Publish Date:
01/02/2014
Gold Standard
New Owner Has Big Plans for Historic Dome
The Gold Dome building in Oklahoma
C i t y h a s b e e n o n G r e g L o r s o n ’s
wish list for a decade. After a failed
attempt to acquire it, the property
seemed to taunt him each day as
he drove past it while taking his
daughter to school. And don’t even
get him started on a failed effort to
purchase the office tower across the
street from the dome.
“It’s been a running joke in my family,”
he says. “I’ve always loved the dome,
but 10 years ago, it was just out of
reach.”
In 2013, things changed; Lorson
purchased the Gold Dome from
David Box and quite possibly saved
it from the wrecking ball. He wasted
no time working on a plan to renovate
the property to house his company,
TEEMCO. It was a victor y long in
the making.
“Here we are now, and I actually have
the prize,” he says.
TEEMCO, an environmental
engineering firm, has 65 employees
that are settling into their new work
space in the historic 1958 building
along Route 66 at NW 23rd Street
and Classen Boulevard. By 2015,
Lorson hopes to have 100 people
working in the 27,000-square-foot
building. At its previous corporate
headquarters in Edmond, people
were working in every nook and
cranny available.
“Our growth was restrained because
we didn’t have a place to put
anyone,” he says.
Over the next few years, renovations
will be ongoing as the dome is
cleaned and restored and the interior
is outfitted with things like two large
aquariums and a large salt cr ystal
from Pakistan in the lobby.
Lorson says it made sense for
his engineers to ser ve as general
contractors for the renovations, but
for the architecture, he hired an old
friend of the dome. Architect Mike
Kertok is overseeing its renovation.
Kertok did the designs for a
renovation to the dome in 2005 to
office and retail space when it was
converted from a bank. TEEMCO
officials saw Kertok’s name on the
previous drawings and gave him a
call.
“I enjoyed working on it the first
time,” Kertok says. “It’s an interesting
building.”
He says a drop-down ceiling had
been added that obscured the interior
dome. Kertok removed the ceiling in
2005 and, using historic photographs
for reference, re-created suspended
light clouds that floated above the
lobby and illuminated the interior
dome. An elevator was added on
the east end to access the lower
level and the two upper floors, and
the building was brought up to code.
Coming back about eight years later,
Kertok found some problems like a
flooded basement, but otherwise, the
building was not a disaster.
“It’s in pretty good shape,” he says.
F o r p a s s e r s b y, t h e m o s t o b v i o u s
change is the restored gold luster
of the anodized aluminum dome.
Lorson says it was a daunting task
to abide by historic standards, due
TEEMCO Press Portfolio
59