Tulsa: The Terracotta City

This is a thread about my hometown, the insanely underrated gem of Tulsa, Okla. Tulsa has 393,987 people with 961,561 in the metropolitan area and 1,131,458 in the Combined Statistical Area.

It is a fascinating city, indeed one of the only cities in America that blends Southern beauty, cowboy culture and Midwest hospitality into one. Tulsa boomed in the early part of the 1900s when oil was found nearby in Glenn Pool. With the oil boom came wealth and at one point Tulsa was named not just the Oil Capital of the World but the Terracotta City, a symbol of the city's architectural rise. Downtown grew rapidly peppering the city with a new form of architecture called Art Deco. Indeed, Tulsa has one of the highest per capita ratios of Art Deco buildings to people. With oil wealth came mansions befit for kings and world-class parks. World War II put a stop to Tulsa's preeminence and the rise of Houston and the increase of Middle East oil put a stop to Tulsa's bountiful riches. But today Tulsa still remains a beautiful city, replete with rose gardens, world-class art museums, and lots of architectural gems. It is a quiet city, one of those "cities to raise a family" type of places. But with a revitalized Downtown and increasing investment in many of the city's older districts (Blue Dome, Brady Arts, Brookside, Deco District, Greenwood, The Pearl, The Rose District, SoBo), Tulsa's future is bright.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

I: Philbrook Museum of Art - 04/12/2014 (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1718661)
II: Brady Arts District - 04/19/2014 (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=113356101#post113356101)
III: Riverside - 04/28/2014 (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=113723282#post113723282)
IV: Blue Dome District - 05/16/2014 (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=114115829#post114115829)
V: [Art] Deco District, Downtown (CBD) and Mayfest - 05/18/2014 (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=114532986#post114532986)
→ V.1: Boston Avenue District/Church District - 05/18/2014 (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=115400783#post115400783)
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PLAN OF ACTION:
VI: Tulsa Zoo and Mohawk Park
VII: Jenks Main Street and the Oklahoma Aquarium
VIII: Brookside
IX: Rose District
X: Greenwood and Oklahoma State University-Tulsa
XI: East Village and SoBo
XII: The Pearl District and the University of Tulsa
XIII: Kendall-Whittier and Swan Lake
XIV: Utica Square and Woodward Park
XV: Promenade Mall and Woodland Hills Mall
XVI: Cherry Street
XVII: Route 66 and Admiral Twin
XVIII: Gilcrease Museum
XIX: Expo Square and the Golden Driller
XX: South Tulsa, Oral Roberts University and the Sherwin Miller Museum of Jewish Art

PART 1: THE PHILBROOK MUSEUM OF ART, APRIL 12, 2014

Today, I'll showcase some pictures I took in the Philbrook Museum of Art, one of Tulsa's greatest showpieces of its wealth and beauty. Since these are my own pictures, the thread will only be updated once I get around to another part of town and snap up enough pictures of a new district to merit new posts. But since I took a ton of pictures in Philbrook, I'm hopeful you guys will enjoy Tulsa just as much as I do.

I'll do 2 pics per post for those with slower bandwidth. So that would be 40 pics per page, hopefully not too many!

So let's start.

Philbrook Museum of Art:

1. The entrance to the Philbrook Museum


2.