Freeport-McMoRan Center (One Central Park East) - Phoenix, AZ

[RichTempe]

Here are a few pics of a helicopter at OCPE this morning around 11:30 putting up signage on OCPE:

[combusean]

^ Fuuuuuuu! I wish I could've seen it! That's awesome!

[Vicelord John]

that's a big ol' 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵' sign.

[Kroney]

Thanks [vertex] for sharing and explaining that. I encountered that unexpected detour as I was driving east on Van Buren this morning. With all the police and barricades around there, I thought the Chase Tower might have been under siege like the Nakatomi building in Die Hard.

[gymratmanaz]

Looked cool last night with the halo lit up and the letters in black sillouette. They look sharp but only closeup. I assume they will light the letters in red too, to be seen in the distance.

[Vicelord John]

yeah, it definitely isn't legible from I-10

[PhxPavilion]

I think the giant 🞵🞵🞵🞵-brown lettering across the entire length of the crown contrasted with the blue and green facade of the building looks terrible.

[gymratmanaz]

Do the letters light up at night? I still have not been downtown at night to see.

[Vicelord John]

No. It looks like 🞵🞵🞵🞵 at all times.

[Schadenfreude]

You would think a company with $15 Billion in annual revenue would have wanted signage with better visibility. They did test it with illuminated signage and I though it looked better. I did notice there is something hanging off the bottom of the letters from my office. Maybe its wiring...

[HooverDam]

Originally Posted by gymratmanaz

Do the letters light up at night? I still have not been downtown at night to see.

the crown behind the letters lights up white, and the letters are dark, so you can read it clear as a bell if you're downtown, but if you get any distance away its tough to read.

Hopefully it won't matter in the long run because 2CPE should be blocking some of the signage anyway! Right...? Thatll happen for sure...!

[Vicelord John]

You should bet your first born that it gets built.

[gymratmanaz]

What a stupid plan, not lighting the letters. Yes it looks fine when you are downtown, but what a wasted opportunity for them at night. If they had made the letters out of a lighter material that was transparent, then the backlit white would have made the letters red at night. STUPID PLANNING!!!

[Vicelord John]

From Starwood's website:

"Renewal on Every Level
Enjoy cuisine inspired by Latin America and Spain at Province, our onsite restaurant. Recharge in our WestinWORKOUT® Gym, get work done in our business center, or splash around in our outdoor pool. Be sure to explore all of our Heavenly possibilities."

Looks like a full service restaurant in the building. Sweet.

[gymratmanaz]

Cool!!!!!!

[gymratmanaz]

They have ripped out the entire northwest wall of the retail portion, in order to expand and add to it. They have about 15 preshaped rebar columns lying nearby. They also have a big drilling truck in the dirt, for digging for the columns I assume.

[Schadenfreude]

Heres the current state of the West side of the building. This is from Friday, so before they started drilling.





Also some pictures of Freeport's signage. I still think its going to light up based on what appears to be wiring connected to the sign. We'll see..

[gymratmanaz]

Nice research Schadenfreude!!!!!!! Hope you are right about the lighting up of the sign!

[phoenixwillrise]

Having retired and sold my portion of large electric sign company in SOCAL.
A couple of comments are; The helicopter they used looked like the one we did the BofA tower in downtown L.A. Super professional crew, on that job, we did two sets of 8 ft tall letters in 7 hours. Though we had drilled and prepped the wall over several weeks prior, the actual letters went up in 7 hours vs about 3 weeks using staging.
The picture of these letters isn't that clear but it appears there is a retainer
holding faces in those letters. There is a brownish looking vinyl on the market that is translucent enough to internally light, givng off a dull glow, which wouldn't be that bad for this application. Usually if a letter is halo lit,(which these might be, having a aluminum face with light projecting out the rear), you would usually have a bigger flat piece shape of the letter behind the letter so the light could reflect off of it. These letters don't have that so if they were halo lit the light would be reflecting off that panel they are attached to which would be really be unusual as there doesn't appear to be any stand off from that translucent backgroud. Closer clearly photos would help or I guess we can just wait until they are finished.

[phoenixwillrise]

Sorry upon further review of closer up photos, I see that the letters are attached to a frame that stands off from the translucent wall behind it. If those letters are halo lit, they will look pretty wimpy unless there is a boat load of led's or neon inside there and even then it appears the wall is too far behind the letters, let's hope it is internally lighted, with a lot of leds or neon inside those letters to force that light thru that brown translucent vinyl if that's what it is.