Awards & Accolades
1. ACEC Arizona recently issued its Excellence in Arizona Engineering Awards for 2025. Awards and winners included: The 2025 Clifford C. Sawyer Achievement Award, presented to J2 Engineering and Environmental Design, Town of Queen Creek, Frontier Family Park; and the 2025 People’s Choice Award, presented to AECOM, Valley Metro, South Central Extension/Downtown Hub.
2. The Refinery, the flagship building at the University of Arizona Tech Park at The Bridges, has earned LEED Silver Certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.
Groundbreakings
3. Preliminary site work has begun on Arizona State University Health’s new 200KSF headquarters on the Phoenix Bioscience Core campus in downtown Phoenix. McCarthy Building Companies is the general contractor, with CO Architects and DFDG Architecture serving as architects. The project team also includes Meyer Borgman Johnson for structural engineering, Spectrum Engineers for MEP engineering and Dibble Engineers for civil engineering. Development costs are estimated between $200M and $230M. Construction is expected to start early next year and be completed in 2028.
4. High Street Residential, with joint venture partners Mar-Gulf Management Inc. and MDI Capital, broke ground on Union Park Residences in Phoenix’s Norterra development. The project will include 308 units across a four-story community on eight acres at 2215 W. Union St. ESG Architects designed the development, and Ironmark Builders is serving as the general contractor. Completion is expected in Q4 2027.
Completions
5. Vestar completed Queen Creek Crossing, a 31-acre retail development at Ellsworth Road and East Fulton Pkwy. in Queen Creek. The center spans more than 400KSF, broke ground in 2022 and is anchored by Costco.
6. Maricopa County celebrated the opening of the renovated and expanded Southeast Juvenile Justice Facility, a project completed in 18 months and delivered $600K under budget. The building now totals 235KSF. The original structure was built more than 35 years ago.
7. Intersection Development, in partnership with Räkkhaus Studio, completed the Rainbow Road apartment complex at 1030 N. 1st Ave. in Phoenix. The 12-sided residential building includes 36 units and features design elements inspired by the Mario Kart Rainbow Road track.
8. Glendale Regional Airport completed a 7,150-ft by 100-ft, one-inch asphalt overlay of its runway, in partnership with the ADOT Aeronautics Group. The pavement is expected to last roughly 15 years.