![\"The](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Screen-Shot-2014-03-07-at-9.20.09-AM.png\")
<\/a>As part of its diversification, Tulsa\u2019s leaders began seeking convention and entertainment business. The Cox Business Center (previously known as the Tulsa Convention Center), built in 1964, received a $42 million renovation, and the 19,199-seat BOK Center, which hosts indoor sports and entertainment events, was opened in 2008. With new event opportunities downtown, it was necessary to provide hotel rooms and amenities to the city\u2019s visitors.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, after the oil bust, Tulsa\u2019s downtown had become somewhat of a ghost town and many of its buildings stood vacant, becoming havens for trespassing people and animals. One of these vacant buildings was the once opulent Mayo Hotel. The 19-story hotel was the tallest building in Oklahoma when it was built in 1925. Its 600 rooms boasted ceiling fans and running ice water to beat the summer heat. Oil tycoons conducted business in the hotel, and celebrities\u2014Charles Lindbergh, Babe Ruth, Lucille Ball and President John F. Kennedy\u2014were known to dance the night away in the famous Crystal Ballroom at the top of the hotel.<\/p>\n
As a result of Tulsa\u2019s economic downturn, the Mayo Hotel closed its doors in 1981 and successfully escaped the wrecking ball for 30 years. In 1995, Slaughter and his business partner Paul Rose entered the abandoned hotel to do a structural study, and they couldn\u2019t believe their eyes. \u201cThe building was full of trash and dead birds and graffiti,\u201d Slaughter remembers. \u201cThe lower basement had 3 feet of water in it. We went upstairs to the Crystal Ballroom and it was even worse. The Mayo\u2019s doors were stacked from one side of the room almost to the middle and were rotting. Pigeons were roosting in the ballroom and their droppings were probably 4-feet deep on the floor. The windows were boarded up. The plaster was damaged and falling down. We could smell mold and mildew. I remember thinking somebody has to do something about this. It was sad. Twelve years later, we were redoing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Helping Hand<\/h4>\n
According to Slaughter, once the team came together, the design-build project moved at a quick pace. \u201cThe entire project took 22 months from the time we got the go-ahead to start working until it opened,\u201d Slaughter recalls. \u201cThere were six of us working on the project from our company, so we moved into the hotel. We were there onsite for a year and a half.\u201d<\/p>\n Slaughter says the rapid pace was achievable because the project was like traveling back in time \u201cwhen architects actually built buildings\u201d. He adds: \u201cThe drawings were not always complete to a detail level, so, as the construction manager, we\u2019d walk up to the subcontractors and actually draw on the wall what they were supposed to build. There was no change process or arguing about numbers and going back to the architect because the architect and engineer also was the builder.\u201d The project\u2019s first phase focused on building a parking garage in the basement that would hold 40 cars. The idea was that the garage would generate money and help support the next three phases of the rehabilitation. \u201cThe permit required the submission of structural calculations that confirmed the structural integrity of the building and conformance with the current code requirements,\u201d Slaughter says. \u201cDuring construction, debilitated portions of the garage were demolished for the inclusion of newer materials, walls and floors.\u201d<\/p>\n The third phase included developing 102 luxury guestrooms and 76 apartments to provide steady income for the property. Because the building had been gutted from the second to the 15th floors during one of its previous failed renovation attempts, the team received a favorable ruling from the Washington, D.C.-based U.S. National Park Service (NPS) and State Historic Preservation Office concerning the interior room layouts. \u201cThe original building had a double-loaded corridor, which made the rooms very small, and they weren\u2019t modern in layout,\u201d Slaughter says. \u201cThe National Park Service is very concerned with corridors and doors; if there\u2019s an existing door in the corridor you\u2019ve got to keep it. We petitioned that because the corridor already was gone, we shouldn\u2019t have to put it back. The park service agreed.