ASU/UofA Downtown Phoenix construction thread

[CrestedSaguaro]

Originally Posted by azcats

https://phoenixmed.arizona.edu/campus

Two minute You Tube video of the Phoenix Bioscience core. Also, downtown Phoenix...and up Central.

Real clear and bright - I guess done by a Drone. Nice. Wish it had more of the view/ skyline - less of the needles and microscopes!

How difficult to have some young person take a drone and update it? This video doesn't have that new glass 30 story tower on the corner of 5th St. and Van Buren at the Arizona Center.

The video doesn't have anything new built since Link 1. I'd say it's about 4 years old considering you can see the tower crane for Kenect in a couple of shots which wasn't completed until 2021.

This seems to be a common theme for downtown Phoenix stock footage. It's hard to find any pics or videos newer than a couple of years old.

[TJPHXskyscraperfan]

I was looking for a 2024 calendar of pictures of Phoenix and the pictures were seriously 20 years old. How can someone say, oh this calendar is perfect for 2024, let’s make 1,000s of them. Crazy, seems like a good business opportunity though,lol. Maybe for next year! Gotta be some kind of demand! I ended up settling for an Arizona Highways calendar of pictures of around Arizona…..

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by TJPHXskyscraperfan

I was looking for a 2024 calendar of pictures of Phoenix and the pictures were seriously 20 years old. How can someone say, oh this calendar is perfect for 2024, let’s make 1,000s of them. Crazy, seems like a good business opportunity though,lol. Maybe for next year! Gotta be some kind of demand! I ended up settling for an Arizona Highways calendar of pictures of around Arizona…..

Because downtown has never been a point of pride for Phoenix or AZ nobody has ever cared about outdated pictures. Especially because until the last 10-15 years downtown basically remained unchanged for years and years on end.

[combusean]

Ehh... if you're building part of your reputation on a redeveloping, re-emerging, exciting area like UofA is doing downtown, I think you should be on top of how it looks to prospective partners.

It's probably an underfunded department is just doing the best they can do with royalty free videos or they already payed a drone photographer 4 years ago and it hasn't dawned on them to give them a call again.

Also, I assume the 80-year-olds that are still buying wall calendars care more about kokopelli statues and golf more than a thriving downtown. Nice to see we have representatives of the highly advanced in age in our little forum.

[azcats]

https://www.pdc.arizona.edu/project/23-9658


I thought the budget was $150 million. $300 million...for this?!? Government! Do you remember years ago when they caught the Navy spending $5,000 for toilet seats?

[combusean]

Yes, government ... government, academic, and these kinds of research buildings include FF&E in their development budgets. Commercial office buildings and apartments don't.

[azsunsurfer]

You also have to remember the costs change depending on which phase of design you are in. Also there could be deviations and changes to the end user/ TI portions (who is occupying certain floors and their requirements) vs. the shell of the building itself (which is what I suspect the original $150 mil estimate encompassed).

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by azcats

https://www.pdc.arizona.edu/project/23-9658


I thought the budget was $150 million. $300 million...for this?!? Government! Do you remember years ago when they caught the Navy spending $5,000 for toilet seats?

It goes with the territory. But that's the cost of doing business. Remember the 1800's full of amazing bridges, opera houses, Canals, Railroads etc etc.

A lot of stuff happened very fast and a lot of shady characters got paid off for doing it.

Its just what it is.

[ASU Diablo]

These new renderings look blah. I preferred the initial renderings of the CAMI building (immediately below).





https://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/...-uarizona.html

Phoenix City Council is expected to vote June 26 on a ground lease that will pave the way for the University of Arizona Health Sciences' proposed biomedical research hub in downtown Phoenix.

The Center for Advanced Molecular and Immunological Therapies, nicknamed CAMI, is expected to break ground in November on the Phoenix Bioscience Core.

The Tucson-based university has selected the design-build team of McCarthy + SmithGroup to develop the 7-story, 200,000-square-foot space. It also has selected Deepta Bhattacharya as the inaugural executive director of CAMI, effective July 1.

Bhattacharya, the professor of medicine at the medical school's department of immunobiology, also currently serves on the CAMI advisory council, a group of leaders of science, government and private industry from across the state.

Meanwhile, plans call for breaking ground in November on the corner of Fillmore and Seventh streets, and be operational in mid-2027.

[CrestedSaguaro]

I knew they wouldn't stick with the previous design. Heaven-forbid if anything in Phoenix gets built without getting watered-down.

[locolife]

I don't hate it, it's not going to standout, but it's not terrible either. Glass and copper is a pretty cool look and the biomedical area has a lot of it, so it's consistent. Anything other than the ASU downtown residence hall on 1st Ave and Filmore is a win to me. That narrow vertical window look, with beige stucco walls is not for me.

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by locolife

I don't hate it, it's not going to standout, but it's not terrible either. Glass and copper is a pretty cool look and the biomedical area has a lot of it, so it's consistent. Anything other than the ASU downtown residence hall on 1st Ave and Filmore is a win to me. That narrow vertical window look, with beige stucco walls is not for me.

I'm assuming somebody at UofA decided they want their medical campus to have a unified design. What is more annoying to me is them keeping a surface parking lot and like a weird desert shrub garden in the middle of downtown.

Thats entirely inappropriate. This building looks like it should be at Polytech or the ASU technology park in Chandler not in the middle of downtown.

[PHX31]

The original would be cool, but these look nice too.

Does anyone know what is going to happen to the last few remaining historic homes in this area?

