10.9MB of wide-angle construction update goodness!

[oliveurban]

Some great angles.

[kaneui]

Nice photos, HX. Just a few observations:

1. It seems like overkill for ASU to put their logo/letters on every one of their downtown buildings--we get it already they have a new campus. (Especially tacky on the new Cronkite building, imo.) Why not just some discrete signage at ground level? NAU has done this quite nicely.

2. As much as everyone hates the Sheraton, there are plenty of fairly recent convention hotels in other cities that are about as drab architecturally. (The one notable exception I can think of is the new JW Marriott/Ritz-Carlton convention hotel going up in downtown L.A. http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=129618)

Also, can someone explain why the north and south rooflines on the Sheraton were sloped in opposite directions rather than being symmetrical (i.e., the south roofline slopes down from west to east, but the north roofline from east to west) ? As other forumers have already pointed out, this leaves those big rooftop utility/elevator boxes exposed on the west end, which is really unsightly.

3. Hasn't the city come up with a name, or considered having a naming contest for the new civic park? (Hopefully not Central Park, for obvious comparative reasons.) If they don't do something soon, I can see once that main artpiece gets fully installed, residents will start calling it "Jellyfish Park" or something similar, and the nickname will never die.

[loftlovr]

Originally Posted by SLC Projects

Nice.
What are those two blue circles use for that are hanging over a building?

ASU Civic Center's floating "squid-like" sculpture- more info here:
http://www.asu.edu/tour/downtown/civic.html

HX- Amazing pics as always. I love it when you take the good camera out to play!
A few comments probably mentioned before:

Sheraton looks surprisingly very cool from the street (but not so cool from afar).
Kind of has some Convention Center style contemporary elements on the street level, and yes the palms mesh with AZ Center.
I too like the palm trees. I know they do not provide shade but Beverly Hills is lined with them and it looks cool when they grow up. -Beats having nothing there.

I cannot wait for the Civic Space rehabbed building to be completed. It will be so cool inside, kind of like a Bently Gallery or IceHouse but on a much smaller scale.

I just grew much more fond of Taylor Place in the last week. The finishing touches did a lot!

Also, the first pic in your series is very cool!

I was gonna go Downtown manana but now I have to wait a week or two!
Here's to good weather around the corner

[nickkoto]

My gut tells me that the Civic Space is going to be the new Patriot Square of the 2010s and five years from now, we'll all be hoping that the jellyfish gets ripped down like that laser projector to make room for a new highrise.

Is the city going to do anything different to discourage the homeless from loitering there? Can they?

[HooverDam]

Originally Posted by nickkoto

My gut tells me that the Civic Space is going to be the new Patriot Square of the 2010s and five years from now, we'll all be hoping that the jellyfish gets ripped down like that laser projector to make room for a new highrise.

Is the city going to do anything different to discourage the homeless from loitering there? Can they?

The biggest thing they can do to keep the homeless out I imagine is to design the park in such a way that its busy and full of people. Generally (other then their begging missions) the homeless seem to like areas where they can be left alone, if the park is bustling I imagine they'd stay out for the most part. From the renderings it seems like this park will actually get used. It has a decent diversity of uses, which is good, and the restaurant in the Motors building will help a lot. The ASU Student union going in the Post Office will help keep the park full of life (does anyone know when ASU moves into the South half of that building?). Unfortunately with the Jet on hold/dead there's nothing much directly West of the park, if there were residences there it would help a lot. It would also be nice if the Westward Ho was a hotel, then Im sure the park would get lots of visitors from it.

I really hope we get lucky and the park is popular/a success in the first few years and spurs development on the empty lots to the west and NE.

[PHX31]

Originally Posted by kaneui

1. It seems like overkill for ASU to put their logo/letters on every one of their downtown buildings--we get it already they have a new campus. (Especially tacky on the new Cronkite building, imo.) Why not just some discrete signage at ground level? NAU has done this quite nicely.

Also, can someone explain why the north and south rooflines on the Sheraton were sloped in opposite directions rather than being symmetrical (i.e., the south roofline slopes down from west to east, but the north roofline from east to west) ? As other forumers have already pointed out, this leaves those big rooftop utility/elevator boxes exposed on the west end, which is really unsightly.

1. I totally disagree. I think in many cases buildings look nice and more finished and prominent when there is some nice signage at the top. We may know all about downtown ASU and the buildings they have recently built, but I guarantee you 90% of the people out there that don't really care about downtowns either: a) don't know ASU is putting a campus downtown, and/or b) wouldn't know which buildings they are. I think the ASU logo looks nice (especially the silver against the copper/rust colors of the Cronkite's top).

2. The Sheraton's roofline was originally designed to supposedly look like a cloud top or something. It was going to be wavy and have a top on it which would hide all of the mechanical stuff, as well as be illuminated at night (at least that's what the original renderings appeared to show). But, it just looks stupid now with the wavy sloping roofline, with the mechanical stuff jutting out higher than the roofline. That's why most people bitch about it.

