ScissorTales: Will Oklahoma City's Stage Center be the next
'iconic' structure to come down?  Published: July 21, 2012
“ICONIC” is a word overused by a profession (our own) that seems
to find an iconic this or that on every block. Yet it's hard to
otherwise describe Stage Center in downtown Oklahoma City, said
to be an iconic piece of architecture that must be saved
primarily because it's an iconic piece of architecture.  That
it's not much else except an unused, deteriorating structure on
a valuable piece of land is self-evident. No one has come
forward to rescue this John Johansen-designed building that
opened in 1970 and is featured in architecture textbooks.  The
New York Times reported in April on a slew of Modernist
buildings reaching middle age and showing signs of decay.
Slapping the “iconic” label on such structures won't save them.
That takes cash and determination, the kind that rescued the
Skirvin Plaza Hotel but not the International-style Downtown
YMCA building.  The Union Tank Car Dome, a spit