Oral Roberts University broke ground on its first new residential building in more than 40 years Wednesday in response to nearly a decade of student growth. A host of university and city officials gathered at the future site of the new building, which will be built where the Braxton Residence Hall used to sit between Christ's Chapel and Howard Auditorium, to celebrate the long-anticipated housing project. Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum told a crowd of onlookers he was excited to witness the first groundbreaking for a residence hall at ORU in his lifetime."I think it is so much more than housing, though," Bynum said. "It is a symbol of the renaissance that's occurring at this university."The $10-million building will feature separate towers for male and female students, with a lobby connecting the two. Because of the uneven ground where it'll be located, one tower will have four floors while the other will have three. Officials do not yet know for which gender the taller tower will be … [Read more...] about ORU breaks ground on first new housing since 1976
1976
Junkyard Find: 1976 Plymouth Volaré Coupe
A-Body Plymouth Valiant (and its Dodge sibling, the Dart), stayed in American production from the 1960 model year all the way through 1976. Legendary for its sturdiness, the Valiant was sure to be a tough act to follow. The Plymouth Volarés and Dodge Aspens appeared in 1976, never gained the affection given to their predecessors, and were facelifted and renamed the Gran Fury and Diplomat in 1981. Here’s a luxed-up first-year Volaré I spotted in a Northern California self-service yard. Slant-6 engine, rated at an even 100 horses in 1976, but some junkyard shopper purchased it by the time I got there. You could get a 180-horsepower 360 V8 in the 1976 Volaré, but not in California, where the 150 horsepower 318 was the most powerful Volaré engine. cashmere-like cloth-and-vinyl” seat upholstery in 1976, but this one has the all-vinyl buckets. Volaré Premier Coupe. The Premier with Slant-6 started at $4,402, versus $3,324 for the regular Volaré … [Read more...] about Junkyard Find: 1976 Plymouth Volaré Coupe
10 Most-Expensive American Coupes of 1976
1976 Ford Thunderbird There is no longer space in the American new-car marketplace for vehicles with hoods and trunklids that consume more linear space than their passenger compartments do. While I know that the passing of the giant coupe was inevitable, I also lament that automotive designers no longer have a free hand with such large and expressive canvases. Personal-Luxury Place Holder: 1975-1976 Ford Elite As things turned out, 1976 was something of a benchmark year for the luxury-coupe segment. Oldsmobile and Buick, for example, would drop their 455-cubic-inch engines after the ’76 model year, and Cadillac would lose its monstrous 500-inch V8 as well. (Lincoln, however, would hold on to its 460-cid mill through the 1978 model year.) This would also be the Ford Thunderbird’s last year as a true luxury car. The T-Bird would be significantly downsized and decontented for 1977—and become much more popular in the process. To celebrate the the big … [Read more...] about 10 Most-Expensive American Coupes of 1976
1976: Football, meat pies, kangaroos and Holden cars
From 1974 through 1976, Chevrolet ran a series of television advertisements with a maddeningly catchy "Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie and Chevrolet" song, no doubt causing owners of cars made by Oldsmobile and Buick -- companies founded in 1897 and 1899, respectively -- to gnash their teeth over that named-after-a-Swiss-guy 1911 upstart being pitched as somehow the most American of cars. GM's Australian Chevrolet counterpart, Holden, created a similar ad campaign with the same song and different lyrics. Football, meat pies, kangaroos and Holden cars! This one stars a Holden HX sedan sliding around in the dirt, much as its Chevelle counterparts did in the Northern Hemisphere.The American version shows such not-as-cool-as-the-Holden-HX 1975 machinery as the Vega and Monza, though we see a C10 shortbed and some interesting old Chevrolets as well. Murilee Martin … [Read more...] about 1976: Football, meat pies, kangaroos and Holden cars
1976: Nebbishy bank clerk becomes Econoline Stud
Ford made the third-generation Econoline van from 1975 all the way through 1991, and some of the wildest customs seen during the height of the vanning era were built on the first of the "long nose" Econolines.The custom-van craze became sufficiently mainstream that, by the end of the decade, Ford sold factory-built "if this van's a-rockin" customs, but in 1976 it was a radical step for a major automaker to even suggest that customers ought to turn their vehicles into rolling depravity parlors.Here we see Merton Grundy escaping the grind of his soul-destroying 9-to-5 via his seriously disco-fied new Econoline, which effects one of the greatest transformations of a vehicle owner ever depicted in a television advertisement. Murilee Martin See more by this author» … [Read more...] about 1976: Nebbishy bank clerk becomes Econoline Stud