I’ve been meaning to write about this but waited until the time seemed more “right.”
For the uninitiated here’s the back story. Sandridge Energy, one of the largest oil and gas firms in Oklahoma, wants to expand its downtown Oklahoma City headquarters campus (the area formerly owned by Kerr-McGee) by tearing down several mid-rise structures and erecting a new building next to a park across the street. Here’s a link to an earlier story on the proposal.
That seems like a simple enough thing to do, right? A major corporate tenant should have the ability to do whatever it wants with its property as long as it’s within the boundaries of the law, correct?
However a funny thing happened on the way to the permit office. A huge and surprisingly vociferous brouhaha has broken out over one of the buildings set for demolition.
The India Temple, built in 1902, once housed the Oklahoma legislature, among other things, and is considered the city’s oldest building. Now that’s nice and all, but the problem is, nobody really noticed it and when they did, it was viewed with derision.
I attended the Christmas tree lighting in front of Sandridge’s headquarters tower next door to the India Temple in December and remember thinking what an eyesore it was. Many questioned why it was left standing.
So, I’ve been watching and listening to the discussion about this issue for the past month now. It’s been really entertaining really. But finally someone else has said what I’ve been thinking all along.
Click here to read Terry Clark’s new blog over at the Journal-Record on the matter. Way to go Terry.
