Arizona State Capitol
 

I was thinking about how bad our capitol building and mall are (as one does on a Tuesday) and got going on a rabbit hole of past capitol building/mall renovation proposals. Some of this may be old news to those here that are into this stuff, but I thought it would be an interesting thread to discuss past proposals and current ideas to rennovate/improve.

First, I found a great PDF of an Arizona Architect magazine from 1957, when there was a big proposal to revamp the capitol building and mall: https://modernphoenix.net/aiaphoenix...t_Vol1_No1.pdf. It discusses the history of the capitol building and mall:

Original 19th Century full proposal, of which only a part was built:

https://i.imgur.com/MyneiFsh.jpg

West wing completed in 1939. Funny story about the cement for the steps disappearing:

https://i.imgur.com/ztxkuYeh.jpg

1938 'skyscraper' plan:

https://i.imgur.com/QzHBjoRh.jpg

1954 modern capitol proposal:

https://i.imgur.com/fEKZMu2h.jpg

Approved 1957 plan that the House did not consider, which led to our current 'wings':

https://i.imgur.com/sjr1FYHh.jpg

1957 mall plan:

https://i.imgur.com/hyw8IU5h.jpg

Famously, as part of the 1957 renovation process, Frank Lloyd Wright submitted an unsolicited proposal:

https://i.imgur.com/YH3Y863h.jpg

The Frank Lloyd Wright foundation recently partnered with an architect to produce new renders of what it would have looked like (https://www.designboom.com/art/frank...-11-28-2020/):

https://i.imgur.com/LdmKKCCh.jpg

I also found a Wayback Machine copy of a 2005 ASU student project that summarizes post-1957 mall renovation proposals as part of introducing their own proposal (https://web.archive.org/web/20090506...capitalmall/):

1969 capitol mall plan:

https://i.imgur.com/bAdRB7Wh.jpg

The ASU project also discusses 1973, 1987 and 1997 updates and revisions to the planning for the mall.

I personally would have loved the 1954 proposal. Overall though I'm reminded of a pithy line from a sci-fi novel I read: "Only fascists should make cities. Democrats never have a salient thesis."

Anyone here been sitting on a grand plan to revamp the capitol? Anyone think we'll see a new capitol building in our lifetimes?

How can you not love those turn of the century revivalist designs!

At every turn, previous leadership always seemed to prefer cheap and ugly. The general disdain for government and state government in particular led to a feeling that the buildings need not be nice or inspirational: we don't want lawmakers down there spending any more time than they need.

It's kind of sad because it's just so drab and dreary. The buildings at the Leg in particular look like some Soviet monstrosity. I was in SLC 2 years ago and their Capitol is just gorgeous. Tourists actually want to visit!

Regrettably, spending any money on the Capitol complex isn't high on anyone's priority list. I do think it would be good to take down the Executive tower and start over. It's so old it's beyond salvageable, plus the bones are hideous.

For the Leg, I think they could simply take off the hideous facia's or facades and try to blend them with the Old Capitol, which is quite nice. Any of these ideas will be crazy expensive so I wouldn't hold my breath.

Well, they are at least renovating the current capitol. Perhaps we will even get real walls!