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The new City Hall at One Technology Center has created a one-stop shop for city offices while using environmentally friendly practices.
“A New Kind of Energy” is on the tips of the tongues of city employees who are now settled into One Technology Center (OTC), home of the new City Hall.
“It feels healthy here, having sunlight come in from all the windows,” says Kim MacLeod, City of Tulsa communications manager. “The light creates a new kind of energy.”
Mayor Kathy Taylor is working to re-brand Tulsa for the 21st century, and the September 2007 purchase of the former WilTel Technology Center is a step in that direction.
The move to OTC at 175 E. Second St. took about one year and $76 million for the building and moving costs. The official dedication of the new location of City Hall took place Jan. 22.
Several departments and more than 1,000 employees from 10 buildings are consolidated into one high-performance building, streamlining productivity and reducing energy needs by 30 percent.
“The old city hall couldn’t support our technology,” says Kim Meloy, City of Tulsa communications officer. “It wasn’t keeping up with this century.”
1. The Mayor’s office and city management offices share the 15th floor with the Bank of Oklahoma. Guests may visit city offices on the fifth, sixth, eighth and 15th floors after receiving a visitor’s badge at the information desk on the street level.
2. The OTC’s exterior glass is a low-emissive glass curtain wall, which keeps cool air in and allows for 50 percent less cooling from air conditioning inside the building.
The OTC uses limited night lighting for security and maintenance needs, but the lights reflect off the white ceilings, giving the illusion that the building’s exterior is brightly lit.
3. City Council offices, building permits and licenses services, Grants Administration/Tulsa Area Agency on Aging and development services are on the fourth floor.
4. Conference rooms and TGOV, Tulsa Government Access Television, make up the third floor.
5. One Technology Center has unique sustainability features, including a solar well, which allows OTC to use approximately 50 percent of the energy of comparable buildings. The Central Plant across the street has thermal energy storage and energy re-generation capabilities.
6. Each floor has a recycling system. Public information announcements, which were once printed, are now displayed on screens on the street level, reducing paper volume by 40 percent. Also, the City Legal Department left behind its law library, transferring most of its searches to online search engines.
7. Utility and municipal ticket payments can now be made online at www.cityoftulsa.org. In-person payments can be made on the second floor of OTC, which houses cashiers, the city clerks office, the human resources employment office and the newly built City Council chambers.
