Freeport-McMoRan Center (One Central Park East) - Phoenix, AZ

[AZ KID]

Glass is looking great!

[Vicelord John]

I wonder if those fins will be on the east and west sides for blocking morning and evening sun, or if they will be on the entire building?

Someone who knows the answer chime in anytime.

[gymratmanaz]

They are only East and West for blocking sun. The South will have two horizontal shade fins per floor for shade.

[plinko]

Which means that in the early morning and late afternoon during the summer that the north side offices are going to get blasted. Nice. Is the glass different on that side?

[Don B.]

Temperatures are cooler in the morning, so that's really not that much of an issue, and the sun's rays are also heavily angled in the early morning and late afternoon, so not as much direct radiant heating will occur as what would happen to the south side of the tower during mid-day without protection.

Most buildings in Phoenix don't have any shade louvers or other protection at all. Look at Chase Tower.

--don

[HX_Guy]

Originally Posted by plinko

Which means that in the early morning and late afternoon during the summer that the north side offices are going to get blasted. Nice. Is the glass different on that side?

It shouldn't because while the sun is higher in the sky in the summer, it's still more directly overhead then actually to the north to beat down on the north side.

[HX_Guy]

A couple new shots...

[plinko]

Originally Posted by HX_Guy

It shouldn't because while the sun is higher in the sky in the summer, it's still more directly overhead then actually to the north to beat down on the north side.

I assure you, the north side of this building will get blasted every morning and afternoon in the summertime (it's a simple solar path, but I also assure you as a former resident of the northside of the Landmark Towers that the vertical fins do their jobs). It's just curious to me given the curtainwall treatment on the other facades.

[gymratmanaz]

Explain Plinko what it is that has you curious about the other facades???

[LAFINDOG]

I'm new here.
Sorry if I am repeating anything.
The sunshades are based on a sun study done by the Architects. The sun shades are vertical on the east/west elevations and horizontal on the south elevation. There are no sunshades on the north elevation but there is some of the horizontal glass shades you see on the south duplicated on the north. The glass guys are installing about 1,700 sqft of glass a day now so you should see alot of progress alomost daily. They should be jumping the floors about every 5 days. This is going to be the best looking building downtown when complete. Kudos to Smith Group (Architect) in having some vision and the Owner for letting them do something different.

[HX_Guy]

I agree that this will be probably the best looking new building downtown. It's only real drawback is the height...imagine how this would have looked at 600' or 700', just amazing.

[gymratmanaz]

Ditto

[LAFINDOG]

This city cannot support a 700' tower....I wish we could. The glass is going fast now....looks like they are at the 15th floor. Can anybody get some good photo's?

[Akatosh]

All of these were taken on Saturday, November 29th in the morning.

[plinko]

I wish to re-iterate that I find it odd that the design team provided some sort of shading treatment for three sides of the building and not the north side, which gets blasted every afternoon for 3+ months at the hottest time of the day and year.

I'm certain the architects did a solar study (as mentioned)...it just seems odd.

For those of you unfamiliar, here's the sunpath diagram for Phoenix...basically how any architect figures out how deep to make effective shading structures...

[HooverDam]

^You certainly know more than I do, but my understanding has always been that in Phoenix the North side of the structure needs shade the least. For instance, the Burton Barr library has East and West sides that are completely opaque, the south sides horizontal blades that can shut completely, and the North side just has those sails which do provide shade, but much less than the other 3 sides.

[PhxPavilion]

You must have your bearing backwards Plinko, the sun is always at a southern angle, the North side gets the least amount of light/heat throughout the year. Look at Chase, 44 Monroe or the Sheraton, none have any shade structures on their north facing sides.

Originally Posted by LAFINDOG

This city cannot support a 700' tower....I wish we could. The glass is going fast now....looks like they are at the 15th floor. Can anybody get some good photo's?

If economic situations were different I believe a hotel/condo tower at 700' could work.

[LAFINDOG]

PHX....
How I wish that was true. The bottom line is until we have the density downtown it is only a pipe dream. I can't think of a building that has gone up in the last 13 years that wasn't built to be sold. Only cities with long term holders of property will develope something special. It seems all the developers in Phx just build them to sell them....like "wigets".
I do think we are moving to a place where the buildings have sustainabilty.

[PhxPavilion]

Demand is still there for hotels and condos, especially with incentives like LRT across the street, people simply cannot acquire the necessary loans or do not want to pay the ridiculously over-inflated prices. Having said that, a flooded market with too many condo towers like Vegas and Miami is currently experiencing would not be good but one or two large towers could potentially be successful...again once the economy recovers.

[AZ KID]

The glass is now visible from the convention center webcam!