ASU/UofA Downtown Phoenix construction thread

[phxbyrd]

the site plans for this block a couple years ago (which I said were too short) have buildings taller and more tightly packed against the street with some open space in the middle. Now they've gone shorter and set back from the street? Hard to believe. I posted some link back then that there's no reason why medical buildings can't be tall. There was a hospital in England I remember being like 30 stories.

[combusean]

^ They had an original plan like you described, but revised it because they realized research buildings could be larger. I remember talk about that long building directly in front of the existing PUHS buildings 3 or 4 years ago (has it been that long?!) and I'm pretty sure it was twice to three times as expensive but fit the same purpose as the one they're discussing now. Andrew (azndragon837, where are you btw) and maybe HX went to those meetings.



Then this thing comes out along with a revised siteplan that looks suspiciously like the first.


It looks like the parking garage, which correlates to a City Council RFP detailed somewhere in the phoenix dev news thread, is the largest structure on the site--how ironic of this town. There's a much more limited overall density and lot coverage.

Phoenix facepalm: This building will house 110 medical students, the exact same number Tucson has. So we can't grow our campus beyond without making sure Tucson grows as well. Plus, they've stated their preference to train out of state students, so our local/statewide/rural doctor shortage really isn't alleviated at all.

All in all, this project kinda sucks.

[Leo the Dog]

Looks like a great suburban development, almost like our office "parks" scattered about Phoenix.

But, I guess "anything is better than what's currently there." I swear this is the motivating factor on how Phx decides what to build and where.

[phxbyrd]

I have no problem with capping at 110 full time students (although how long have they been at that number? Could be time to expand in Tucson) but that's no reason to limit how much you build on the campus. You need a complete hospital and both academic and private sector research facilities. Furthermore there are two big buildings on the Mercado lot and I think all that square footage should be moved over into making the campus taller. Any parking for the campus should be either pedestal or underground because there's no reason to have a dead parking garage where space is at such a premium.

[AJphx]

I wonder what sort of impact this will have:

http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoen...9/daily65.html

ASU withdraws from financial partnership in UA medical school

Arizona State University is withdrawing from its partnership with the University of Arizona for management of the College of Medicine in Phoenix.

UA now is assuming full responsibility for the school.

“We are in the process of calculating what we might save,” said ASU spokesman Virgil Renzulli.

Facing state budget shortfalls, ASU has been looking for ways to cut expenses, he said.

“We will continue to support the medical center,” he said. “We still have faculty participating in the medical school. What we’re not doing is participating as a financial partner.”

Instead, ASU will focus on building research facilities on its Tempe and Mesa campuses, Renzulli said.

ASU will continue to have a presence in the Phoenix Biomedical Campus, which houses the medical college and several bioscience organizations, including the Translational Genomics Research Institute and the International Genomics Consortium. It soon will be home to VisionGate Inc., maker of a cancer detection device.

The UA College of Medicine–Phoenix is in its third year of operation and has 120 medical students. Plans call for building enrollment to 480 medical students and 80 pharmacy students.

Construction has begun on a $187 million Health Sciences Education Building on the Phoenix Biomedical Campus.

The dissolution of the partnership between ASU and UA still needs approval from the Arizona Board of Regents. They will discuss the matter at a special meeting May 1.

[phxbyrd]

For all those trying to convince us the medical complex can't have anything tall; I was crusing the Philadelphia thread since I used to live there and saw that they just completed a Temple University medical building that's 11 stories and 480,000 ft of space. I don't know how tall but it makes what we are proposing (aparently building) look like a turd.

[Vicelord John]

Anything in Phoenix is going to be a turd compared to a big city like Philly.

[phxbyrd]

I've lived in both places nad believe me there are plenty of places and time when I feel Phoenix is plenty big. The state of Pennsylvania is in bad financial trouble and the city of Philadelphia is in deficit and debt. Temple University is a state school so how can it be explained that they keep on building and we don't? To me it's because there they want to be a big city.
They are so tired of being second fiddle to New York and Boston and it's not good enough to be better than Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Hartford. They want to be associated with the former and not the latter. Further the crap ASU building that is going to be built (gag) would not have been approved there. They would have looked at the rendering, spit or thrown up and asked if this was a joke and told them to come back with an eleven story, street facing 480,000 sqft attractive building.

[Vicelord John]

Originally Posted by phxbyrd

I've lived in both places nad believe me there are plenty of places and time when I feel Phoenix is plenty big. The state of Pennsylvania is in bad financial trouble and the city of Philadelphia is in deficit and debt. Temple University is a state school so how can it be explained that they keep on building and we don't? To me it's because there they want to be a big city.
They are so tired of being second fiddle to New York and Boston and it's not good enough to be better than Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Hartford. They want to be associated with the former and not the latter. Further the crap ASU building that is going to be built (gag) would not have been approved there. They would have looked at the rendering, spit or thrown up and asked if this was a joke and told them to come back with an eleven story, street facing 480,000 sqft attractive building.

