In the near future, America’s tallest skyscraper may not appear in New York, Chicago or Los Angeles. Instead, it could shoot up through Oklahoma City’s relatively sparse skyline. If realized, the colossal building proposal dubbed the “Legends Tower” would be more than double the height of the city’s next tallest building.
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Oklahoma City Planning Commission approved a height increase request filed by the tower’s developer last week, with a nudge seemingly unlikely idea close to reality. Designers want the building to be 600 meters tall, a number that deliberately coincides with the date Oklahoma became a US state. That daring height would make the Legends Tower more than 200 feet taller than the 1,776-foot One World Trade Center in New York. Worldwide, only five other buildings are larger. Developers previously suggested a 1,750-foot tower prior to the height increase. That was clearly not high enough.
The mixed-use tower, as currently proposed, would be primarily residential, with 1,750 apartments and a Hyatt hotel with hundreds of rooms. All told, the project, which includes a lagoon and a nearby boardwalk, is estimated to cost $1.6 billion. Those are developers Reportedly plans to begin construction on two of the building’s towers this summer and expects the total project to take between 24 and 30 months.
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Why Oklahoma?
To say that Oklahoma City is an unusual choice for what would become the fifth largest building in the world is an understatement. New York and Chicago are currently home to all ten of the tallest buildings in the US. These two cities are each home to approximately 8 and 3 million people respectively. Oklahoma City, on the other hand, has a population of about 700,000 people. That said, it’s ticking. Oklahoma City Reportedly its popularity grew by about 2% between 2020 and 2020, thanks in part to a greater reorganization of the population that took place during the Covid-19 pandemic. The buildings developers are reportedly hopeful these newcomers could help populate the mainly residential building.
The Legends Tower is not without its opponents. Members of the city’s planning commission and local residents have done just that reportedly doubted its practical feasibility of such a large building in a city not known for its rows of large towers. Others worry about how the building would withstand the region’s heavy storms and not all those unusual tornadoes. AO, the California architectural firm behind the tower, reportedly told the city’s planning commission that the building would have concrete walls between 5 and 6 feet thick around the elevator shafts, as well as windows that can withstand tornado winds without to shatter. according to the Wall Street Journal. Others, including Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt, still seem unsure whether the ambitious tower will ever become a reality.
“My observation is that private developers often announce plans and some of those plans come to fruition and some do not.” Holt told CNN earlier this year. “I have no strong opinions and look forward to following their efforts.”
The US still lags behind other countries in terms of tallest building
Long gone are the days when American cities topped the charts and lists of “tallest skyscrapers.” That officially ended in 1998 when the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, took over the Sears Tower in Chicago. Since then the buildings have gotten bigger and bigger. A 2021 report from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat estimates that since 2001, as many as 84% of all buildings on earth have been built higher than 200 meters. Now, in 2024, top five tallest buildings in the world are located in Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, Shanghai, Mecca and Shenzhen. If the Legends developers complete their plans, “Oklahoma City” could be the next entry on that list.
