Posted Jan 18, 2008, 7:35 AM
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Join Date: May 2006
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Awesome news about the ASU Nursing School! Looks like we weren't the only ones who thought the design, or more specifically, the way the design interacted with the street, was completely wrong.
Plans revised for downtown ASU building
Jahna Berry
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 18, 2008 12:00 AM
It's not on the books yet, but a plan to make downtown Phoenix an oasis of shade and inviting streets is already packing a punch.
The first hit: Arizona State University's $30 million expansion of the College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation. Phoenix and ASU are sharing the cost of the building.
Neighborhood and business leaders complained that early drawings showed a five-story building had little shade, a blank wall and a design that "turned its back" on the street. Because it sits at Fillmore and Third streets, the building should look like a "gateway" into the campus, they argued.
After a week of pressure, ASU is retooling the outside of the building. The city plans to break ground in March. "They want us to be a leader of good design," said Ron McCoy, the university architect overseeing the project. "This got a lot more attention because of the draft and pending adoption of the Urban Form, which does a lot of things that we agree with."
The Urban Form Project, a $900,000 overhaul of the city's downtown-zoning districts and development rules, is tentatively expected to go before the City Council in June.
Future downtown projects, tourism and the success of the ASU campus hinge on making downtown more inviting, even on days with triple-digit temperatures, city leaders have said.
Under the Urban Form Project, the city plans to create a "Connected Oasis" that calls for shade, walkable spaces, a new "circulation" plan for traffic as well as a master plan for public space and public art, city planner Dean Brennan said.
With so much talk about good design, the ASU building was a surprise, said Steve Weiss, chairman of Downtown Voices Coalition Inc.
"We don't need another Collier Center, we don't need another Mercado, we don't need another Arizona Center," Weiss said, referring to other projects that have inner courtyards but few features facing the street.
The planned classroom and office complex faces the existing nursing school and creates a courtyard between the two. A downtown business group also raised concerns.
"My concern was shade and there were some walls that needed to be dressed up so there was more interplay between the street and the building," said Dan Klocke, director of planning and urban development for the Downtown Phoenix Partnership.
City and ASU officials plan to meet with community members and others about the building on Wednesday.
The nursing school addition is part of ASU's downtown expansion. In August, ASU will open a new journalism-school building and the first phase of a 1,300-bed dorm project.
The nursing-school building issue came to light during a routine Jan. 10 hearing for the project. Among other things, city officials sought permission to shrink a shade canopy, to have fewer windows and to have one entrance instead of two.
At next week's meeting the architectural team will probably have some new concepts, said Deputy City Manager David Cavasos.
"We want to set a high bar," Cavasos said, "because this is the entrance to the campus."
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