United Founders Life Tower - Oklahoma City, OK - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

This building is one of only two circular tall buildings in Oklahoma, and the only tall building in Oklahoma with a folded plate concrete roof. It is one of 35 in the U.S. with a revolving platform restaurant at the top.

This is a 20-story building, built in 1963 in the mid-century modern style. This is a 10-sided decagon with cantilevered balconies and glass walls. The building is constructed with steel frame, columns and I-beams, with corrugated metal floors and a poured reinforced concrete base which extends to the first floor.

The 3rd to 14th floors have cantilevered balconies at the point of each plane of the 10-sided building. These balconies are 3 ft x 6 ft. Floors 15 through 19 have larger balconies on each of the planes. The second floor contains offices, while the remaining portion of the building except the 20th floor houses one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, for lease or sale. There is an outdoor pool and covered parking for tenants, as well as indoor pool and fitness center. The 9,000 square foot 20th floor is cantilevered and constructed of poured reinforced concrete, and has ten gabled roof designs with glazed transoms. This floor is less than half the diameter of the remainder of the building and currently houses an upscale event location called The Chandelle Room. This is a revolving floor, which rotates 360 degrees every hour. It contains private dining rooms, a dance floor and stage, and is open to the public four nights a week.

The building walls are glass panels. They originally contained dark glass with dark anodized aluminum mullions, however, in 2007-8, the windows were replaced with insulated green-tinted glass and the dark mullions were replaced with bright aluminum finished framing. The vertical window mullions are slightly projected and 30 inches apart, with flush horizontal mullions six feet apart with solid spandrels. The balcony floors are poured reinforced concrete, pinned back into the building’s steel structure by massive concrete slabs that lock into the inner ring of columns – this is an unusual form of construction.

The main entrance on the east has a free-standing canopy, which was replaced in 2008. The building was renovated in the 1980s and formerly exposed areas on the ground floor were enclosed into the lobby. The lobby has four elevators in an arc on the north side. The building is 275 ft. tall and stands on 7.5 acres. The property sold in 2005 for 4.6 million dollars. The main shaft of the building is 92 ft. in diameter, not including the balconies. The broader base ranges from 116 ft to 240 ft. across.

There are two, one-story retail wings to the building. One has a distinctive folded plate concrete roof. The retail wings have long dark red brick walls, with slightly projected headers. A parking area 50 ft. north of the tower had a partial roof added in 2009. This is a one-story rectangular area 120 x 340 feet. A chain link fence with vinyl strips encircles this parking area on the north and west, with the south and east having split-faced concrete block walls. A coded iron gate allows access on the east.

This is a showcase property on the northwest side of Oklahoma City. It was added to the National Register on March 13, 2013.

Street address: 5900 Mosteller Drive Oklahoma City, OK US 73112 County / Borough / Parish: Oklahoma County Year listed: 2013 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Architecture Periods of significance: 1950-1974 Historic function: Commerce/Trade Current function: Commerce/Trade, Domestic Privately owned?: yes Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] Secondary Website 2: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   04/05/2020 vulture1957 visited it 06/07/2019 The Snowdog visited it 05/24/2015 Nash-Chloe visited it

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