Oklahoma City's first skyscraper, finished in 1909, is now the Colcord Hotel, a luxury boutique hotel downtown. The building you see was finished in 1909 and has been celebrated as Oklahoma City's first skyscraper. It rises 145 feet and contains 14 floors; it began life as an office tower developed by Charles Colcord.
Worried by the devastation he had witnessed in San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake and fires, Colcord had this erected as the first steel-reinforced concrete building in Oklahoma. It was originally designed with two wings, though only the east wing and the connecting elevator and stair segment were constructed. Architect William A. Wells, a protégé of Louis Sullivan of the Chicago School, was responsible for the design; Sullivan himself designed the molds for the decorative terra cotta ornamentation you'll notice on the first, second, and twelfth floors.
After a later renovation by Coury Hospitality, the building reopened as a luxury hotel in 2006 and today is a member of Historic Hotels of America. Notice the terra cotta ornamentation on the first, second, and twelfth floors, molds designed by Louis Sullivan himself.