Tulsa's McFarlin Building Makeover

One of downtown Tulsa's architectural jewels is getting shined up. The McFarlin building is one of the oldest buildings downtown, dating back nearly a century. <br/><br/>As News on 6 business reporter

Monday, May 22nd 2006, 10:01 am

By: News On 6

One of downtown Tulsa's architectural jewels is getting shined up. The McFarlin building is one of the oldest buildings downtown, dating back nearly a century.

As News on 6 business reporter Steve Berg explains, it's now sure to be around a while longer.

The upper floors sat vacant for the better part of 30 years, but now when you walk by the McFarlin building, you're likely to hear all kinds of racket, sawing and hammering, as they wrap up renovations on the eye-catching building. "It was in the McFarlin family, they were in the oil and cattle business years and years ago." Project supervisor Ron Lawrence says it's been interesting to be involved with a building with so much history behind it.

And he says they've gone to great lengths to keep the National Historic Register happy. "We've kept the original windows in it which is a big plus to that organization. We've gone through a lot of pain to refurbish them and bring them back to pristine condition."

Even though it's 100 years old, it's still in very good shape, Lawrence says, and surprisingly has given them very little trouble.

The windows that historical watchdogs like so well are also a marketing plus. You see, in spite of the glut of office space downtown, Lawrence says they're making more office space, but he's not worried. "We have windows on every floor that are on 3 sides of the building. Y'know people are wanting a lot of light. They want to get fresh air into them again.â€

The 5th floor will be done in June and will be offices for the building's owner. The 4th floor is already done and has a tenant. So that just leaves floors 2 and 3. They think they're in a good spot. "Y'know, it's about as downtown as you can get." About as historical as you can get too.

The McFarlin building was built in 1918 by oil man, banker, and philanthropist Robert McFarlin.