HomeDiagramsDatabaseMapsForum About
     

Go Back   SkyscraperPage Forum > Regional Sections > United States > Southwest


Reply

 
Thread Tools Display Modes
     
     
  #21  
Old Posted Oct 17, 2006, 6:05 PM
HX_Guy HX_Guy is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 5,095
I wonder what the open space right on the corner is? It looks like it could be some sort of terrace, but I don't see any tables or chairs or people there. I think that would make a pretty cool place to eat at a restaurant, out on a patio type thing overlooking the street below.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #22  
Old Posted Oct 18, 2006, 4:36 AM
vertex's Avatar
vertex vertex is offline
under the influence...
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Chandler, AZ
Posts: 2,600
Quote:
Originally Posted by JimInCal
I used to have a Gumby and a Poky when they were all the rage back in 60-something.
I was too young to watch the original show; my first intro to gumby was from Eddie Murphy on SNL; I'm Gumby, Dammit!
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #23  
Old Posted Oct 18, 2006, 7:48 PM
JimInCal's Avatar
JimInCal JimInCal is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Round Rock, TX
Posts: 597
Ouch!

Quote:
Originally Posted by vertex
I was too young to watch the original show; my first intro to gumby was from Eddie Murphy on SNL; I'm Gumby, Dammit!
Vertex: you sure know how to hurt a guy! I just turned 46, so not really that old (of course, that's a matter of perspective) but I do remember my old freinds G & P before Eddy and Joe perverted them... actually, I loved the SNL bits too.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #24  
Old Posted Oct 20, 2006, 1:37 PM
PHX602's Avatar
PHX602 PHX602 is offline
UrbanPHX
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Phoenix
Posts: 871
http://www.azcentral.com/news/scanner.html

Click on the azcentral.com roof cam on the right, they have the camera aimed on the Sheraton, you can get a decent view of whats going on at the site.
__________________
View My Diagram
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #25  
Old Posted Oct 25, 2006, 4:56 AM
HX_Guy HX_Guy is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 5,095
Here is a new wide lobby rendering...

Reply With Quote
     
     
  #26  
Old Posted Oct 25, 2006, 10:28 AM
Azndragon837 Azndragon837 is offline
Desert Urbanite
 
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Scottsdale, Arizona
Posts: 1,433
^Damn...no wonder why it cost so much to build the hotel ($350 millon). They could have at least used some of that money to make the exterior look decent, or ADDED a few floors to make it taller. We shall see the end result in a few years.

-Andrew
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #27  
Old Posted Oct 27, 2006, 8:11 PM
HX_Guy HX_Guy is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 5,095
October 27th:



Reply With Quote
     
     
  #28  
Old Posted Oct 27, 2006, 8:15 PM
Vicelord John Vicelord John is offline
BANNED
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Eastlake, Phoenix, Arizona
Posts: 5,404
this building is going up very quickly.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #29  
Old Posted Oct 27, 2006, 8:17 PM
HX_Guy HX_Guy is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 5,095
I was thinking the same thing, it seems to be going up much faster then 44 Monroe and even Summit at Copper Square.

One thing that is a bit weird...they havnt done any work on the corner of Van Buren and 3rd it seems, which is suppoed to be the left side of the hotel. It's still a dirt lot while the center (tower part) and right side of the hotel are going ahead full steam.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #30  
Old Posted Oct 27, 2006, 10:07 PM
JimInCal's Avatar
JimInCal JimInCal is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Round Rock, TX
Posts: 597
Wink I figured it out!

I was reading through this strategic "vision" plan published in December 2004. One of the sections refers to the Sheraton. It states "Develop 1,000 room Sheraton Hotel with BOLD architecture, active street level uses and strong connectivity to Arizona Center..." The city's obvious intent was that the Sheraton have bold architecture, not the boring, dated design they've been showing us. I think they want to really surprise us with something truly BOLD. What a relief! Can't wait to see what it will really look like

Downtown Phoenix: A Strategic Vision December, 2004 (See p45 as printed on the document, it's p47 on the scroll bar at the bottom)
http://www.solimar.org/pdfs/visionmaps.pdf
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #31  
Old Posted Oct 27, 2006, 11:08 PM
HX_Guy HX_Guy is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 5,095
I think that's what we call "wishful thinking"


To clarify what I was referring to earlier...




Even thought the Local Live picture is older, the area outlined in red still looks the same, it doesn't appear that any work has been performed...while the rest of the site is moving very quickly.

Last edited by HX_Guy; Oct 27, 2006 at 11:18 PM.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #32  
Old Posted Oct 27, 2006, 11:20 PM
JimInCal's Avatar
JimInCal JimInCal is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Round Rock, TX
Posts: 597
Wishful Thinking

You got that right HX_Guy! I try to keep it under control but this hotel brings out my sarcastic side
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #33  
Old Posted Oct 28, 2006, 1:19 AM
combusean's Avatar
combusean combusean is offline
Skyriser
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Newark, California
Posts: 7,180
One thing I notice about that corner--it almost seems to be built with expansion in mind, judging by how detached it looks from the rest of the structure.

