Phoenix | Astra Towers (2 towers) | 541 FT | 44 Floors & 425 FT | 30 Floors

[Code5]

Originally Posted by Diamonddave

We're all excited that this is on the way and I believe Crested post sometime back that both towers will be going up at the sometime

Yessir. He did say that.
And it is very exciting if it happens like that. More cranes in the sky and double the infil going in at the same time. That'll be so exciting to watch from my backyard.

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by Code5

Yessir. He did say that.
And it is very exciting if it happens like that. More cranes in the sky and double the infil going in at the same time. That'll be so exciting to watch from my backyard.

Do we know if the "paseo" will be continued all the way through to first?

If it does we will basically have broken most of the superblocks on that side of town which would be good

[somethingfast]

Astra and Central Station are game-changers if they do happen. They are both (finally) tall-looking and bring a level of architectural sophistication (to me) that has been lacking. Really excited about both projects...

[CrestedSaguaro]

Originally Posted by Obadno

Do we know if the "paseo" will be continued all the way through to first?

If it does we will basically have broken most of the superblocks on that side of town which would be good

The paseo is still part of the plan as far as I know.

[PhxPavilion]

The taller one should have been 600' and the shorter one 300-350'. At 535' it barely edges out Chase, very disappointing for a new tallest. But at least the design is nice.

Taking forever to actually get going though.

[CrestedSaguaro]

Originally Posted by PhxPavilion

The taller one should have been 600' and the shorter one 300-350'. At 535' it barely edges out Chase, very disappointing for a new tallest. But at least the design is nice.

Taking forever to actually get going though.

The shorter one is to be in the 400' range. 600' would never get FAA's blessing on the Astra lot and Phoenix won't push it when it comes to the FAA. The taller building is already going to be 10' higher than the original lot zoning height allowed after receiving a height variance from the city. We were lucky to get that.

[locolife]

Originally Posted by PhxPavilion

The taller one should have been 600' and the shorter one 300-350'. At 535' it barely edges out Chase, very disappointing for a new tallest. But at least the design is nice.

Taking forever to actually get going though.

Not disappointing in the slightest, filling in more empty space with density is a great thing. Really excited for Astra to go.

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by PhxPavilion

The taller one should have been 600' and the shorter one 300-350'. At 535' it barely edges out Chase, very disappointing for a new tallest. But at least the design is nice.

Taking forever to actually get going though.

You seem to be really positive.

[biggus diggus]

Some members of this site love to complain about other people's business decisions. That's strange, to me.

[Obadno]

Personally biggus I have access to hundreds of millions of dollars to develop downtown, I just like building ugly buildings!

[MMDelon]

This is a pretty massive project that will take up a pretty big parcel. The second tower at 400’ looks thick. I think we all want taller towers but to get a 500’ plus tower and a pretty thick 400’ tower taking up a large parcel is kind of a dream. The more dense we get the taller the buildings will be but don’t expect a 600’ tower anytime soon. We still have a lot of lots that need dense developments projects.

[YourBuddy]

Yea everyone would like some 700’ skyscraper downtown, but we don’t even have consistent buildings over 400’ yet. Any change to the skyline would be nice, but I’m more concerned with just getting people living downtown in a safe and enjoyable downtown. More people living downtown is more attractive to businesses or developers who want to build big projects.

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by YourBuddy

Yea everyone would like some 700’ skyscraper downtown, but we don’t even have consistent buildings over 400’ yet. Any change to the skyline would be nice, but I’m more concerned with just getting people living downtown in a safe and enjoyable downtown. More people living downtown is more attractive to businesses or developers who want to build big projects.

I said this years ago but it is still true, perhaps more true.

Businesses are not going to pay more to locate downtown unless there is some level of Cache or reputational gain that makes it worth the cost.

I would like to see gleaming office towers but why would any business pay more to locate in... Downtown phoenix? They will either pay to be in Tempe or Scottsdale or they will just locate in a suburban office park for the cost savings.

Companies dont maintain offices in NYC because its a great value, its to be located in Manhattan.

So until downtown has a good popular reputation it wont get offices. People need to move in first (making good progress there) once its popular and bustling then offices that want that environment will pay the premium to locate downtown.

But the people and restaurants need to come first.

[biggus diggus]

I can't believe as a group we've resorted to explaining how demand works.

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by biggus diggus

I can't believe as a group we've resorted to explaining how demand works.

The myopathy of people on Skyscraperpage.com is not surprising,

[combusean]

I wonder how many times I'm going to ire at clueless people who ignore the fact there's an airport right there when they talk about 600 foot buildings downtown.

Anyone who even thinks of bringing that up should know better by now.

[Diamonddave]

Originally Posted by combusean

I wonder how many times I'm going to ire at clueless people who ignore the fact there's an airport right there when they talk about 600 foot buildings downtown.

Anyone who even thinks of bringing that up should know better by now.

Totally agree we should all know that the tallest building can be 600' and that's around Van Buren and 7th avenue are. Midtown might have higher limits.

[YourBuddy]

Originally Posted by Diamonddave

Totally agree we should all know that the tallest building can be 600' and that's around Van Buren and 7th avenue are. Midtown might have higher limits.

Plus if this is the limit, at least in downtown with some variance allowed, having a handful more buildings between 500-600’ would make a huge impact on the skyline and the amount of people living downtown. Portland has a very walkable city, with good activation at street level for pedestrians, and they don’t have any buildings over over 600’.

What we should hope for is some more inspiring architecture to new developments.

[Obadno]

Originally Posted by YourBuddy

Plus if this is the limit, at least in downtown with some variance allowed, having a handful more buildings between 500-600’ would make a huge impact on the skyline and the amount of people living downtown. Portland has a very walkable city, with good activation at street level for pedestrians, and they don’t have any buildings over over 600’.

What we should hope for is some more inspiring architecture to new developments.

Or virtually every city in Europe or any traditional neighborhood back east that isn't the core business district, or beach towns, or ya know DC

Id rather have no tall buildings but a nice urban environment.

[azliam]

Originally Posted by biggus diggus

Some members of this site love to complain about other people's business decisions. That's strange, to me.

Everyone here complains about that. It's what we do.