\u201d<\/p>\n The new layout features a single-loaded, U-shaped corridor, allowing all the rooms\u2019 and apartments\u2019 windows to face downtown with views of the Arkansas River and BOK Center. Hotel rooms include kitchenettes and high-end bathrooms. In fact, the hotel rooms are virtually as well appointed as the apartments, which measure up to 1,200 square feet. \u201cWe had a couple pictures of the original rooms and they weren\u2019t anything to write home about,\u201d Slaughter says. \u201cToday, out of 102 hotel rooms, there are 21 different room types. And out of 76 apartment units, there are 26 different unit types. I think that\u2019s part of the hotel\u2019s popularity\u2014not every room\/apartment is the same.\u201d<\/p>\n To receive historic tax credits, the rehabilitation was completed according to the Secretary of the Interior\u2019s Standards for Rehabilitation. For Phases 1 through 3, the new elements only had to be designed and constructed in a way that complemented the original building because much of the original design was gone. For example, the lobby\u2019s new Grand Staircase functions like the original staircase; however, its ornamentation is modern in design. Comparing old photographs with the original construction drawings, the design team discovered the Grand Staircase that was actually built (and demolished) did not match the original drawings. \u201cWe took the original drawings, used that shape and then added new railings to give it a bit of a new look,\u201d Slaughter explains. Phase 4 occurred simultaneously with Phase 3 and consisted of the historic rehabilitation of the Crystal Ballroom. Because enough of the ballroom\u2019s existing elements were visible to understand the original condition, the team had to make the rehab look identical. However, new materials were allowed. \u201cAll the decorative plaster had to be taken out because it was so damaged,\u201d Slaughter recalls. \u201cThe only way to do that was to condemn that room structurally. Then we ripped everything out and put it all back together.\u201d [Editor’s Note:<\/strong> View a video of the Crystal Ballroom in its dilapidated state on retrofitTV<\/a>; click on the “Project Walkthroughs” tab.]<\/p>\n Before the ballroom was torn apart, Casting Designs Inc., Fort Worth, Texas, measured every piece of plaster to recreate it with glass-fiber-reinforced gypsum that looked identical to the original. \u201cI have pieces on my wall of some of the original plaster capitals,\u201d Slaughter notes. \u201cWhen you compare it to a piece that Casting Designs did, it\u2019s hard to tell the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n Slaughter says, unfortunately, energy efficiency was the least of the project team\u2019s concerns as they navigated historic guidelines while bringing the rundown hotel back to magnificence. They had considered replacing the original clear, single-pane windows, which have a hexagonal wire embedded in the glass for approved fire resistance. In 1925, these windows were the best available. However, the team soon discovered they were flanged into the masonry. \u201cThe flange went from the window jamb flat into the masonry and at three points on each side. We about ripped the wall apart to get one window out,\u201d Slaughter remembers. Instead, the team hired local glazers to repair each window, frame and sash, as well as pulleys. The piping had to be hidden with other systems, including electrical, fire sprinkler, ventilation and communications, in chases above the 9-foot-high ceilings on each floor. According to Todd Ringgold, vice president of plumbing services for Palmer Mechanical, Tulsa, the overhead chases were only 3- or 4-feet wide and 4- to 5-inches deep. The PEX was delivered in coils up to 1,000 feet in length and needed no pipe connections, which helped Ringgold\u2019s 25-member crew, pipe the hotel quickly. \u201cThis was a year-long project, but we actually finished faster than we thought we would,\u201d he remembers. \u201cGoing with the PEX gave us the freedom to go wherever we needed and we didn\u2019t have to worry about getting up in a little space and screwing pipe together.\u201d<\/p>\n Ringgold was introduced to PEX by a client on another rehab project and has been using it ever since not only because the manufacturer of the product he uses (see \u201cRetrofit Materials\u201d sidebar, below) offers a 25-year warranty, including damages if there\u2019s a problem with the product, but also because he actually uses less PEX than traditional pipe on jobs. \u201cAt the Mayo Hotel, we would\u2019ve needed more pipe if we hadn\u2019t used PEX,\u201d Ringgold says. \u201cBuilding with traditional piping would\u2019ve required more chases to run more lines through.