The BOK Tower in Tulsa, Oklahoma, looks uncannily like the vanished Twin Towers of the New York City skyline and this is neither accidental nor coincidental. This skyscraper was constructed just a few years after its distant cousins in NYC, was designed by the same architect as the World Trade Center buildings, and explicitly intended to be a replica.

Indeed, it looks nearly identical, from its sleek vertical facade slits right down to its bi-level lobby, marble walls, hanging textiles and other interior design elements. It is a close copy in nearly every significant way, except … it is just half the size.

It all started with CEO John Williams, who was so impressed by the Twin Towers in New York that he hired the same architect, Minoru Yamasaki, to build four quarter-scale replicas of the towers in Tulsa. This quatruple-tower schemed faced a cost issue: four sets of elevators for four quarter-sized structures.

As the story goes, Williams then took the architectural model, grabbed one of the towers, put it on top of another, and decided to go with one half-height copy instead. The result is in essence a one-quarter copy: the building is half the height of one twinned tower, or a fourth of the combined height (image below by Caleb Long).

Initially called One Williams Center, the single quarter-footprint, half-as-high replica stands 667 feet tall and was the tallest building not just in Tulsa but in all of the Plains States when it was built. It was completed in 1976, just three years after the World Trade Center towers in New York.

One might be left wondering, however: why does the tower not get more recognition as a close relation of two iconic, beloved and now-fallen buildings in the Big Apple? For one thing, it is a rather minimalist Modernist skyscraper, much like many others found in cities around the United States (and the world) from the mid-Century period.

Perhaps most importantly, though, it lacks the most defining characteristic of its cousins, an essential quality, as noted by French philosopher Baudrillard, of ‘double-ness’ that truly defined the Twin Towers. In many ways, that characteristic of ‘being twinned’ is what made them internationally iconic, standing out against more decorative (but singular) structures in the skyline.

Today, One World Trade Center stands as a symbol of unity, looking almost like two intersected towers rotated around a central axis then fused. This single structure manages, in a way, to capture the twinned aspect of the former towers, now memorialized on the pavement below.

Riding to the top observation deck of 1 World Trade Center opening next month, visitors will be treated to a dizzying view of the city below, but not the one they might expect – instead of looking out windows, they will see their surroundings on lifelike screens, enveloping them in a time-lapse view of New York City’s historic evolution. All of this is packed into a trip that lasts less than sixty seconds (video below).

Inevitably included in this fast-paced vertical ride through history is a view of one of the former Twin Towers, which appears then vanishes off to the right, reflecting its (brief in this speedy history) real-world existence and subsequent absence. This inclusion was contentious and thoroughly debated among all involved parties, but the creators hope it will be seen by the public as a tribute to the fallen towers or at least under as a necessity for accuracy.

A circular display on one panel scrolls up through the years rather than heights, highlighting the fast passage of time, while a settlement and city emerge from the once-open island on all sides. The show was designed and produced by the Hettema Group and Blur Studio in conjunction with architects of Montroy Andersen DeMarco.

The New York Times sets the scene: “Nine 75-inch, high-definition monitors are arrayed in each cab behind windowlike mullions to convey the impression that one is in a glass-walled elevator. At first, one feels enclosed in bedrock. The year is 1500 and the elevator is 55 feet below ground. As it rises, time advances. The cab seems to head skyward from an offshore marsh, a reminder that the trade center site was originally underwater.”

The experience is as historically complete as it is educational and immersive: “A peaceful riverfront settlement is then seen, just before the Europeans arrive. Soon enough, the still verdant island is dotted with the steep, crow-stepped gables of New Amsterdam, as windmill vanes poke up over the treetops.”

“Height records are made and broken by a succession of tallest towers: the Park Row Building, the Singer Building, the Woolworth Building and the original trade center. Then, the steel framework of the new 1 World Trade Center seems to assemble itself around the cab before visitors once again find themselves within an enclosed space — this time, an elevator shaft.”