[eastidaho]

Thanks HX, you have some mad skills. Anybody that can make the Sheraton look good deserves praise.

[HX_Guy]

Originally Posted by PHX31

The Sheraton's roofline was originally designed to supposedly look like a cloud top or something. It was going to be wavy and have a top on it which would hide all of the mechanical stuff, as well as be illuminated at night (at least that's what the original renderings appeared to show). But, it just looks stupid now with the wavy sloping roofline, with the mechanical stuff jutting out higher than the roofline. That's why most people bitch about it.

The curve was supposed to resemble Camelback Mountain...though I don't know why the slope couldn't be the same on both sides.

Either way, Sheraton's new, updated, webpage for the downtown hotel still mentions that the roof will light up...so we'll see.

"Our 31-story hotel will redefine the city's skyline with its cloudlike white rooftop that turns stunningly translucent at night."

http://www.starwoodhotels.com/sherat...ropertyID=1703

[Vicelord John]

velik slikovit ja želja ja je taj veština

[Vicelord John]

Originally Posted by kaneui

3. Hasn't the city come up with a name, or considered having a naming contest for the new civic park? (Hopefully not Central Park, for obvious comparative reasons.) If they don't do something soon, I can see once that main artpiece gets fully installed, residents will start calling it "Jellyfish Park" or something similar, and the nickname will never die.

our neighborhood park growing up had a lot of ducks so everyone called it "duck park" and I have no idea to this day what the real name is.

Jellyfish Park FTW

[andrewkfromaz]

"Jellyfish park" - I think you may be on to something there, Kaneui. There's an unwritten rule that parks in Phoenix (and probably in other cities as well) are never referred to by their real names. The parks in north-central Phoenix where I grew up all have names, and we always called them by their locations - with one notable exception. On 7th Ave and Coral Gables there's a park with a large pedestrian bridge over a wash. The bridge was designed by an artist as part of the public art program to look like a pair of grasshoppers and the entire park got the moniker "Grasshopper Park." I'd guess most N. Phoenix or Moon Valley area residents would know which park is Grasshopper Park, whereas the real name of the park is Moon Valley Park, and no one knows that. here's the city's link to a small picture of the bridge. But basically what I'm trying to say is that no matter the name selected for the space, it will be known for the sculpture, so whatever name the sculpture develops will be the name of the park as well. So if "Jellyfish Park" catches on (and I'll be doing what little I can to help it catch on), the credit goes to you, Kaneui.

[Downtown_resident]

Originally Posted by PHX31

Well, that sounds semi cool, but why does the city (or whoever plans/approves these things) seem to want to limit or put a cap on the potential of anything and everything in this city?

That sounds conspicuously similar to a complaint! But it does not draw a comparison with another city, so I guess we're good.

Why not make the top floor a cafe/coffee house with street-side outdoor seating. This way the AE England building and the park will look even more pleasing, seeing people sitting out enjoying themselves, and more people walking in and out onto the street. They could put the offices in the basement, and a portion of the top could be restrooms. It just seems like nothing is planned to integrate together (people sitting out, interacting with the street, which in turn will draw people from neighboring buildings better, etc.), and the planners don't seem to want to take any risk, nor want things to live up to their urban potential (I can't put an exact finger on my thoughts, but it is as if they want to avoid things from getting too crowded, which may lead to unruly behavior, or the public doing things outside of "the rules", etc.). Eh, nevermind, I don't know what the hell I'm talking about.

My understanding is that the cafe will be in the building's basement, but there will be outdoor seating and some sort of stairstep up to ground level. However, the cafe and patio will face north-- away from the street, and I'm not certain the outdoor seating will be visible from the street. You're right that it's too bad the cafe couldn't have engaged Central Avenue better. Hopefully there's some sort of inviting entrance to A.E. England from the street anyway.

http://downtownphoenix.blogspot.com

[TANGELD_SLC]

I've never been to Phoenix before nor have I ever had a desire to visit until now. The downtown area just seems so sunny and open. I love it

[HooverDam]

Originally Posted by TANGELD_SLC

I've never been to Phoenix before nor have I ever had a desire to visit until now. The downtown area just seems so sunny and open. I love it

Come on down, but wait a few months

[kevininlb]

Thanks for the pics. Love how all the ASU buildings are coming together.

But, for me, the best addition to dt is Alta. There's something about it - maybe the density or the white/blue - that really screams modern and perhaps a new direction for Phx.

[nbrindley]

^^^^^ finally a comment about Alta!

It's my favorite single project for downtown, and it is starting to look really good.

The shade structures on the Sheraton do a lot to improve it's looks, making it much less slab-sided in appearance. I wish they had added them to the north side as well, even if they would be non-functional. But it pissed me off when I was those stupid palm trees out front of it. Why is it that no one that has a position of influence realizes that downtown NEEDS shade?

[Don B.]

Drove by 24th Street and Camelback this morning on my way back to Prescott and they have these unusual brown steel shade structures at each corner of the intersection. They are too small to really effectively shade much area.

I find it interesting that only the wealthiest intersection in the city gets shade structures. WTF?

--don