\u201d<\/p>\n Owls are symbols of good luck, according to English folklore, and perhaps this owl did bring good luck to the Mayo Hotel\u2019s second life. Today, all of its apartments are occupied and there\u2019s a waiting list of future residents. A new generation of celebrities\u2014Lady Gaga, Britney Spears and OneRepublic\u2014are making the hotel home while entertaining locals at the BOK Center. And new memories are being created as people once again dance the night away in the Crystal Ballroom. \u201cThis hotel was so cherished in its early days and now people are cherishing it again,\u201d Slaughter revels. \u201cFor me, that building was the project of a lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n Architect, Engineer, Construction Manager:<\/strong> Phillips Slaughter Rose Inc., Tulsa, Okla., (918) 488-9995 Water and Hydronic Piping:<\/strong> AquaPEX and Wirsbo hePEX from Uponor<\/a> Black gold drew thousands of people to Tulsa, Okla., at the beginning of the 20th century. By 1930, Tulsa had been christened the \u201cOil Capital of the World\u201d and its more than 70,000 citizens were enjoying the spoils of wealth. The city created parks and rose gardens while its prosperous citizens invested in the construction<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":12542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[57,214,3],"tags":[7246,131,7243,7222,7245,2667,7241,7242,7244,3079],"ppma_author":[48800],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n<\/a>
\nAfter six failed renovation attempts, including one that devised to turn the Mayo Hotel into an office tower, Brickhugger LLC, a local commercial development and real-estate company, bought the 285,000-square-foot building in 2001 for $250,000. Several years passed as Brickhugger, which is named for its propensity to save buildings from being torn down, developed a plan and obtained financing. A portion of funding for the $42 million project came from Tulsa County Vision 2025, a package designed to improve community infrastructure and funded by a 1-cent county sales tax increase passed in 2003. Additional funding for the Mayo\u2019s renovation came from historic tax credits (the hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980), Brickhugger and additional investors, as well as creative financing during the rehabilitation.<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\nPhases 1 through 4<\/h4>\n
<\/a><\/a>
only way to do that and meet historic rehabilitation guidelines was to condemn the room structurally. PHOTO: Phillips Slaughter Rose<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\nCompromises and Innovations<\/h4>\n
\n
\nLighting fixtures in public areas, like the lobby, were recreated from photos of the hotel in its heyday. A mixture of LEDs and CFLs are being used in the fixtures, depending on the style of light and its historic nature. Meanwhile, the Crystal Ballroom\u2019s chandeliers were replicated from one original chandelier the Mayo\u2019s new owner was able to save. \u201cThere had been four chandeliers in the ballroom, and they measured probably 40 inches in diameter and 5- or 6-feet tall,\u201d Slaughter says. \u201cInstead of crystal, we were able to use acrylic to rehab the existing chandelier and create the new ones. Every one of the chandeliers was hand-set. The lighting really turned out well.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a>More Memories Ahead<\/h4>\n
<\/a>
\nAs work was beginning on the Crystal Ballroom\u2019s journey back from the dead, excitement spread among the contractors. Slaughter and his team rushed to the ballroom to see what was happening. \u201cEverybody was just standing around watching a huge barn owl with a wingspan of about 5 1\/2 feet,\u201d he remembers. \u201cAll the pigeons had disappeared, but now we had to call the local guy who gets rid of unwanted pests to remove the owl and find it a new home.\u201d<\/p>\nRetrofit Team<\/h4>\n
\nExterior Masonry:<\/strong> R B Weatherman Masonry Inc.<\/a>, Chouteau, Okla.
\nDecorative Plaster:<\/strong> Casting Designs Inc.<\/a>, Fort Worth, Texas
\nHVAC and Plumbing Systems:<\/strong> Palmer Mechanical<\/a>, Tulsa
\nElectrical Systems:<\/strong> Temco Electric, Tulsa, (918) 835-1500
\nMarble Matching:<\/strong> EuroCraft<\/a>, Glenpool, Okla.<\/p>\nRetrofit Materials<\/h4>\n
\nTerracotta Repair:<\/strong> Jahn M100 from Cathedral Stone Products<\/a>
\nWall-rated Penetration Tools:<\/strong> Hilti<\/a>
\nLobby Pendants:<\/strong> Lightsmith Custom Lighting<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"