Topping-Out Ceremony Held for New Gilcrease Museum

Photo Credit: City of Tulsa

(TULSA, Okla.) City of Tulsa and Gilcrease Museum officials hosted a Topping-Out Ceremony Wednesday for the new Gilcrease Museum, a Vision Tulsa project under construction. Speakers at the event were Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum, Executive Director of Gilcrease Museum and the Helmerich Center for American Research Susan Neal, and David Kollmann, Flintco Central Region President.  

“Through Gilcrease, our city-owned museum, Tulsans own the greatest collection of American art and history outside of that owned by the federal government,” Mayor G.T. Bynum said. “We are building a newly designed and improved Gilcrease Museum, a facility that is worthy of this treasure that we own.” 

“Topping-Out” celebrates the tallest steel beam of a structure. Since before the Middle Ages, builders have observed topping out to formalize completion of the exterior framing of new buildings. According to some Indigenous cultures, no structure should be taller than the tallest tree, and a tree has been attached to the tallest beam.  

Since this event was rescheduled from an earlier date, construction of the museum, meanwhile, has progressed beyond the hoisting of the tallest beam. Guests at the ceremony signed metal panels that will be incorporated into the museum building. The panels will be placed inside the walls near the elevator shaft. With the anticipated building completion date of November 2024, the exhibits fabrication completion allowing the building to be open to the public will follow.  

Holding a priceless and vast collection, Gilcrease Museum is the city’s most valuable cultural asset and home to more than 350,000 objects related to the art, history and culture of the Americas. The new, 92,000+-square-foot museum will have increased gallery space to show more of the Gilcrease collection, accommodate traveling exhibitions and ensure best-in-class preservation of the museum’s invaluable art, artifacts and documents, in addition to outdoor spaces that will allow visitors to enjoy the natural environment surrounding the museum.  

“We join the mayor in celebrating this important threshold for Gilcrease and share Tulsans’ love and enthusiasm for this museum, which is so much a part of our city’s cultural identity. We can’t wait to serve the many diverse communities of Tulsa and put this asset to work as a cultural destination for our region,” said Susan Neal, Executive Director of Gilcrease Museum and the Helmerich Center for American Research. 

The City of Tulsa recognizes the teamwork for the new Gilcrease Museum: 

Construction Manager – Flintco 

Design architects and engineers – SmithGroup 

Local architect – 1 Architecture  

Local mechanical electrical/fire protection engineers – Phillips + Gomez 

Structural engineering – 360 Engineering 

Landscape, site, and civil design – Wallace Design Collective 

Exhibit Design – Gallagher & Associates 

Gilcrease Museum staff  

“Reaching the “topping out” milestone is always something to celebrate but even more so on this iconic project that will impact our entire community,” said David Kollmann, Flintco Central Region President. 

A city owned and managed project, the new Gilcrease Museum is designed by SmithGroup, one of the world’s preeminent integrated design firms. Gilcrease Museum’s new building is conceptually centered on reconnecting humankind to nature. Located within the Osage Nation reservation boundaries, the new building design contains subtle references to Osage culture. The museum is conceived to align cardinal directions with natural elements and experiences: north/sky, south/earth, west/night, and east/day. The color and material palettes for the building reflect the art deco styles found throughout Tulsa, including the use of stone and gilded metals in concert with natural tones of the land and sky.  

The lower level of the building is comprised of earth tones, creating a connection to the ground, while the upper level utilizes sky tones, blurring the line between architecture and the sky. A three-story atrium will help orient visitors while other spaces throughout the building frame views of downtown and north Tulsa, and panoramic views of the Osage Hills that will create experiential moments between visitors and the “Great American Landscape” that surrounds the museum and grounds. 

Gilcrease Museum chose Gallagher & Associates, an internationally recognized museum and cultural institution planning and design firm, to design new exhibitions and galleries in collaboration with the Gilcrease curatorial team. The new museum will create opportunities for Gilcrease to better serve Tulsans and visitors through its programming and exhibitions while exploring broad, complex stories of American history, art and culture.