120 Kerr is the first new building developed for SandRidge Energy’s multi-block corporate headquarters. Capitalizing on its downtown Oklahoma City location, it is able to operate simultaneously in the civic, community, and corporate realms through the provision of programming and support facilities for employees of the corporation. (All photographs courtesy Jill Fredrickson/Front Inc.)
This new 96,000 sf building incorporates numerous facilities including indoor and outdoor basketball courts, an auditorium and reception hall, a fitness center and rooftop event space. The ground floor of the building includes a restaurant that faces the adjacent Kerr-Couch Park along with other emerging foodservice venues. The building has three frontages on two levels. One public street frontage facing back to the SandRidge Commons, and another on a public park, allowing the building to play a number of roles in the public and private spheres. Civic programs located at park and street levels provide much needed amenities and activate public space.
Relationships to the corporate and urban context manifest themselves in the massing and enclosure of the building, providing access at multiple levels and views within and without. The building is a hybrid concrete and steel structure, where steel jumbo trusses become a signature feature. While predominately glass, the skin of 120 Kerr was developed to reinforce the reading of the primary program volumes as prismatic solids, while tuning them per their use and solar exposure. The skin also allows for a shifting day/night presence and an expression of use. The building’s transparency allows the events inside to activate the life of the city outside, true to the spirit of the overall design. Through these interfaces the building and public spaces activate each other reciprocally.
Location: Oklahoma City, OK | Completion: 2015 | Size: 96,000 SF | Client: SandRidge Energy
