BOK Center
The BOK Center (Bank of Oklahoma Center) is a 19,199-seat multi-purpose arena and a primary indoor sports and event venue in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Designed to accommodate arena football, hockey, basketball, concerts, and similar events, the facility was built at a cost of 178 million USD in public funds and an additional 18 million USD in privately-funded upgrades making BOK the largest construction project in Tulsa’s history.
Ground was broken on 2005 and a ribbon cutting took place on August 30, 2008. Designed by Cesar Pelli, the architect of the Petronas Towers in Malaysia, the BOK Center is the flagship project of Tulsa County's Vision 2025 long-range development initiative. Local firm, MATRIX Architects Engineers Planners, Inc, is the architect and engineer of record. The arena is managed and operated by SMG and named for the Bank of Oklahoma, which purchased naming rights for 11 million USD.
When designing the arena, the architect and builders aimed at making as memorable an icon in Tulsa as the Trans American building in San Francisco or the Opera House in Sidney. That look is captured through a 60,000 square-foot-radius, sloped glass curtain wall system. In other words, the wide ribbon of glass wraps around the building at an angle. One end of that glass ribbon is cantilevered 80 feet from the main structure – an element you won’t find in any typical arena.
THE AWARD
The arena won Facilities Magazine's Prime Site Award in 2008, which is based on opinions from representatives in the site selection industry, booking agents, promoters, talent buyers, and special event planners, who judge based on location, functionality, technical capabilities, quality of staff, food and beverage, lighting, sound, and staging. The arena was also one of four venues nominated for Pollstar's 2008 "Best New Major Concert Venue" award.
DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION
Cesar Pelli was asked by Tulsa city officials to create an arena that would be an architectural icon. To achieve this, Pelli employed cultural and architectural themes of the city, including Native American, art deco, and contemporary styles, making heavy use of swirling circular elements in the exterior and interior designs of the building.
A 103-foot (31 metre), 600-foot (180 metre) long iconic glass facade featuring 350-pound panels wraps around the building in an escalating motion leaning at a five-degree angle, with 33,000 steel panels continuing the upward spiraling path around the circumference of the structure.
The interior follows the motion, with grand staircases that wrap around a portion of the building from the main lobby. In total, the building's design required 350,000 square feet of exterior metal panels, 75,000 square feet of glass, 30,000 cubic yards of concrete, and 4,000 tons of structural steel. The arena encompasses 565,000 square feet (52,500 m2) and reaches a maximum height of 134 feet (41 m).
Inside, the bowl area's ceiling rests 120 feet (37 m) over the base floor and a 930-foot (280 m)-long HD ribbon screen wraps around the three-level seating area. There are 17,343 fixed seats, each ranging from 20 inches to 22 inches wide — an average width greater than the industry standard, including that of the Ford Center in Oklahoma City.
Actual capacity fluctuates with configuration patterns, and total seating can vary from 13,644 to 19,199 — 13,644 for partial-use concerts, 16,582 for arena football, 17,096 for hockey, 17,839 for basketball, and 19,199 for center stage concerts. The bowl area's second floor, an exclusive carpeted level with a complete bar, houses press areas and 37 luxury suites, each with 15 22-inch (560 mm) seats and furnished gathering and kitchen areas.
In the main concourse, more than 130,000 square feet (12,000 m2) of terrazzo flooring has aggregate that contains 70 percent mother of pearl.[2] Private funding exceeded original forecasts, and unexpected increases in revenue from corporate sponsorships, donations, and purchases of box seats and luxury boxes paid for an advanced light display for the glass wall that wraps around the front of the building and the scoreboard.
The arena's hanging scoreboard, considered one of the most advanced in the country, is suspended above the arena floor and measures 50,000-pounds and 30-by-33-feet, making use of four 8-by-14-foot HD screens, four 8-by-8 foot HD screens, a wrap-around 9-foot (2.7 m) HD screen, and another 3-foot (0.91 m) wrap-around HD screen. Designed by Forty Forty Agency and manufactured by Daktronics, it was built with 3.6 million USD in private donations, with some funds going toward an advanced video recording system.
Glass buildings in Tulsa are required by construction code to withstand 90-mph winds. But the icon wall was designed to sustain 100-mph winds by reinforcing the support structure, laminating the glass and allowing for movement of the frame. A mock-up of a wall section went through a battery of weather and impact testing.
Ribbon display
Encircling the interior of the arena is a 360-degree LED ribbon for advertising and messages. It is 930-foot long and has about 300,000 individual LEDs.
ARTWORK
Nearly 1.5 million USD was allocated to artwork within the building in light of a city ordinance mandating that at least one percent of construction costs for any municipal project be used for public art. Tulsa's Arts Commission selected five artists out of nearly 300 applicants to decorate the interior of the building with the intention of capturing the spirit of the city and state.
Of their pieces, the largest is a cloud-like cloth sculpture designed by Kendell Buster that weighs 5,000 pounds and hangs above the main concourse. Four 22-foot (6.7 m) Native American medallions designed by Bill and Demos Glass decorate the main concourse floor, along with a series of 25 paintings of tall grass prairie landscapes created by Mark Lewis that adorn a wall on the main lobby's third level. A 9-by-24-foot black-and-white painting of rearing horses created by Joe Andoe hangs on a wall near a concession stand on the north side of the building, and a light display created by Jenny Holzer is also within the arena.
CONCLUSION
The BOK Center was designed to host major concerts, family shows, ice shows and other world-class entertainment. Through a program instituted by the Tulsa Convention and Visitors Bureau, 50 guides are stationed within dozens of blocks of the arena during major events to help with parking and provide general information about shuttle services, events, and downtown Tulsa.
Although streets bordering the back entrance of the arena are closed to automobile traffic during events to create a staging area for crews, other bordering streets are open to shuttles, tour buses, limousines, and handicap drop-off vehicles.
PROJECT TEAM
Architect: Cesar Antonio Pelli
Architecture: Cesar Pelli & Associates, Inc.
