Mid-Continent Tower

The Mid-Continent Tower is a Neogothic skyscraper designed by HTB, Inc., in association with , and built between 1980 and 1984 in Tulsa, OK.

Mid-Continent Tower is not the only name you might know this building by though. The building is, or has also been known as Cosden Building.

Its precise street address is 401 South Boston Avenue, Tulsa, OK. You can also find it on the map here.

The Mid-Continent Tower is a structure of significant importance both for the city of Tulsa and the United States as a nation. The building embodies the distinctive characteristic features of the time in which it was built and the Neogothic style. Because of that, the Mid-Continent Tower was officially included in the National Register of Historic Places on February 1^st 1979.

The Mid-Continent Tower has received multiple architecture awards for its architectural design since 1984. The following is a list of such prizes and awards:

• 25 Year Award - AIA Eastern Oklahoma in 2012
• National Trust Preservation Honor Award in 1984

Designed by Hoyt-Price-Barnes, the original building, with 16 stories, was completed in 1918 and was called the Cosden Building. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

The tower we see today was built on top of that building right after, in the early 80s.

Much of the information in this article corresponds to the current tower..

The building underwent a major restoration between 1980 and 1984. The architect commissioned to undertake this restoration was HTB, Inc.

HTB, Inc. was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design, in association with .

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 Mid-Continent Tower a reality:

• Flintco as the Main Contractor
• Joshua Cosden as the Main Developer

The Mid-Continent Tower can be categorized as a Neogothic building.

The Mid-Continent Tower uses a frame structure made of steel columns and steel and 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 modular, or panelized system. This type of facade can function as either a window wall or a curtain wall, depending on the design. Unlike traditional glass curtain walls or window walls though, the modular facade is not primarily composed of glass. Instead, it often features more opaque panels that mimic masonry or stone-clad finishes, with smaller windows cut into the panels.

This type of facade allows the building to benefit from the modern qualities of a curtain wall while giving the design team flexibility to achieve visual aesthetics beyond the all-glass modern skyscraper.

The first building, the Cosden Building, was constructed with a concrete frame structure. It was the first reinforced concrete building in Tulsa.

Although it appears that the new steel structure rises directly above the original building, that is not the case. It is actually supported by another structure built for that purpose on the east side of the Cosden Building, cantilevered over the original.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features light-colored terracotta on the older Cosden building, and fiberglass-reinforced concrete panels that mimic those on the newer tower.

The tower is topped with a copper hipped roof.

Other materials found at the Mid-Continent Tower include, three different types of italian marble, Rosato covering walls and columns, Roman Travertine graces the restroom walls, and Verde Antique for accents and trims, and hand-blown vidrio antiguo, can be seen in the stained glass windows of the lobby and the executive suites.