The Citizen is a mid-rise development in downtown Oklahoma City that from its inception set out to be a venue to promote civic discourse. Situated on a sensitive site overlooking the Oklahoma City National Memorial, the form of the building is lifted to create a landscaped undercroft, inviting a dialogue with the open space opposite, and enlivening the streetscape with restaurant and banking hall uses at ground floor. At lower levels, the Citizen houses a diverse mix of uses, with office suites to the upper stories.

The elevations were inspired by neighbouring 1930s architecture, and the detailing is an abstraction of their characteristic paired window arrangements and strong vertical emphasis. The generous openings are designed with flexibility in mind, accommodating the disparate functions envisaged now, but also with the ability to flex to different uses in the future. The party wall elevation, appearing above an existing parking garage, adopts a more playful composition, with its freer functional expression of the core exhibiting the vertical movement of people within. With its well-mannered exterior, and its offering of mixed public and private functions, the building itself is conceived as a citizen of the city.

2024
Location
Oklahoma CIty, USA
Client
JRB Citizen, LLC