The BOK Center, or Bank of Oklahoma Center, is a 19,199-seat multi-purpose arena and a primary indoor sports and event venue in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States. Designed to accommodate arena football, hockey, basketball, concerts, and similar events, the facility was built at $178 million in public funds and $18 million in privately funded upgrades. Ground was broken on August 31, 2005, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony occurred on August 30, 2008.
Designed by César 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. The 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. The two current permanent tenants are the Tulsa Oilers of the ECHL and the Tulsa Oilers of the Indoor Football League, both teams owned by Andy Scurto. In addition, the BOK Center was the former home of the Tulsa Shock of the Women’s National Basketball Association and the Tulsa Talons of the Arena Football League.
Design
Tulsa, OK, city officials asked César Pelli 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. He made heavy use of swirling circular elements in the exterior and interior designs of the building. A 103-foot (31 m), 600-foot (180 m) long glass facade featuring 1,600 350-pound (160 kg) panels wraps around the building in an escalating motion leaning at a five-degree angle. Thirty-three thousand stainless steel panels produced and installed by Zahner continue the upward spiral around the structure’s circumference. 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 (33,000 m2) of exterior stainless-steel panels, 75,000 square feet (7,000 m2) of glass, 30,000 cubic yards (23,000 m3) of concrete, and 4,000 tons of structural steel.
Amenities
The BOK Center holds 37 public restrooms—12 men’s, 16 women’s, and nine family restrooms—with 300 toilets and urinals.[1] Dressing rooms with wooden lockers, hydrotherapy and workout rooms, a player’s lounge, locker rooms for game officials, and office space for coaches, trainers, and equipment managers are also located within the building. 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 (23,000 kg) and 30 by 33 feet (9.1 m × 10.1 m), making use of four eight by 14 feet (2.4 m × 4.3 m) HD screens, four eight by 8 feet (2.4 m × 2.4 m) 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, the project received $3.6 million in private donations, with some funds for an advanced video recording system. Bed Bug Exterminator Tulsa
Check out other attractions like Gathering Place