Devon Energy Center

skyscraper
contemporary
OK
Oklahoma City

About the Devon Energy Center in Oklahoma City
1. Prizes & Awards
Architect and team
Architectural style
Spaces and uses
Structure and materials

The Devon Energy Center is a Contemporary skyscraper designed by Pickard Chilton, in association with Kendall/Heaton Associates, and built between 2009 and 2012, for a reported $750 million dollars, in Oklahoma City, OK.

Its precise street address is 333 W Sheridan Ave, Oklahoma City, OK. You can also find it on the map here.

The Devon Energy Center has received multiple architecture awards for its architectural design since 2012. The following is a list of such prizes and awards:

High Rise Architecture Award in 2012
Phoenix Award, Region 6 in 2013
Architectural Record > Award of Excellence, Good Design is Good Business in 2013
Urban Land Institute > Global Award for Excellence | 2015 in 2015
AIA Connecticut > Merit Award in 2018
Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat > 10 Year Award in 2022

Building's timeline

Construction begins

2009

Construction completed

2012

years ago

2025

Architect and team

Pickard Chilton was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design, in association with Kendall/Heaton Associates.

That being said, architecture is a complex discipline involving many professionals from different fields, without whom this building would have not been possible. We will surely be leaving out a lot of names here, but here is a list of the people we do know also played their part in making the Devon Energy Center a reality:

Thornton Tomasetti in charge of Structural Engineering
Holder Construction as the Main Contractor
Hines as the Main Developer
Cosentini Associates in charge of MEP Engineering
OJB Landscape Architecture in charge of Landscape Architecture
Gensler in charge of Interior Design

Architectural Style

The Devon Energy Center can be categorized as a Contemporary building.

Contemporary style architecture builds on top of the principles of Modernism and Postmodernism, but incorporates other variables which might not have been that important in the past, but certainly are today, such as technology, sustainability, inclusivity, and others.

From a historical point of view, it is hard to categorize things from a not-so-distant time, and therefore we choose to categorize most buildings built after the year 2000 as "Contemporary". It is possible that as time goes by and we, as a society, gain perspective on the things happening today, we'll be able to look back and recategorize all these buildings into more concrete subsections, some of which might not even exist today.

Spaces & Uses

The Devon Energy Center reaches an architectural height of 850ft (259m), with the last accesible floor being 745ft (227m) off the gorund. It has a total of 52 floors, 50 above ground and 2 basements.

In regards to parking space, the building has a total of 2898 spots available, which roughly equals 58 spots per floor (above ground).

Ever since opening its doors to the public in 2012, the Devon Energy Center has mainly been used as Commercial space.

The building is framed by a public park featuring landscaped trees and a reflecting pond on the South side.

Access to the tower is provided through a six-story glazed rotunda, which functions as the primary entrance and as the central circulation hub of the complex. It is also utilized as a venue for special events.

The five upper levels overlooking the ground floor accommodate conference and training facilities, as well as employee amenities, including dining areas with views of the park and landscaped garden.

Other than the tower itself, five new levels were incorporated into a pre-existing five-story parking structure as part of the same project.

Materials & Structure

The Devon Energy Center uses a frame structure made of concrete columns and reinforced concrete slabs.

A frame structure uses a combination of beams and columns to sustain the building's weight. The walls in this case are non-load bearing, which allows for more flexibility when distributing the interior spaces.

The facade uses a non-load bearing curtain wall system. This means the curtain wall modules are anchored to the building's structural frame, typically by being attached to the edge of the floor slabs. The curtain wall system connects to the slabs using brackets, anchors, and mullions, which transfer the loads imposed by wind and temperature changes, to the building's primary structural elements.

This setup allows the curtain wall to accommodate differential movement between the facade and the structural frame, such as thermal expansion, floor deflection, or sway from wind forces. This system's integration with the slab edges also allows for continuous insulation and weatherproofing layers.

The tower incorporates a concrete core that houses the vertical circulations: elevators, stairwells, and building services, as well as the lateral structural systems that provide resistance to wind and seismic loads.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features

a light-tinted reflective glass curtain wall that encloses the three-sided structure, which tapers slightly at the top to form a beveled surface.

This glass facade is organized by a series of vertical and horizontal mullions, which create a rectangular grid that provides rhythm to the surface.

A crown structure, extending 18 meters above the roofline, caps the tower.