I'm surprised this one hasn't just been demo'd if it's going to be. I imagine it will someday, unfortunately, but hopefully somehow it can be moved into Garfield. It's a pretty cool duplex or maybe 4-plex and would be nice to save.

https://www.google.com/maps/@33.4555...5410&entry=ttu

[TllrSkyline-01]

New proposed design is more cost $$$ effective...but I personally liked the previous design much more because of its originality, for what it appeared to cover more site area. I have to agree with others that surface parking should be highly discouraged, however, it does leave room for future stacked development. Let's face it, despite what you may hear or want to believe, this economy is not doing well at all, so I welcome this watered down version over an empty lot.

[azsunsurfer]

Yeah I thought this would be a multiple phased build out which is why they are putting in a surface lot for now? I actually like the design!

[azcats]

That original design is pretty unique. However, even with triple or quad pane argon gas windows - the electric a/c bills would go through the roof. Also, I realize we are a desert...and water issues, etc. (we are also an oasis in the desert) - and I have said this before - with all this glass, steel, and concrete -- to enhance its beauty - I like seeing an imposing, dramatic (non-potable) water fountain/feature ...where people can gather. If vagrants...homeless tents...and all of that negative garbage - comes with it - then, let the police do their job - and clear them out. In Chicago, they turn off the Buckingham Fountain during the winter. Maybe, the fountain(s) in Phoenix could be turned off during the day - in the summer. I don't know - I just like them!

[exit2lef]

Originally Posted by PHX31

The original would be cool, but these look nice too.

Does anyone know what is going to happen to the last few remaining historic homes in this area?

I'm surprised this one hasn't just been demo'd if it's going to be. I imagine it will someday, unfortunately, but hopefully somehow it can be moved into Garfield. It's a pretty cool duplex or maybe 4-plex and would be nice to save.

https://www.google.com/maps/@33.4555...5410&entry=ttu

That building is a block north of the site, so I don’t think it’s in immediate jeopardy. Longer term, I can’t predict.

Originally Posted by azsunsurfer

Yeah I thought this would be a multiple phased build out which is why they are putting in a surface lot for now? I actually like the design!

The site is currently paved and striped as surface parking, although it is used mostly for construction staging. Whatever parking is shown in the renderings is probably the fraction that will remain undeveloped pending another project, rather than something newly added.

[azcats]

That UofA building isn't anything really to write home about. Remember, though, it is a taxpayer funded building. If it were something outrageously lavish and expensive - you could have a revolt on your hands.
Let's face it...downtown Phoenix needs to land a few corporate headquarters to relocate down there - then, you might see some really tall, impressive glass towers built.
Downtown Toronto has 83 buildings taller than the tallest building in Phoenix. They have another 30 or so under construction - three of them over 1,000 feet. When Quebec threatened to succeed from Canada in the 60's and 70's - half of downtown Montreal fled to Toronto. The Phoenix Economic Development department along with some key community members need to hit the road to recruit some corporations to move to Phoenix. I remember when the Greyhound Corporation (along with Armour-Dial) relocated to Phoenix in the early 70's. Dallas took them away from Phoenix. Dallas also got American Airlines to relocate their headquarters. Look at Charlotte - they got BofA to relocate to their city. Charlotte - half the size of Phoenix - has a really impressive skyline. This is the time to raid California and New York. Considering the local and state policies in those states - it wouldn't take much incentive to get them to relocate to Arizona.

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by azcats

That UofA building isn't anything really to write home about. Charlotte - half the size of Phoenix - has a really impressive skyline. This is the time to raid California and New York. Considering the local and state policies in those states - it wouldn't take much incentive to get them to relocate to Arizona.

We have had this discussion many times.

1. Nobody was or is going to locate downtown until the area has cache and companies choose to pay premium to locate there. For now, we have to stick with smaller companies regardless.

2. expecting some major corporate HQ relocation to an expensive downtown urban location in the year of our lord Post-Covid IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN not anytime soon. We are still dealing with companies reorganizing around WFH

Once the current wave of apartments are open downtown and a its a fully established exciting place to be companies will move there. not before. You are thinking 20th century not 21st century.

the city of Phoenix could do much better at courting businesses downtown, but the city and city council does not care, they have interests all over the place and very few of them have to do with downtown. They Mayor can tout business development for political points in Desert ridge, Laveen, Deer Valley downtown is just one of many children from the Gov's perspective.

Most "new" post ww2 cities suffer the same fate. Downtown LA by all measures should have a skyline to rival NYC and Houston is about to surpass Chicago yet neither come close to either of those cities densities and skylines.

It simply does not work like that

[exit2lef]

Originally Posted by azcats

The Phoenix Economic Development department along with some key community members need to hit the road to recruit some corporations to move to Phoenix. I remember when the Greyhound Corporation (along with Armour-Dial) relocated to Phoenix in the early 70's. Dallas took them away from Phoenix. Dallas also got American Airlines to relocate their headquarters. Look at Charlotte - they got BofA to relocate to their city. Charlotte - half the size of Phoenix - has a really impressive skyline. This is the time to raid California and New York. Considering the local and state policies in those states - it wouldn't take much incentive to get them to relocate to Arizona.

That era has passed. The combination of mergers, work-from-home, and horizontal workspaces has created a situation in which few companies are building headquarters towers. I wish that weren't the case, but it's the unfortunate convergence of a several current trends that I don't see being reversed soon. In most cities, the new tallest buildings will be residential, not commercial.