BAU_Butzer Architects and Urbanism

SLIVR reimagines an empty, narrow site on Oklahoma City’s historic Film Row, the site of Hollywood studio film warehouses until the 1960s. Later, the neighborhood fell into disrepair and was known locally as “skid row.” Over the past decade, local businesses have taken note of Film Row’s historic importance and potential for redevelopment.

SLIVR occupies a slim 25’ gap between two film warehouses that once backed up to an old rail line. One neighboring building still stands, while all that remains of its other neighbor is a single red brick wall. This historic carcass serves as the datum plane along, across, and above which old and new SLIVR spaces were conceived.

The extreme verticality of the atrium space emphasizes the entry and sets up the z-axis for a Cartesian play throughout the massing of the building. This three-story volume provides a shared point of visual reference for both the ground and upper floor tenants in order to encourage neighborly chance encounters.

The entry provides the fulcrum around which the linear massing of the existing building, its y-axis, is rotated to inform the placement of the new second story massing, its x-axis. The hovering x-axis addition, clad in corten and spanning the parking lot, recalls the boxcars that once delivered films. True to its Film Row roots, the boxcar’s white, sculpted underbelly now serves as a public film-screening venue for the annual Dead Center Film Festival.

Today, the award-winning SLIVR building is home to a variety of tenants in creative professions.