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Voters in Phoenix have soundly rejected a proposal that would have halted the expansion of the city’s light rail system—a proposition that had the backing of dark money linked to the notorious anti-transit Koch brothers. — Streetsblog
The rejected initiative would have terminated "all construction, development, extension, and expansion of” light rail lines in the city in order to redirect funds appropriated for transit expansion to more auto-centric infrastructure. The result represents a set back for the dark... View full entry
Proposition 105, a measure backed by a group called Building a Better Phoenix, would halt all future light rail expansions, directing already-earmarked tax dollars toward “other transportation improvements”—mostly road construction. Like a number of efforts to kill urban-rail plans around the U.S., the initiative to stop Phoenix’s transit development has ties to Americans for Prosperity, the advocacy group funded by David H. Koch and Charles Koch. — CityLab
CityLab's Laura Bliss delves into the multi-faceted and contentious back-and-forth effort to build new light rail infrastructure in Phoenix, Arizona, where issues of urban equity, dark political money, and changing transportation needs have rankled residents of all stripes. View full entry
Phoenix, Arizona–based developer Zach Rawling bought a Frank Lloyd Wright–designed house for $2.3 million in 2012, when its previous owner wanted to demolish the landmark. In 2017, Rawlings donated the David and Gladys Wright House to the Taliesin West School of Architecture, but in June of this year, Rawlings and Aaron Betsky, the architecture school dean, announced in a joint statement that the donation was being revoked due to fundraising concerns. — artforum.com
Image via davidwrighthouse.org.In their joint statement, Aaron Betsky and Zach Rawling wrote: The relationship between the School and the House is formally manifested in the David Wright House Collaborative Fund, a supporting organization of the Arizona Community Foundation. The principal focus of... View full entry
Phoenix houses several important architectural works such as Bertrand Goldberg’s concrete Good Samaritan Hospital, Albert Chase McArthur’s luxury Arizona Biltmore Hotel, and W. A. Sarmiento’s curving Phoenix Financial Center. The city also boasts Frank Lloyd Wright’s spiral-plan David and... View full entry
Phoenix and its surrounding area is known as the Valley of the Sun, and downtown Phoenix – which in 2017 overtook Philadelphia as America’s fifth-largest city – is easily walkable, with restaurants, bars and an evening buzz. But it is a modern shrine to towering concrete, and gives way to endless sprawl that stretches up to 35 miles away to places like Anthem. The area is still growing – and is dangerously overstretched, experts warn. — The Guardian
With cities in the Desert West, like Las Vegas and Phoenix, rapidly growing in size and population, water is becoming an evermore hot commodity; all while the source of that water, primarily the Colorado River, is becoming increasingly unreliable due to climate change. "And yet despite the federal... View full entry
Belmont Partners, an investment firm run by Microsoft founder Bill Gates, has bought 25,000 acres in Arizona to create a planned community reports KPNX. The large plot of land was bought for $80 million and is 45 minutes from Phoenix, within Maricopa County, in an area called the West Valley... View full entry
Last week marked what would have been Frank Lloyd Wright’s 150th birthday. Celebrating the occasion, Zach Rawling and his family donated his Wright-designed home in Phoenix to a foundation under the auspices of the Arizona Community Foundation to benefit the Frank Lloyd Wright School of... View full entry
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Maricopa County in Arizona had the highest annual population growth in 2016. Home to the city of Phoenix, the county gained 81,360 people, or 222 people per day. More than half were people who moved to the county from another area, while 25,428 were from... View full entry
According to the Los Angeles Times, the sunny city of Phoenix, Arizona might become a little cooler, as the city develops a plan to give 25% of the city a tree canopy by 2030. Currently, the city has about half as much shade.The city plans to use a mix of steel 'trees', native plants like... View full entry
A team of construction workers is pouring concrete onto the frame of a structure that will eventually become a wastewater treatment plant. It's 1 a.m. on a clear night in the suburbs of Phoenix.
The temperature is still in the high 80s. But that's way down from the area's recent record high temperatures, up to 118 degrees. [...]
"We try to pour and place and finish concrete when it's below 90 degrees," says Daniel Ward, the construction company's project director.
— npr.org
Related stories in the Archinect news:L.A.'s urban heat island effect accounts for temperatures up to 19 degrees hotterCan Phoenix un-suburbanize?"7,000 construction workers will die in Qatar before a ball is kicked in the 2022 World Cup," new ITUC report finds View full entry
New plans for the Frank Lloyd Wright house in Arcadia has neighbors riled up.
Owners of the 1952 house want to turn it into more than just a home, but those living in the wealthy neighborhood aren't too happy about it.
[...] said the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house is "an example of what I consider to be an architecture embodiment of Arizona exceptionalism."
However, this landmark home now finds itself in the middle of controversy.
— azfamily.com
There’s a movement afoot to bring new money into urban areas all over the country, and surprisingly, Phoenix, is part of that movement.
The city has long been famous for its suburban sprawl. But now, plans are moving ahead to link high-rise downtown with a neighboring Latino barrio that wealthy developers have mostly ignored for the better part of 100 years. Not a shovel of dirt has moved, though neighbors already have expectations and fears.
— marketplace.org
Last week, the city of Phoenix made a startling announcement. The Arizona capital had previously identified 222 chronically homeless veterans living in the city, more than half of them veterans of the Vietnam War. [...]
Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton said last week that every last one of them now had a roof overhead. The city has effectively ended chronic veteran homelessness, according to the mayor [...].
Phoenix did this – prioritizing housing first, then wrapping other services around it.
— theatlanticcities.com
Using digital fabrication and some clever tricks we're able to manufacture beautiful, low cost structures which easily bolt together. You design for it like it's a big imaginary 3D printer then you and your friends get together and bolt your house together! [...]
It works like a techno version of a barn raising.
— Arcology Now
Architecture start-up Arcology Now wants to provide an alternative to 3D printing building technologies, focusing on reliable materials and elbow grease. The Phoenix, Arizona group has developed a digital fabrication software that generates a framework for any 3D surface out of steel tubes and... View full entry
The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy has facilitated the purchase of the David and Gladys Wright House in Phoenix, Arizona, through an LLC owned by an anonymous benefactor. The transaction closed on December 20 for an undisclosed price. The property will be transferred to an Arizona not-for-profit organization responsible for the restoration, maintenance and operation of the David Wright House. — savewright.org
