby...... |
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| ......and sampled tequila-injected strawberries on the seventh floor! |
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| We headed west toward our next stop, the Mayo Hotel, and along the way, passing the old Vandever Building, I recalled some lunches at the Vandever Tea Room with my great aunt, Ola Upson, in the early '60s. These were 'white glove affairs' where 'proper ladies' (as she called them) extended their 'pinkies' when they drank their tea. We ate cream cheese & watercress sandwiches (sans gloves) and drank tea from china cups. I have no memory of where my younger brother, Stan, was during these outtings, but I recall it being a 'ladies only' event. |
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| At a height of 19 stories when it opened in 1925, the Mayo Hotel was the tallest building in Oklahoma. Built to exceed the expectations of the most discriminating travelers, it boasted modern amenities of its time, including 600 rooms each with ceiling fans and Tulsa's first running ice water! Architect George Winkler designed the building in the Sullivanesque style of the Chicago School. The hotel was home to famous oilmen J. Paul Getty and Waite Phillips. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, it sat vacant for nearly 30 years. The Snyder Family of Tulsa purchased the building in 2001, renovated the lobby and hosted events there until 2008. The Mayo Hotel re-opened its doors in late 2009 after a historic renovation restored the hotel to its original luster, with 102 hotel rooms, 76 luxury residences and event spaces. |
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On the rooftop of the Mayo we enjoyed chipotle
turkey sliders and a magnificant view! |
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| Looking south....... |
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| Looking west (at a very full Arkansas River!) |
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| Looking southwest from the Mayo Hotel rooftop and then ...... |
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| north to the BOK Tower and the spire of 320 S. Boston |
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When we read that Nothing Bundt Cakes was hosting atop the 420 Mayo Building, we made short work of getting ourselves up there!! (Keeping our fingers crossed that lemon and white chocolate raspberry were to be among the offerings! Oh yeah!)
Originally five stories tall, this building was erected to house the Mayo Furniture business. During the Oil Boom, the building was expanded to 10 stories, to be used as offices for oil barons. (Bet they never had moist little bundt cakes on the rooftop, though!) Today it has been re-purposed, yet again, offering luxury living in the heart of downtown Tulsa. Part of the tour of this building (before we got to the bundt cake part....oh, yeah, and the beautiful view) was touring a fourth floor, two bedroom apartment that rents for $1995/month. Yikes! Love our 'home sweet home'......now where are those little bundts? Oh yeah, the rooftop......and yes, they had plenty of lemon and white chocolate raspberry! |
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| After all that deliciousness, it's a good thing that our next stop was the new YMCA, right next door. With plenty of cold fruit and lemon water set out......a perfect treat in such a beautiful facility. And a wonderful bit of news we heard from the staff there: Neal Bhow arrived in Tulsa from India in 1969 to attend the University of Tulsa. He had $10 in his pocket and nowhere to stay so he lived, for a while, in the old YMCA building at 6th and Denver. He's now part of a partnership that has purchased the old YMCA and is going to renovate it and offer it as affordable downtown housing. |
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They'd already exhausted their supply of bruschetta
flatbread and accompanying libations, but the 70's
music the duo was belting out made our stop on the
12th floor balcony quite enjoyable.
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| Our next stop was the Philtower building at 427 S. Boston |
Our stop at 320 S. Boston was one full of
memories for Rob, as his dad officed in that building in the '50s. He remembers that lobby well and did a commemorative 'weigh in' on the same scale in the lobby where he used to go with his dad. During Rob's years at TU he had a walking UPS mail route in the downtown area and this building was on his route. This beloved
landmark was designed to be a bank--and a mooring station for the most innovative form of travel in its day, the dirigible. The tower was also a beacon for weather alerts. During the 1960s wither red or green lights would be beamed on the tower to indicate various weather conditions. The building was originally home to the Exchange National Bank and was completed in 1928. It stood 10 stories tall and was the largest bank in Oklahoma. It was designed by George Winkler, who also designed the Mayo Hotel. In 1929, the building was expanded to its current height of 22 stories. The 320 Building is in the Neo-Classical style and is connected to the Kennedy Building by a tunnel under Boston Avenue. A law firm on the 21st floor was hosting this stop with wine and an apple crumb cobbler from Ludger's. We got some of the prettiest post-sunset shots from that vantage point.
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| From our vantage point we could see the excitement over at ONEOK Stadium as the Drillers were playing the Northwest Arkansas Naturals. For the first time in ONEOK Field history, a Tulsa Drillers game was featured on national television. It was the CBS Sports Network Game of the Week before a a near sellout crowd of 7,565. The Naturals went home with a 7-3 victory over the home boys. |
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| This sunset pic of the Mid-Continent building, taken from the 21st floor of 320 S. Boston captures the eerie glow of the lights of the room which we were in......or was it a UFO? Mmmmmm, guess we'll never really know, huh? |
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| We crossed the street to our next stop, the 40th floor of the BOK Building, where champagne and chocolates from Glacier Confections were on the menu. This tower is said to be the crown jewel of Tulsa's skyline. The 52-story tower was built in 1975 as headquarters for the Williams Companies. At a height of 677 feet, it was the tallest building in any of the five Plains states-Oklahoma, Kasas, Nebraska, North and South Dakota-- as well as the surrounding states of Missouri, Arkansas and New Mexico, until surpassed by Oklahoma City's Devon Tower in 2011. Designed by Minoru Yamasaki, the BOK Tower is similar in appearance and construction to New York City's WTC Towers, destroyed in the terrorist attack on Sept. 11, 2001, which Yamasaki also designed. The BOK Tower has a quarter the footprint and stands at almost half the height of the original WTC Towers. The BOK Tower structure comprises 14,750 tons of steel and 41,588 cubic yards of concrete. |
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| From our vantage point on the 40th floor we could see the busy Brady District and imagined all the fun folks were having at Movie Night on the Guthrie Green........Toy Story was on the big screen!! Party hardy, Tulsa! |
More views from the 40th floor of the BOK and a look south on Boston Avenue as we were leaving the building on this beautiful night.
Our last two stops, The Summit Club and 110 W. 7th, were a good walk six and eight blocks south, so by the time we reached the 31st floor of the Bank of America Tower, we were ready for a 'taste of Italy' at the Summit Club. And it did not disappoint! The views, the food, the hospitality!
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| Nitey,nite, T-town, we're so thankful to call you 'home'! |
Our stop at 320 S. Boston was one full of
