[oklahoma-l] FW: NewView in the News

[Lynn Golightly]

-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Ruth [mailto:markruth at cox.net] 
Sent: Monday, December 21, 2009 10:54 AM
To: VICKY GOLIGHTLY
Subject: Fw: NewView in the News


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nedra Ruth" <NRuth at olb.org>
Sent: Monday, December 21, 2009 9:32 AM
Subject: NewView in the News


























These Walls: Lone Star Brewery - Oklahoma City

by M. Scott Carter
The Journal Record

December 21, 2009


http://www.journalrecord.com/article.cfm?recid=105409



OKLAHOMA CITY - Just to the west of downtown Oklahoma City, nestled in the 
area where they move steel and ship freight, the old Lone Star Brewery 
towers over the 500 block of Douglass Avenue.



Built in 1935, the 165,000-square-foot building was designed by the 
architectural firm of Noftster, Lawrence and Fleischer. Originally the home 
of the Progress Brewing Co., the building features two lower wings and a 
large central tower. It was sold in 1959 as the 10th and largest expansion 
of the Lone Star Brewing Co.



Considered to be one of the world's most beautiful breweries, the Lone Star 
Brewery operated the plant until they sold it in 1973.



And then the Lone Star building changed careers.



Instead of a home for barley, hops and lots of beer, the Lone Star building 
became the home of the Oklahoma League for the Blind.



And the organization remains there today.



Now known as NewView Oklahoma, the nonprofit agency provides employment and 
training services for Oklahoma's visually impaired residents.



And they do it from a former brewery.



"If you would have told me I would be in this building many years ago, it I 
would have laughed," said NewView Oklahoma's president, Lauren White. "It's 
pretty evident by looking at our building it's a brewery."



No matter. It's also large and provides the space needed for programs. But 
the brewery can't hind from its past.

Take, for example, the board room.



Decorated like a Bavarian village, the board room features floor-to-ceiling 
murals and beer-barrel-style taps - no longer functioning - on the walls. 
Across the beamed ceiling the icons of various brewmeisters still shine.

And White has no plans for change.



"I think people realize it's a pretty remarkable room," she said. "I don't 
think anyone has the heart to do something different."



Dominating the center of the building, the tower houses many of NewView's 
programs. The organization's manufacturing operations are located on the 
first and second floors. The third floor is vacant. White said the fourth 
floor is currently being renovated and the fifth floor is leased.



"We're remodeling it for our lifestyle training center," she said. "But it's

a great building."



And while not every space fits exactly with New View's operation, White said

the structure has become NewView Oklahoma's home and has served as the 
platform to launch many new programs.



One of the programs, if implemented, could put the old Lone Star Brewery 
back in the bottling business - only this time without the buzz.



"Not everyone knows this, but we set on three deepwater wells," White said. 
"And for a couple of years now, we've been working on a project to bottle 
and sell drinking water. We're still trying to figure out the distribution 
component with the federal government, but I believe that sometime soon it 
will happen."



It is a new mission for a historic brewery and the organization that made it

their home.



The Journal Record profiles a significant Oklahoma City or Tulsa building in

"These Walls" every Friday and Monday.





--
Rob Crissinger
Crissinger | Public Relations
405.401.6323
rcrissinger at gmail.com