After a star-studded international design competition in 1990 (won by Arata Isozaki IIRC), the City of Phoenix scrapped the idea of a series of low courtyard buildings and put together a program for a single integral tower. Included in the project was the renovation of the existing 8 story city office building and the existing and spectacular City-County Building across the street.
Langdon Wilson came up with a simple tower design that is distinctly southwestern. And unlike most of the other towers in Phoenix (including others by LW at the same time), this building was something that actually harnessed the sun, was designed to be fairly energy efficient, and actually looks decent dressed in the color brown.
The simple stucco and stainless clad building (with its distinctive blue solex reflective glazing) is capped by a rounded stainless crown and an interesting stainless steel spire.
The building is only 20 floors, but the top of the crown is 350' tall and the top of the spire is 368'.
A friend of mine was working in the mayors office on the 20th floor (under the Paul Johnson administration). Nice views from up there, but I never managed to get any photos from his office.
Here's a fact sheet provided to me by the facilities department:
And of course...photos...
Part of the City Hall project included the later renovation of the Orpheum Theater, which is connected to the building (and exits through it) into a large glass hall. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the hall. The Orpheum is an absolute gem, the last remaining palace theater in downtown Phoenix and I believe it re-opened in (1995?).
The tower isn't particularly tall and it doesn't particularly stand out in the distant skyline. This tower is best seen up-close and personal.
This is one of my favorite buildings in all of Phoenix and by far my favorite tower. The detailing is really well done, and the crown is quite distinctive. I do wish the tower was a bit taller (maybe 5-8 stories). It really should be the crown jewel of the skyline, but is really only really appreciated from the Washington Street (south) side. It's buried in the skyline from all other points east and the north and west sides aren't particularly distinctive.
If you added 8 stories (120'), making the building 470' and the spire 488' and now the tallest in town (I wish):
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