Having not seen any engineering documents, I wonder if it wouldn't be that hard to raze it some time in the future and put something better in its place. Given the amount of money we've poured into this hotel/center pit so far I don't put it too much out of the picture.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #34  
Old Posted Oct 28, 2006, 2:50 PM
plinko's Avatar
plinko plinko is offline
them bones
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Santa Barbara adjacent
Posts: 7,388
^Looking at the renderings, that corner piece is structurally independent of the hotel tower/meeting room base. Which basically means that you could easily knock it down and building something else without effecting the main tower.
__________________
Even if you are 1 in a million, there are still 8,000 people just like you...
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #35  
Old Posted Oct 28, 2006, 4:36 PM
JimInCal's Avatar
JimInCal JimInCal is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Round Rock, TX
Posts: 597
If you look at the construction photo posted by HX_Guy the area in question was being used for truck access to the rest of the site. That would explain why nothing is being built as of yet if they continue to use it for site access. Kinda like mopping a kitchen floor and backing out of the room as you complete the job.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #36  
Old Posted Oct 28, 2006, 6:56 PM
combusean's Avatar
combusean combusean is offline
Skyriser
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Newark, California
Posts: 7,180
I was digging around the issued building permits of the project and there are several references to "PHASE I" ... which was completely new to me. There are no structural drawings or really anything major to offer more information, but I was surprised to see this nonetheless.
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #37  
Old Posted Oct 29, 2006, 6:44 PM
HX_Guy HX_Guy is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 5,095
Hotel signs up future guests
Downtown Sheraton gets convention boost

Ginger D. Richardson and Stephanie Paterik
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 29, 2006 12:00 AM

The new Sheraton Phoenix Downtown Hotel has booked more than 67,000 room nights in four months of marketing, even though the property is still two years away from opening.

Artist renderings show an expansive lobby and nicely appointed guest rooms in elegant shades of copper, burgundy and beige. But right now, the hotel is a tangle of steel beams, reinforcements and concrete, which makes the reservation numbers that much more impressive.

And its 1,000 rooms aren't coming cheap.

Rates at the new hotel are expected to range from about $139 in the low season to $500 in busy months, said Steven Spivak, director of sales and marketing.

The $350 million, city-owned property is getting its business from the big groups that are booking future meetings at the Phoenix Convention Center, which is undergoing its own $600 million-plus renovation and expansion.

"When you put this caliber of product in the Valley, open a brand-new Sheraton, you don't have to drop rates to get people in the door," Spivak said.

But while booking business is going well, managing the hotel's construction budget has proven more challenging.

Rising prices of materials, such as copper, concrete and steel, have forced engineers and city planners to go back and make changes to the building's design. Officials say guests will not notice the alterations because they involve interior, structural fixes.

For example, crews swapped out copper feeders on the electrical units with aluminum, for a savings of $800,000.

"I don't think we've done anything in any way that will impact the quality of the building," Deputy City Manager David Krietor said. "We haven't had the kind of huge crisis come up on this like we've had on some other major projects."

Krietor's comment was in reference to the Convention Center construction project, where rising costs forced the city to use the facility's operating budget to pay for millions in budget overruns.

But Phoenix officials say the hotel project is going more smoothly, and they are hopeful that they will be able to build the property with all the planned amenities.

One of the areas currently on the bubble is a spa with five treatment rooms.

The spa, part of the hotel's fitness center, was featured on the hotel's original architectural renderings. But last year, the city met with Sheraton executives and the amenity was put low on the priority list behind meeting room space, as something that could be cut if the budget got tight.

Project manager Jay DeWitt said the current plan is to build the shell of the spa facility and wait to see if there is enough room in the budget to finish it out before the hotel's planned October 2008 opening.

"We're very hopeful that there will be," he said.

Spivak said it would be a bonus if all the amenities were ready to go when the property welcomes its first guests.

"Obviously we understand that there's a construction budget that has to be met," he said. "But the challenge . . . from a competitive standpoint is that in the summer months, we are likely to compete against those resorts that have spas and other features."

The Phoenix Downtown Sheraton will boast an outdoor swimming pool, at least one, and possibly two outdoor meeting and function spaces, two ballrooms and 80,000 square feet of meeting space.

Some existing area properties say they worry that the competition will negatively affect the occupancy, but hotel analysts predict the new Sheraton and the Phoenix Convention Center will actually help drive business and increase demand.

That's because they can accommodate groups that were previously too big to meet in Phoenix.

There are currently only a handful of hotels in downtown Phoenix, including the Hyatt Regency Phoenix, the Wyndham Phoenix Downtown and the historic, but small, San Carlos Hotel.

"We don't want to just fill downtown, we want to spill over," Spivak said.

But, he added, the hotel's ultimate success depends on all the promises of downtown Phoenix coming to fruition: urban dwellings, light rail, university campuses and biotech companies.

"This is about more than opening a hotel," he said. "It's about reinventing the city of Phoenix for the people of Phoenix."
Reply With Quote
     
     
  #38  
Old Posted Nov 3, 2006, 3:58 PM
HX_Guy HX_Guy is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 5,095


Reply With Quote
     
     
  #39  
Old Posted Nov 10, 2006, 11:10 PM
HX_Guy HX_Guy is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 5,095
Nov. 10th



Reply With Quote
     
     
  #40  
Old Posted Nov 28, 2006, 10:48 PM
HX_Guy HX_Guy is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 5,095
It's now at the 3rd floor...



Can we assume that the part that is now rising out of the ground will be the tower part of the hotel? If so, that is a very slender profile, should look nice when viewing downtown from the west or east.
Reply With Quote
     
     
This discussion thread continues

Use the page links to the lower-right to go to the next page for additional posts
 
 
Reply

Go Back   SkyscraperPage Forum > Regional Sections > United States > Southwest
Forum Jump


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 11:01 AM.

     
SkyscraperPage.com - Archive - Privacy Statement - Top

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.