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PrintLiving aloft in downtown Tulsa
Industrial and art deco themes inspire a local couple’s second home.
The outside of Susie and Tom Wallace’s downtown loft fits in among the other 1930s architecture surrounding it.
After all, that was their goal.
“We wanted this to sort of look like it was just a found building that had been preserved somehow for 75 years,” says Tom Wallace of the new two-story building completed in summer 2009.
The structure is an addition to the Walsh Branding headquarters, which was the original Holloway Wire Rope Building built in the mid-1930s. The company’s offices occupy the first floor, while the Wallaces’ loft occupies the second.
The couple designed the loft with the help of Selser Schaefer Architects so that its potential would not be limited to residential space or to only a couple. They wanted it to be a multi-purpose space, perfect for home or general office use. Susie Wallace says the trusses were designed to support partitions if future owners want more rooms.
The couple own a traditional home in the Maple Ridge area of Tulsa as well, but they had always had a romanticized idea of loft living.
“I think that what you see on the TV and the movies you watch — you know, the loft environment with the big old-fashioned freight elevators — both intrigued us,” Susie says.
The 2,400-square-foot loft has a small entry area with stairs and an elevator leading guests to the second floor, complete with a living room, full kitchen, full and half baths, a “loft within a loft” bedroom space, a larger bedroom/office and multiple walk-in closets.
The couple’s eclectic style is apparent immediately through the décor in the open living and kitchen spaces. Artworks by Otto Duecker, Brooke Hair, Eva Miller and Mike Dwyer dot the walls, while two Eames lounge chairs and a vintage Eames coffee table complement a modern sofa, floating kitchen shelves and a colorful rug atop maple plank floors.
Industrial elements, including a kitchen island and bathroom cabinets made from stainless-steel Craftsman toolboxes, are used throughout the space and mixed with energy-efficient and modern touches.
One of those modern touches is a new TV mirror, displayed in the full-sized bathroom, a functional and entertaining splurge, the couple say.
The entire loft is filled with light, which streams in through skylights and large industrial-type windows. The home’s new steel casement windows are typical of the area and style but use double-insulated, low-emissivity, argon-filled glass. The windows are energy efficient and help block out much of the sound of the construction of ONEOK Field — the couple’s immediate neighbor to the east.
“It will be interesting to see what happens when the ballpark gets in because when we started this project, that wasn’t even being discussed,” Susie says. “It never discouraged us, but there is a real lack of knowledge of how that is actually going to affect us.”
The couple are looking forward to spending some time with their new neighbors.
“We’ve never had season tickets, but we have them now,” Tom says.
Three decks surrounding the loft provide great views. Recently, Living Arts of Tulsa, the Wallaces’ neighbor to the north, hosted a Day of the Dead celebration, which the couple could view from their bedroom deck.
“It was like a Fellini movie,” Tom says with a chuckle.
Where else but downtown could they hear a band playing Carlos Santana music while watching fire dancers rehearse and a group of skeleton puppets preparing for a parade — all from the comfort of their own bedroom?
As the largest space in the loft, the bedroom also serves as an office and occasional dining room, Susie says.
The couple eat many of their meals at downtown restaurants and entertainment venues by either walking or riding their bikes. One of the only drawbacks — and it’s not really a drawback, according to Tom — is parking.
“I anticipate sort of the perfect storm that we all want where the PAC has a show going on and the (BOK) arena’s got something going on and the baseball (stadium) has a concert or a baseball game going on and nobody can find a place to park, and isn’t that a horrible problem to have?” he says.
He says the parking situation is manageable and developers are preparing for it sensibly by tucking in spaces instead of opting for seas of parking that don’t reflect the urban environment.
He doesn’t have to worry about a spot at the office lot, either. Tom’s firm, Wallace Engineering, is in the Brady District. Now he lives just across Detroit Avenue from his office.
Since the loft’s completion, the couple and their youngest son, who is still in high school, have spent quite a bit of time there. 
“We lived here a month solid because it was just so enjoyable, and then we live here on the weekends,” Susie says. “We call it our lake house without a lake. It’s a great place to get away from our ‘normal’ environment.”
Tom, a self-proclaimed “brick hugger,” has taken to the environment that now surrounds him.
While this second home is not original industrial art deco, it lends itself to the neighborhood with its corrugated façade and red steel casement windows. Other buildings and warehouses in the district are for sale or currently under construction, and Tom says he hopes that others recognize the beauty in these architectural forms.
“Being a structural engineer, he sees these old metal buildings, he sees the beauty in that, where most people don’t necessarily understand why you would save an old metal building,” Susie says.
For the Wallaces, the proof is in their beautiful, livable loft.
