Stage Center's Final Curtain Call

-
Oklahoma City Landmark Coming Down


Call it Mummer's Theater, Oklahoma Theatre Center, Stage Center- or Tinkertoy Town. The oft-maligned complex at North Walker and West Sheridan appears to be doomed. Recent plans call for a mixed use high-rise office tower to be built on the site.


Stage Center was designed by John Johanson in 1970 as part of the grand. The building won international accolades from the architectural community. But the eclectic mix of Brutalist facades and inside-out geometry was instantly polarizing and found few fans in the general public.

Through the years the building had a rocky history. Financial troubles continually plagued its tenants. Stage Center had been in disrepair for many years- then a flood further damaged the building in June 2010. It has been vacant ever since.

An eleventh-hour effort by the AIA sought to find a suitable tenant but to no avail.

High Rise Plans from the Daily Oklahoman...

History and Downfall of Stage Center from KOSU...


Comments

JRB said…
Down, but not out.

A last-minute effort to halt demolition of the unique Stage Center/Mummer's Theater complex has been launched. You can help by signing the below petition!

Many preservation groups across the country are coming together to halt the demolition of this iconic building. Act before the meeting on January 16, 2014.

Save Stage Center Petition
January 13, 2014 at 1:10 PM
Post a Comment

Most Popular Posts

Visit to the Prairie Chicken House

-
Image
This unique house on the edge of Norman, Oklahoma is known to most as the prairie chicken house. Designed by Herb Greene in 1960, he preferred to call it simply the Prairie House .  Thanks to the  Prairie House Preservation Society  (PHPS) it is now possible for the public to experience one of Oklahoma's most unusual architectural treasures. 
Read more

The Bruce Goff House in Vinita

-
Image
We were recently surprised to learn about a Goff-designed home just an hour away from Tulsa in Vinita, Oklahoma. Vinita is probably best known to OK Mod readers as the home of the Glass House on I-44, also known as (shudder) the World's Largest Largest McDonalds . Anywho, turned out the Goff house was on the market, and the owner was more than happy to let us have a look around. We took a short drive up the turnpike one Sunday afternoon to meet the realtor, snap some pictures, ask some questions and enjoy another one of Bruce Goff's unique creations. The home is known as the Adams House and was built in 1961. The 3,700 square foot home is arranged in a circular floor plan with a large sunken "conversation pit" at the center. Rising up from this pit is a large metal fireplace, its chimney surrounded by skylights, which dominates the entire house. Rooms surround the perimeter with folding accordion doors acting as walls. To maintain some semblance of privacy an inner
Read more

The World Museum

-
Image
The widening of I-44 through Tulsa will soon claim another mid-century building (see Modern Homes Make Way for I-44 ). This unusual landmark near Peoria, once known as the World Museum, is being emptied in preparation for demolition. The concrete complex was built in 1963 by the Osborn Ministries as a museum and "Interstate Temple." Self-proclaimed minister, T. L. Osborn, and his wife, Daisy, traveled the world as Christian missionaries and collected art and artifacts on their journeys. The unusual La Concha-esque building housed their partial collection and distracted motorists touring along the new Skelly Bypass (aka I-44). The exterior of the building is adorned with maps of the world's continents. In its heyday there was a good deal more- a giant outline of Jesus was on one wall. The inscription below it, "REX," provided one of my earliest Latin lessons when I asked Dad why that building had my name on it. There was also a large globe that once stood out fr
Read more