Phoenix and skyscrapers

Valley Center, now the Chase Tower, under construction in 1972. At 483 feet, it remains the city's tallest building (Jeremy Butler photo).

The Republic recently ran a story to answer the question of why Phoenix lacks the skyscrapers that are one defining characteristic of other big cities. One of the problems of a place with so many newcomers is the loss of historical knowledge. So the story was, at best, incomplete.

The two big reasons given were automobile-based sprawl and a "polycentric" city with many cores. But both apply to other cities with much higher and more distinctive downtown skylines. Los Angeles comes to mind. It has "downtowns" in Century City, West LA, and Hollywood. It is a city built around the car, although it has rebuilt an extensive rail transit system.

But downtown LA, which is staging an astonishing comeback, is home to an impressive skyline. The Wilshire Grand, finished in 2017 and standing 1,100 feet with its spire is more than twice as tall as Phoenix's Chase Tower. The same is true of the U.S. Bank Tower, completed in 1989. About 28 skyscrapers there are taller than Chase.

Chicago, Dallas, Houston, and Charlotte have cheaper outlying land and sprawl, but each has a much more impressive skyline than Phoenix.

One big reason downtown Phoenix lacks taller buildings is its proximity to Sky Harbor International Airport. Valley National Bank wanted its new headquarters to be even taller, but the plan was quashed by the FAA. Sky Harbor is not much closer to downtown than Logan airport to downtown Boston, but Logan's runways primarily run southwest to northeast. In Phoenix, the runways are east-to-west and airplanes usually fly directly south of downtown. Gaining altitude means expending more jet fuel, especially in summer. And Sky Harbor has enormous influence at city hall. This has prevented doable towers at a higher number of floors at Third Avenue and Van Buren and further west.

A second reason is a lack of ambition by developers. A close-in airport might mean a squat skyline, as in San Diego, but that city has an infinitely more interesting skyline than Phoenix. Under the direction of VNB boss Walter Bimson, Welton Becket and Associates designed a cluster of prisms with angled sides to catch the light. It was impressive, especially at sunset, especially before it was crowded out by other buildings.

But the rest of downtown built after World War II is boring international-style boxes. The worst is the Wells Fargo Tower, built for First National Bank of Arizona. Some architects, notably Will Bruder, have proposed some towers that would have been signature skyscrapers, but cost-averse developers turned them down.

Midtown lacks the Sky Harbor problem. In the 1980s, businessman Georges Schriqui proposed the tallest building in the world for this area, even connecting it to the airport with a monorail. The proposal went nowhere. The same was true for two 60-story condo towers in the 2000s.

Which brings us to the biggest reason Phoenix lacks the distinctive skyline of a big city: Lack of major corporate headquarters.

When Greyhound/Dial's home base left Chicago for Phoenix in the late 1960s, it chose Rosenzweig Center at Central and Clarendon, south of Indian School (the property was the territorial-era Rosenzweig homestead). But in the 1990s, as one of the world's leading consumer products companies, Dial built the city's most distinctive skyscraper at Central and Palm Lane (now deformed with a sign for a little-known bank at the top). Designed by architects HKS, the Dial Tower was intended to have a twin brother. Alas, a hedge-fund manager's war on Dial wrecked the company and killed those plans.

Valley National Bank was acquired by Bank One in 1992, the most horrific corporate loss in Arizona history. But a counterfactual history would have seen VNB survive and become a nationwide franchise, or at least a strong regional bank such as Fifth/Third in Cincinnati. This would have meant many more skyscrapers for Phoenix.

Tall buildings aren't everything. The art deco Luhrs Tower, at a mere 185 feet, remains the most beautiful tall building in the city. When the handsome Hotel Westward Ho (208 feet) was completed in 1929, it was the tallest building between El Paso and LA until being surpassed by the bland Guaranty Bank Building in 1959. Allowing towers outside downtown was a huge planning mistake, but the developers, especially the Rosenzweig brother, had the pull. For years it didn't matter because Phoenix was a one-story oasis with democratic views of our "skyline," the mountains.

And height isn't everything (see the Luhrs Tower). Procter & Gamble could easily have built an immense tower for its new headquarters in downtown Cincinnati. Instead, it gave the city a gift of a lovely low-rise twin-towers framing a park. This comes from the corporate stewardship that Phoenix once had but lost.

But lack of vision, ambition, and especially high-end corporate assets are the biggest reasons today's city skyline is so boring to the eye.

Gallery (click on photo for a larger image):

The Hotel Westward Ho in 1930, for three decades the tallest building in Phoenix.

The turquoise building for Guaranty Bank surpassed the Westward Ho in the late 1950s.

Midtown surpassed downtown for skyscrapers in the early 1960s. This is Rosenzweig Center under construction.

Midtown by the turn of the 21st century, with the Dial headquarters at left. It was meant to have a twin before Wall Street forced the company's eventual demise.

Skyscrapers returned downtown in the 1970s. From left, First National Bank, Arizona Bank, and Valley Center, tallest in the state (Patty Matus photo).

CityScape towers downtown circa 2010, still limited in height by Sky Harbor.

Downtown 2020. Valley Center, now Chase Tower, is largely blocked from view.