Philly is like 20th fiddle. NY, Boston, DC, Baltimore... hell even Newark gets more respect. Black people see Philly as their favorite home, and white people are scared of it. I agree with you guys, Pittsburg is a great city. You have to admit though, all of the cities in this conversation are bigger than Phoenix (despite population) and will always have better schools and better everything else. It's simply based on the fact that Phoenix is not a world class city. Ask someone in Europe or Asia to name American cities.... I bet Philly is in the top 20 and Phoenix is barely in the top 100, if they even know that many.

[phxbyrd]

Philly is below only NYC and Boston on the east coast. Newark? Are you nuts?

[azliam]

Originally Posted by Vicelord John

Philly is like 20th fiddle. NY, Boston, DC, Baltimore... hell even Newark gets more respect. Black people see Philly as their favorite home, and white people are scared of it. I agree with you guys, Pittsburg is a great city. You have to admit though, all of the cities in this conversation are bigger than Phoenix (despite population) and will always have better schools and better everything else. It's simply based on the fact that Phoenix is not a world class city. Ask someone in Europe or Asia to name American cities.... I bet Philly is in the top 20 and Phoenix is barely in the top 100, if they even know that many.

Having spoken with several people in Europe when visiting there a few times, you'd be surprised how many people ARE aware of where Phoenix is. They're certainly familiar with where Arizona is.

[PHX31]

Originally Posted by azliam

Having spoken with several people in Europe when visiting there a few times, you'd be surprised how many people ARE aware of where Phoenix is. They're certainly familiar with where Arizona is.

Very true, however, most likely not because of our "urbanity". They likely know of Phoenix because of our climate, the desert, our golfing/resorts, the Suns or Cardinals, or something like that. Not because we're a world class city. But that's OK.

[mwadswor]

Originally Posted by azliam

Having spoken with several people in Europe when visiting there a few times, you'd be surprised how many people ARE aware of where Phoenix is. They're certainly familiar with where Arizona is.

I had the opposite experience. In Ireland, anytime I told someone I was from Phoenix they started asking about my horse (not kidding). In Thailand they had no idea where Phoenix or Arizona were, although one Australian tried to convince me he was smart because he knew that Phoenix was somewhere near New York (also not kidding). I met several Thais who knew about the grand canyon, and a couple who'd even gone there on a bus tour out of LA, but they had no idea that they'd gone into Arizona to get there.

[Schadenfreude]

There has been a lot of work on the SW corner of Fillmore and 7th over the last couple of weeks.

[Vicelord John]

Originally Posted by Schadenfreude

There has been a lot of work on the SW corner of Fillmore and 7th over the last couple of weeks.

I thought it was quite hte opposite. They graded the lot and haven't touched it since. The NEC of 7/VB has been unfenced and there are now people working in that building. WTF is it?

[Crispy]

The project under development at 7th & Fillmore is the UofA's Health Sciences Education Building. Per the school's facilities website they are wrapping up the intial construction phase (site prep, underground utilities). Looks like construction isn't scheduled for completion until May 2012. This building is critical to the expansion of the medical school downtown and the development of the Phoenix Biomedical Campus.

There is some additional info here:

http://www.pdc.arizona.edu/projects/...roject=09-8900

and here:

http://www.hconews.com/articles/2010...esearch-center

[glynnjamin]

I've always liked Pittsburgh better than Philly. Maybe it's the people. Maybe it's the lack of mullets. Maybe it's the concentration of their downtown core juxtaposed with the homes that line the mountain ridges overlooking the city. Pittsburgh is an amazing place. Too bad it sucks so bad there.

[phxbyrd]

Pittsburgh is a cool city with good universities but it's land locked, badly in debt. and right next to Ohio, far upstate NY and West Va. while Philly is next to NYC and Washington DC so they have more geographic advantage.

[Leo the Dog]

Originally Posted by glynnjamin

I've always liked Pittsburgh better than Philly. Maybe it's the people. Maybe it's the lack of mullets. Maybe it's the concentration of their downtown core juxtaposed with the homes that line the mountain ridges overlooking the city. Pittsburgh is an amazing place. Too bad it sucks so bad there.

I'll take East Coast over The East any day.

[Vicelord John]

I just spoke with the pilot. What I've been flying in is a Cessna Grand Caravan. He says Vegas is minimally closer in flight hours (????) and a small jet from scottsdale airpark would probably be 35-45 minutes. NOT 15. Still, the same from Las Vegas.

I guess you and I are in agreement about everything here, except for your bold and atrocious claim that you can fly from SDL to GCN in 15 minutes. Maybe if your plane was already traveling at crusing speed and didn't have to land or take off.