The Pickup's Arts & Culture coverage is supported by Brut Hotel, featuring a rooftop VIP after party for Tulsa Irish Fest on March 14.
When Tom McCarthy isn’t giving tours as a docent for the Tulsa Foundation for Architecture (TFA) or featuring in their new series of Instagram Reels documenting Tulsa buildings, he’s probably reading about Bruce Goff. The retired newsman who worked for the LA Times and Associated Press, among others, has recently been researching Goff for his volunteer work with TFA. “They asked me to dig into him and report back on what I found,” he told me, “And I’ve never been heard from since.” I met McCarthy in the Lobby of the Tulsa Club Hotel to learn what he had found.
Z.B. Reeves: What about the Tulsa Club makes it a Bruce Goff?
Tom McCarthy: Goff designed this building and it was completed at the end of 1927; it was a sensation. There was nothing in Tulsa like it. He designed it in a style that was very modern at the time.