Quote:
Originally Posted by phxSUNSfan
The downtown campus has a finite footprint which is why future buildings will be taller and that area will be dense with ASU buildings. Even during the summer that place will feel busy in the coming years. I've already seen more students in the southern half of downtown around CityScape and I expect this will continue to be the case as Taylor Place is at capacity and students will start leaving their vicinity to look for other dining, recreational, and retail options. I am extremely interested in seeing future rendering for ASU buildings because the university has a chance to better integrate them as part of the neighborhood.
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What I'm going to do here is use a few cliche phrases, several emoticons, and wrap up an unsurprisingly long response on a positive note. Take it or leave it, but this is the best, and last, way for me to explain how I feel about ASU's progression through our treacherous, rat-infested, dry, dusty, rocky, paved over DOWNTOWN.
I think you need to see the forest for the trees here. It isn't about the Westin or Freeport McMoRan occupying OCPE in the absence of an ASU presence - it's about this finite footprint you speak of and that not a single University building downtown has been integrated into a project serving the city and community beyond its own students; no hotel, no market-rate residential, no office space. There have been no high rises trying to make the most of this limited land while they still can. And, come on! The notion that students would be cooped up in a high-rise 24/7 if it was mixed use is absurd.
Hassayampa has dorm, classroom and restaurant uses, and I don't see anyone complaining about the lack of foot traffic on the Tempe campus.
It isn't about the fact that downtown has been ridden of rats due to the demolition of the Ramada. It's about the fact that we lost yet one more historic structure for a parking lot smack in the heart of an area of central Phoenix that people with vision have been organically changing downtown for the better since ASU came to town. The people who have transformed Roosevelt could've gotten their hands on the Ramada and given us something unique and identifiable: a space where students, office workers, city visitors, and residents could all hang out. Instead, we'll have had a parking lot for a decade creating a gap and removing an opportunity for that type of mingling that is nearly void in this part of downtown that has essentially become a college campus. RumBar here, Amsterdam (RIP) there... Bliss way over there. Nothing is connected. But, ya know what? There could certainly be a few mice over at Hotel Monroe. TEAR. IT. DOWN.
Correlation does not prove causation. The Law School isn't coming downtown because the Ramada was destroyed. It's coming because ASU feels its students will succeed at a higher level when given access to, wait for it, community assets like the civic/municipal properties and courts, law offices, and so on. The two could have - and should have - coexisted. Why would we not want a rehabbed, funky hangout next to a sleek new Law School built on an already-empty lot?
Reality is that tearing down one 3-story building to build another 3-story building will get us nowhere. Lowrise/midrise... call them whatever you want, but none of these stumpy ASU buildings are creating the density you are talking about and they certainly aren't creating vibrancy. Civic Space is fantastic. The park, historic rehab, the focal point sculpture, the integration of art gallery, student rec, classroom and restaurant uses. That should be a model for how ASU downtown is built. Civic Space wouldn't be the same if I couldn't grab a coffee, show my friend the condom or lay in the grass and people-watch.
And, yet, this space isn't utilized nearly as much as it ought to be because of the lack of centralized density. I *want* it to be the success that it should be. I just don't think it is going to change with a 3-story Law School. But, a Law School beneath stories of law offices and on top of a public library branch consolidated into an ~8-10 story building because existing building stock left in place like a renovated Ramada (to fill the very real demand for hotel rooms in order to bring in heavier conventions) create the need for mixed-use solutions that make better use of this prime land in close proximity to campus and the CBD....
maybe that would have started to tip the scale. JUST A THOUGHT- DON'T SHOOT.
I'm obviously not going to get my point across if I haven't, so I'll shut up. ASU will continue to do what is has been great at - bringing more students and teachers downtown - as it expands via this 2020 map. I just think it could do so better if we want Roosevelt-Van Buren, 7-7 to be downtown Phoenix and not Arizona State University. And, if that is the case, then these buildings need to be doubled and space given to offices, hotels, libraries, grocery stores, apartments, hardware stores, condos, clothing boutiques...
Thank you for a reminder of some of the other positives, however, like the temporary use of the Mercado, and that the "coldness" is from private developments like The Met, Alta, etc. and not ASU buildings themselves, which have been fairly well designed.
Whether we express it by looking for how the failures of projects can be improved, or by championing what good has been done, we all just want downtown to succeed and for ASU to be a part of that success. I personally enjoy coming here to watch and debate each movement made as it's exciting to be in a city that is re-establishing itself, even if at its own hands/wrecking ball, and - lastly - you're all passionate and actually care about how this all fits together to give Phoenix a true civic sense and pride. #kumbaya