The Central Idea
 

https://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/...Breaking%20New

An ASU proposed project for the central core of Phoenix from the ASU Downtown Campus to the Heard Museum. Walkable with shade.

This article has a hard paywall, is there some more information about this project from other sources?

Not sure what I did, but somehow the paywall didn‘t block me the 2nd time I tried. Here‘s the part of the article referring to the Phoenix portion/Central Idea.

https://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/...su-growth.html

"Downtown Phoenix, Tempe are key parts for ASU's real estate expansion

Corina VanekNov 15, 2020, 11:00am MST

"Crow said the university is in the early stages of working with a donor to create a museum downtown and will likely eventually need another academic building and another residence hall at the fast-growing downtown campus.

ASU also is aiming to revive an old idea that had been floated years ago by Duke Reiter, a senior adviser to Crow and executive director of University City Exchange, called “The Central Idea.” The idea is to create an urban core along a 1.5-mile stretch of Central Avenue from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication building to the Heard Museum. It hinges on creating a walkable, shaded stretch along that route.

An impact analysis commissioned by ASU in 2016 estimated the implementation of the Central Idea would have an additional $193.5 million annual economic impact to the area when paired with organic growth.

“What we're looking at is that we think downtown Phoenix, along Central through Hance Park, all the way up to the museum district is one of the coolest places in the country to build a signature downtown district, linking everything together,” Crow said.

The increased shade and changes to Phoenix’s ideas of urban planning will be essential as Arizona continues to experience hotter and longer summers, he said."

I was curious about this "Central Idea" when I first read the article posted up on the ASU Downtown thread. Did some quick research.

Here is a slide deck that was presented back in 2018:
http://arizonagrantmakersforum.org/w...ntral-Idea.pdf

And here is a YouTube video link about "The Future of Downtown Phoenix" where Duke Reiter talks about this:
• Video Link

Source: http://arizonagrantmakersforum.org/a...ntown-phoenix/

City of Phoenix would be wise to let ASU implement this plan. Tempe Town Lake was an ASU brainchild and now north Tempe is the most high value land in the metro.

Not sure if I'm missing something, but I don't see much of a plan. I see a bunch of examples of stuff, but no cohesive proposal...

I really don't know why anyone would look to ASU as an example of urban design as every their downtown buildings are mostly single-use fortresses.

If ASU wants to spend its money dolling up Central Avenue's right of way, that'd be great, but I would prefer landowners realize their own value in underutilized parcels and redevelop them accordingly.

I just don't get it... it's like "bike lanes, shade, etc." which are all good things but i don't see how that's really a plan. And I don't see what good it does when the stretch they're talking about is almost fully developed already. It's not some abandoned stretch of land like the lake was that creates some wonderful opportunity for development.

Very fortunate for the Phoenix area
 

That both Jerry Colangelo and Michael Crow came to call this place home. Without them IMO, Phoenix would be a glorified El Centro.

It's far from fully developed, there's a parking lot on nearly every block or room for adaptive reuse or total redevelopment.

The big problem is that some of the land owners are long term land bankers or various people that have no vision or finances. Like, on Central and Roosevelt, we have plenty of room for improvement:

- Redeveloping the radio building like rehabbing a couple of the structures to the south and building the CBS Tower with a giant display over Roosevelt
- Sliver hotel building on the church parking lot
- Relocating the substation turning the light rail triangle into a plaza
- Redeveloping those crummy 1-story buildings on the east side of central and infilling a couple of the parking lots--lots of lots to assemble.

With all that, we'd have Phoenix's Times Square.