Rand Elliott Architects illuminates Oklahoma City through design

Downtown’s Oklahoma Contemporary continues its collection of accolades, most recently awarded a top architectural honor for the façade of its campus centerpiece “Folding Light.” 

The Honor Award of Excellence in Craft was awarded to Chamber member Rand Elliott Architects by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Central Oklahoma in celebration of the firm’s feat. This acknowledgment marks the 19th award given to Rand Elliott Architects for the firm’s design of the Oklahoma City landmark. 

“We don’t do projects to win awards. That’s never our motivation. Our motivation is to do something special for the community or the place that we’re working in,” Principal architect Rand Elliott said. 

“Most people don’t think of Oklahoma, and Oklahoma City in particular, as being a mecca for great architecture. Today, [Oklahoma Contemporary] has won 19 awards: and they’re local, they’re national, they’re international. All you want and hope for is that people recognize its value, its contribution to the community and that it’s making a difference.” 

“Nineteen times, people from all over the world have recognized this building, and it’s really connected to them. So that’s a great satisfaction to us.” 

Exterior aluminum fins of "Folding Light" building.

The building’s exterior is a durable design, which complements the city’s skylight, while also serving as a rainscreen and wind-resistant cooling system of sorts, allowing for low maintenance. Details such as overflow drains can often be seen as a distraction from a building’s overall aesthetic. However, “Folding Light” seamlessly incorporates this necessary building feature within aluminum camouflage, with a crisp L-angle separation between the concrete plinth and fins of the building. 

“The façade is articulated with varying levels of porosity which are evident as a spectrum from exterior to interior,” an AIA Central Oklahoma Awards jury commented. 

“The enclosure responds to the environment with a poetic rhythm, enhancing the tactile quality of the building to humanize the scale of the building and activating the building in a masterful way. The detail of the façade works at multiple scales, creating kaleidoscopic reflections at a distance to glow at the micro scale,” jury comments continued. 

Interior staircase of Oklahoma Contemporary's "Folding Light" building.

A theater, dance studio, classrooms and more make up the interior of the contemporary arts center. Even the staircase – often boring and lackluster in design – reflects the artistic angle taken in designing this building. 

Elliott emphasized the firm’s mission in designing works, stating, “There are three things that we’re always focused on: place, purpose and poetics.” The architect said these key values serve as a foundation of the firm’s work: 

“The place is obviously embracing where a building is. And for us, it’s Oklahoma. It’s Oklahoma City.  Our focus is an inspiring point of view. So, the place part of it for us translated to this notion about the quality of light that we have. We all know that our weather changes instantly, especially on the sunny days. But even on the gray days, this building takes on the persona of the place. It doesn’t belong anywhere else. It doesn’t fit any place else. It’s right here. 

We believe that a building’s purpose should be recognized and celebrated. In this particular instance, the purpose is about an art center. Its purpose is education. So, the idea was to create a building that, whether you’re a child or an adult, is a place you go and you’re inspired. You see things you’ve never seen before. You might send your kids to classes and expose them to things that they’d never been exposed to before. How do we give a building purpose? It’s about serving the community. 

The poetics are really connected directly to the architectural process. Can it offer curiosity? Can it recognize function in a beautiful way? That’s one of my favorite ways to describe what architecture is. It’s about taking function and making it beautiful, and we’ve treated function in that building in a unique way several times.” 

The nearly invisible inclusion of the downspout, acoustics of the interior staircase and positioning of the building itself, which creates a naturally shaded deck to the north side, all magnify the firm’s mission of creating functional, beautiful spaces.

Oklahoma Contemporary "Folding Light" building from the (left) southwest and (right) northeast corners.

Due to the previously existing Campbell Art Park, the Contemporary’s “Folding Light” sits slightly behind the main street but uses a lantern along the southwest corner of the building to help mark the campus entry and attract visitors along Broadway Avenue. 

Once on campus, the building’s entrance can be found on its backside. A canopy, inspired by the tall grass prairies of Oklahoma, greets guests as they approach from the adjoined parking lot. 

“Sometimes those things that you have to seek out make them more interesting.” 

As more and more people seek out Oklahoma City as a travel destination, the city’s architecture will serve as a welcoming statement. How the city adapts to the world’s ever-changing design trends, while preserving its own unique features will be imperative in presenting an authentic representation of the local culture and community. 

“Often a building is designed in a vacuum, and it really doesn’t necessarily have a relationship to where it’s being built,” Elliott said. 

“That’s bothersome to me because then the place doesn’t matter. It’s just an object on the landscape. If you were going to build something in Alaska, that’s very different than Oklahoma City, which is very different than California, which is very different from other places.” 

“Some of the greatest buildings in the world are a response to the place that they exist.” 

Rand Elliott Architects is an Oklahoma City-based architecture firm with hundreds of awards and features, including 10 National American Institute of Architects Honor Awards for Architecture. The small team has designed several standout projects within the city, including Chesapeake, Devon and CHK Central boathouses, Ballet Oklahoma, Classen Curve and more. 

Oklahoma Contemporary is a nonprofit organization committed to providing the community with quality, accessible and affordable arts programming and education.