Giving Back
1. Habitat for Humanity Central Arizona has adopted four Phoenix central city south neighborhoods — Grant Park, Central Park, Matthew Henson and the 7-11 Neighborhood — and has committed to spend five years making significant upgrades to existing homes and building 30 new homes on vacant lots.
Awards & Accolades
2. An Arizona Department of Transportation project that’s rebuilding 5 miles of Interstate 40 near Williams has been ranked in the nation’s top 10 by construction industry publication Roads & Bridges.
3. LSW Engineers Arizona, Inc. received an Engineering Excellence Grand Award in the category Building Technology Systems for its design of the Banner Thunderbird Medical Center Air Handling Unit during the American Council of Engineering Companies of Arizona’s 2018 Engineering Excellence Awards Gala on October 6.
4. The City of Mesa, FCI Constructors, Perlman Architects, and G&G Enterprises received a merit award from the Arizona Masonry Guild for Mesa Fire Station No. 203.
5. AZ Big Media is looking for nominations for the best and most notable projects of 2018. The nomination process has just begun for the 2019 Real Estate Development Awards, which are given out annually to the impactful work being done throughout Arizona. RED Award nominations can be made here.
Groundbreakings
6. Lowell Observatory broke ground on what will be the $3M, 4.3KSF Giovale Open Deck Observatory. GODO consists of an elevated deck or plaza with a roll-off building that will retract nightly and house a suite of six telescopes.
7. General contractor A.R. Mays Construction announced it has broken ground on the Kitchell-developed Mountain Vista Marketplace, a 48KSF retail center in Mesa that will include the construction and buildout of a 30KSF Sprouts Farmers Market and construction of two other retail buildings. The 10 acres of site work will include four pads for future development.
Progress Reports
8. McCarthy Building Cos. was selected to build Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building 7 — the $175M research facility for Arizona State University. Estimated at 260KSF, the structure is being built at the SWC of University Drive and Rural. The architect team is comprised of Architekton and New York-based Grimshaw. Groundbreaking details were not available.
9. The Northern Arizona University Walkup Skydome is currently receiving massive upgrades to its visual technology in the 41-year-old building. NAU Athletics confirmed the cost of the upgrades currently total $2.9M.
10. A former distribution facility in the Phoenix Warehouse District is getting new life as a creative office space, expanding from 64KSF to 92KSF. Montana Avenue Capital Partners and the Humphreys Co. partnered to create the Lincoln Union adaptive reuse. Okland Construction has almost finished demolition work. Completion is scheduled for April. SmithGroup is the architect.
11. Board President Kari Hoffman has pronounced the Colorado River Union High School District’s fieldhouse construction as on time and on budget. Supt. Benje Hookstra said the project, funded by a voter-approved bond issue in the 2016 election, was “coming along well.” Equipment for the kitchen and two concession stands has been secured. The audio-video and sound systems have been secured.
Completions
12. The nation’s first four-way roundabout across light rail tracks was targeted to open up on Main Street at Horne in Mesa this week. It marks a major step in Valley Metro’s $184M extension of the Main Street light rail line to Gilbert Road, which is expected to be fully complete by late spring.