About the Project

• 

The I.M. Pei model is part of a collection owned by the Oklahoma City/County Historical Society. Rachel Mosman, a board member of the society and an archivist with the Oklahoma Historical Society launched the effort to bring the model back on display after working with more than 40,000 of 750,000 photos of pre-Urban Renewal era photos of downtown Oklahoma City.
Mosman was joined in this effort by Bob McCoy, president of the Oklahoma City/County Historical Society, and Bill Welge, director of research at the Oklahoma County Historical Society. Those enlisted to help in the effort were Justin Tyler Moore, who did much of the heavy lifting and also created this web site, Oklahoma City Councilman Pete White and Oklahoma City Clerk Frances Kersey, who helped secure a work space and display for the model, Matthew McClarty, a design professional who helped move the model and advised on its restoration, and Steve Lackmeyer, author and president of Retro Metro OKC, who assisted Mosman in coordinating the project and attracting supporters.

An architectural and design team helped on preparing the model for display. They include Wylie White, one of the nation’s premier architectural model builders, who assessed the model’s condition, architect Betsy Brunsteter, architectural model builder Dub Brunsteter, architect Anthony McDermid, and University of Oklahoma architecture professor Hans Butzer.
Also assisting in this project were Rob Smith, archivist with the Oklahoma Historical Society, Tom Anderson, special projects manager with the city, Gary Desjardins, manager of the Cox Convention Center, Paula Falkenstein, Peter A. Picket and Richard Stehr with the city’s General Services division.