Quote:
ASU's Downtown Phoenix sites taking shape
Mar. 23, 2008 12:00 AM
Editor's note: This article was submitted by Julie New- berg, with media relations at ASU's Downtown Phoenix campus. She can be reached at 602-496-1005 or julie.newberg @asu.edu.
Cranes are still soaring over downtown Phoenix, but the end is in sight for key ASU construction projects.
The new Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication building on Central Avenue and Taylor Street is nearing completion with work expected to wrap up in June. Workers are currently focusing on outside windows, exterior panels, interior walls and painting.
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"Move-in will be in July through August," said Patrick Panetta, University Real Estate Development assistant director. The new home of Eight/KAET-TV in the building will probably be occupied later than Cronkite faculty, staff and students.
"They're not really semester-dependent," Panetta said.
Students who take classes in the new 223,000-square-foot building can enjoy features like a two-story atrium called the "Forum" with a stage and seating on the ground floor and surrounding overlook on the second floor. Television studios on the sixth floor will broadcast Eight/KAET programs while students can gain real-world experience in their own newsrooms and TV studios. The project also brings 23 new classrooms to the campus.
Taylor Place opens this August on the ASU Downtown Phoenix campus with 744 beds for students in Tower One. Students are reserving spaces in the new student-housing complex with rooms on the top floor with floor-to-ceiling windows going quickly.
First-floor retail services in Tower Two will open this fall as well with a UPS Store that will also handle student mail. Tower Two will open to students in August 2009. Both towers cover 366,500 combined square feet at the site between First and Second streets on Taylor Street.
Students and the public can enjoy a new green space in the Civic Space park when it opens in the spring of 2009. Crews are currently working on grading and drainage at the site just south of the Post Office on Central Avenue.
"The park is almost completely designed," Panetta says.
Park features include several large grassy areas, spaces with game tables, public seating and hardscape where student organizations can network, much like they do outside ASU's Memorial Union in Tempe. A large public-art installation by Janet Echelman will be similar to a wind sculpture she created in Portugal. Suspended above the ground, the sculpture will be about 60 feet tall.
A garden plaza below street level is planned for the north side of the historic A.E. England building on the Civic Space site. A restaurant is also planned for the lower level and a great hall within the building can accommodate about 350 students. It will also be available to the public for gatherings. A shade structure on the west side of the A.E. England building will provide relief from the summer sun and photovoltaic cells in the same area will provide power. The first steps in renovating the historic building are shoring up the core and shell with work on the exterior walls and roof trusses.
The College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation will expand to a second building as soon as construction gets under way at Third and Fillmore streets. Groundbreaking for the new five-story, 84,000-square-foot building is slated for April 1 after changes to the design were made based on public input. . The fourth and fifth floors will be occupied by non-nursing ASU units and Phoenix city offices. A third building is planned for the northwestern corner of the lot in the future.
A proposed-use plan for student-union space at the Post Office at Central Avenue and Fillmore Street is currently at the University Architects office. Plans for the union include conference rooms, recreation space, retail outlets, study areas and food-service providers.
The Post Office will continue front-counter services and offer post-office boxes when the union opens. Renovation is currently slated to start in 2009. Funding for ASU Downtown Phoenix campus construction projects stems mainly from a $223 million bond passed by Phoenix voters in 2006.
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I don't get why the second ASU dorm isn't opening until a year after the first...they seem to be at the same point construction wise...why drag it out?
Also, I understand the art project at the Civic Park will be 60 feet above the ground but also be 100 feet tall itself, meaning it will have a height of around 160 feet. This article made it sound as if it will be 60' in total height.
The art piece will, or should, be visible from quite a distance, including off the I-10 going eastbound after the stack.
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Thanks for all the great shots HX...per usual! How cool is the cladding on the Cronkite School 
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