Tulsa's Gathering Place Lodge Closer To Completion

In just over 11 weeks, the playground at the Gathering Place opens for its first field trips while construction wraps up on the rest of the park.

The Williams Lodge is one of the largest buildings at the Gathering Place, but it's designed to look like it's part of the landscape — surrounded by and built with Oklahoma native stone.

1/26/2017 Related Story: Native Stonework Making Tulsa’s Gathering Place Distinctly Oklahoman

The outside of the lodge is still a heavy construction site as stone masons place a semi load of rock each day.

Each piece was precision cut at the quarry and labeled for a specific spot.

 "All these stones come preconditioned for each location on the wall," said Jeff Stava, project manager.

The stone work will cover the outside of the Williams Lodge, which by design will appear to emerge from the landscape.

"They've gotten the landscape stone work done on the north side and they're still working on the east and south side," Stava said.

The lodge has a massive interior with a prime view of the pond, and the inside is dominated by the stone fireplace large enough to walk inside.

"Both of the buildings will be unique and architecturally significant in different ways. The lodge will be a natural stone, it will look like the earth moved and the building grew out of it, with all the large sandstone walls on the north side and on the sandstone formations on the south side," Stava said.

Construction workers are almost halfway done closing in the lodge from the weather using floor and ceiling glass.

Once that's complete the finishing work inside will take the next few months.

Stava said it was a key goal of the architect to make the building spectacular - yet part of the landscape at the same time.

"So it doesn't look like a building was built and the landscaping was done around it," Stava said.