Making Headlines: Swinney Hardware Overhaul

Talmadge Powell Creative will make historic building in Kendall Whittier its new headquarters

With the help of Selser Schaefer Architects, Talmadge Powell Creative will turn the roughly 11,000 square foot Depression-era Swinney Hardware building into its new headquarters. Tulsa World featured the historic Kendall Whittier building’s transformation into an event planning, branding and media production company.

 “In January, the firm’s partners purchased the structure from Ross Group for $1.5 million, and they are expected to sink another $2 million into it, Managing Partner Pat Chernicky wrote in an email.” ““It’s been a lengthy process, but I think it will be worth it to bring it back to life,” Todd Pyland, creative director and principal at TPC, said in a telephone interview. “One of the things that drew us to Kendall-Whittier was the fact that there are photographers, art galleries, furniture stores, great restaurants and coffee shops … new bars going in. I just felt like we were a nice addition to that whole community.”

“”For 74 years until the store’s closing in 2008, Swinney Hardware was an anchor of the Kendall-Whittier district, which includes Lewis Avenue and three blocks east and west of Lewis, between 11th and Independence streets. It and the Brady Arts District in Tulsa are among only seven certified cultural districts in the state, according to the Oklahoma Arts Council.”