Renovation to uncover 1906 facade
The Investors Capital Building, one of t he city's oldest commercials tructures, is about to be restored to its original pre-statehood appearance.
The five-story building at 217 N Harvey Ave. was built in 1906 as the home of the Western Newspaper Union.
The building, like so many, was covered with a different facade int he 1960s intended to give it a modern appearance. The building had been sold to Oklahoma County and the territorial-era brick facade was covered with white rock panels and the windows were covered with gold-colored metal screens.
The screens were removed several years ago. An investigation by TAP Architecture into the remaining fake facade found significant damage requiring its removal.
“There are areas falling apart and angles rusted through that are holding up
the stonework,” architect John Ward said. “When they put this up in the 1960s they didn't do the building any favors.”
Investigations into the structural integrity of the facade began after parts of the crumbling panels started falling into the sidewalk and street.
“We took off a few of the stone panels,” Ward said. “We determined the original brick is in awesome shape. There is damage where they did facelifts over the years and drilled holes and fasteners. But we can fix all that.”
When the building was built, it was located along a railyard that was removed in the 1930s to make way for the“Civic Center” consisting of City Hall, the Civic Center Music Hall, the Oklahoma County
courthouse and the police headquarters.
Western Newspaper Union, which was based in Omaha, was the largest of a series of “syndicates” that provided metal plates imprinted with national and international news that could be fit into the printing presses of smaller newspapers at a time when they were the only source of such news in rural communities.
Plans to be present ed Thursday to the Downtown Design Review Commission call for installing energy efficient window systems, restoration of ground level storefronts to their original condition, removal of all cladding not original to the building, cast stone repair and removing all the paint coating.
Some damaged bricks will be reversed while replacement bricks will be pulled from the south alley side of the building not visible to the public.
“One of the reasons the brick exterior did as well as it did is the brick is not face brick, i t's paver brick,” Ward said .“The brick they used is pretty much impervious to water getting in.”
With a lobby entrance largely unchanged since the 1950s, the Capital Investors Building won't look much different from when it was home to Western Newspaper Union.
The most notice able difference between the building' s appearance when it opened and what it will look like when renovated is the window selection, which will still consist of full pane windows.
“We're not trying to do a pure restoration,” Ward said. “It's not on the historic register but we' re trying to be faithful to the original context and take the very best from what it was originally while using modern materials.”