Midtown in 2020, with the former Dial building marred by a bank sign.

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My book, A Brief History of Phoenix, is available to buy or order at your local independent bookstore, or from Amazon.

Read more Phoenix history in Rogue's Phoenix 101 archive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[soleri]

I don't quite get the idea that an impressive skyline represents some kind of civic achievement. There have been great cities through the ages with really no skyline at all. Washington, DC, for example, is a strikingly handsome city precisely because it capped buildings at a reasonable height. This means the city doesn't have that alienating out-of-scale building stock that is incomprehensible at street level. Washington is beautiful, walkable, and interesting.

What makes Phoenix boring is that it's architecture is largely cheap and uninspired. The urban scale, too, is inhuman and unwalkable. Creating taller buildings won't solve this problem because people generally don't enjoy cities with their necks craned. But even if they did. Taller but still mediocre buildings are not a panacea. A lively streetscape with people-oriented businesses would be vastly preferable than the kind of priapic erections that excite teenage aficionados of skyscrapers.

I'm happy to see downtown Phoenix getting denser with more residents. The new apartment buildings are mostly awful but they're still a net plus. It won't mean Phoenix overall is becoming more urbane except for a few square miles in a couple of locations. That said, I never would have dreamed even this renaissance was possible. Credit to the Millenials who finally decided to stop living dozens of miles aways from their workplaces. Phoenix will never be a wonderful city but it will be more interesting and less lonely at street level. You'll still want to drive everywhere but it won't just to the routine big box stores and chain restaurants.

[Tom Lane]

Jon,

You banned me on Facebook.

Not nice.

Many Scottsdale, Reno, and Carlsbad Executives on Facebook took note of this when I informed them. I routinely exchange messages with them on a variety of topics. We cannot figure out why you would ban your readers who sustain your paycheck.

Tim Mello took note of this and was also disappointed. He added me to his page.

Please send me a reason for the permanent ban.

You owe me an apology for this inappropriate discipline.

https://m.facebook.com/tom.lane.phoenix.scottsdale.smart.growth?fref=nf

[Cal Lash]

Do people still use fakebook? And how about twatter and snipchot. I'm quitting easymail 122020. Too mucho incomprehedible chatter.

Priapic??

Well Jon as U know i prefer ONE story buildings. The Superstitions are as usual beautiful today here in the great Sonoran desert, in bloom. The birds are at the water and the rabbits are in the bushes.
But its getting crowded and Why AZ is on my radar.

[Petro]

Thanks for waving the dirty laundry about.

[Cal Lash]

Manana I travel to the TALL buildings preparing my flivver for cruising open Sonoran desert summers least traveled roads. There are few places but in an automobile that I find solitude. Open windows and only the sound of rubber on the road and the hum of the engine pushing me into happiness.

[Cal Lash]

Cars vs Light Rail.
I suspect the August election on more light rail will fail. Because of the power of the folks opposed to it and the Arizona legislators hate of Maricopa County.
Hence the six suggested extensions will not happen. Although the ones to GCC and ASU to Metro Center might get some support.
I visited Metro Center today and interestingly the south east inside is occupied and for a Monday Morning had more folks than i excepted. Plus Harkins movies are 7 bucks each all day. The surrounding business seemed to be doing ok.

[BRP]

Tom Lane LOL. Legend in his own mind like so many suburban losers. In touch with executives, right. Try a real job, goldbricker.

[Arthur Vigil]

I would like to second Soleri's comment on this obsession with tall buildings and follow up with some of my own observations.
Traveling down central avenue in midtown or downtown I'm in complete amazement at how these "tall" buildings yield dismal street life and character. I was walking some tourists from out of town to explore this city's "main street", Central Avenue. The common commentary was how "corporate", "generic", "boring", "lifeless", "sterile", "suburban" this main street was. But on the map, one would expect this concentration of "big" buildings would result in the best this city has to offer.

Observe the obscenity of "The Stewart" building that essentially looks like a cruise ship that landed on top of the circles building. Does that street feel more charming because of this high rise addition? Architecturally, this building is quite possibly the best manifestation of our current collective state of chaos and anxiety. I'm an architect and still cannot describe what if any "style" that is.

The Chase tower which is shown in this article is the equivalent to an alien spaceship with its bunker-like launching pad and adjoining power plant (parking garage). Whenever I see I wonder what this building replaced?

In contrast to Central Avenue. One can explore a walkable city in a similar desert climate. Granada Spain, Marrakech Morocco, Valletta Malta, or Malaga Spain Theses cities are not know for their skylines. They have vibrant street life and tons of local charm. It's interesting to contrast the historic cores of these cities with the corporate contemporary developments on the fringe. Tourists flock to this charming walkable neighborhoods, like flies to light. Most of whom seem amazed that prior civilizations used to build cities for human's in mind rather than machines. Yet here we are with a dismal collection of strip malls, fast food chains and jive plastic cruise ship apartment buildings that frame (name your arterial street). I dont see much of a difference from these corporate towers and the corporate strip mall. Other than which axis they are built, horizontal vs vertical.

That's my observation..... I seem to be in the minority in this city with this opinion.

[Mark in Scottsdale]

Always enjoy the history posts, thanks Jon.