Maricopa County Downtown Court Tower

[combusean]

Height: 277 - 289'
Floors: 16
Estimated completion: 2012
Project URL: http://maricopa.gov/courttower/
Budget: $340 million
LEED Silver or better

$86 million in projects cut to fund court tower
by Yvonne Wingett - Nov. 18, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors sacrificed $86 million in capital-improvement projects Monday, instead unanimously deciding to spend the money on a courtroom complex in downtown Phoenix.

The 16-story Criminal Court Tower could cost $340 million and likely will be the county's most expensive project, filling a block bounded by First and Second avenues and Jackson and Madison streets.

Most criminal cases are tried in the downtown Phoenix Superior Court Complex, but with 40,000 felony cases filed yearly and the number projected to grow, the tower is meant to handle ever-increasing caseloads.

In shelving other projects, the board hammered home that it is committed to the tower, despite slumping revenues, a gaping hole in its budget, and bleak briefings from economists who predict the economic situation will get worse.

"There will never be a better time to build that building than right now," said Republican Supervisor Max Wilson.

To help cover court-tower costs, the board shelved a $67 million plan to expand a regional court in Mesa, a $13 million project to build a sheriff's office 911 center and crime lab, and a $6.3 million plan to knock down First Avenue Jail.

For years, county officials have squirreled away money for the judicial complex, which will add 32 courtrooms. Now's the time to spend it, they say, when prices for labor and building materials are down.

"We consider it a business decision," County Manager David Smith said. "It's one that's made apart of the ups and downs of the current economy. We've been saving money for at least eight years, and it's the right way to do economic stimulus, with the 500 jobs (that will be added during) the next three years during construction. We're doing it with cash, we're injecting that savings account back into the economy, (and) that will circulate several times, all to local employees and contractors and so on."

Kenny Harris, an assistant county manager, said, "We're going to save money . . . because of the recession. As long as the economy struggles, it's the best time for government projects to step up.

"In order to keep their businesses open, (subcontractors) are willing to do the work and reduce their profit margins and their fees to do the work. It's better to stay in business and take less money than close your doors."

The county hopes to open the court-tower doors in early 2012.

Eighteen months ago, the board gave the go-ahead to design and build the tower, and authorized spending $342.4 million. Officials have spent about $11 million, and on Monday, reduced the project's funding to $339 million. The county will break ground on the project next month, starting with storm-sewer relocation and garage demolition.

The court tower is designed at 16 floors, including two underground floors. At 682,000 square feet, it would house 32 criminal courtrooms; 22 courtrooms would be built immediately; and 10 more would be finished later.

Plans also include a jury-assembly room for the entire criminal-court complex, state-of-the-art technology, and separate waiting rooms for victims and witnesses. The tower would include judges' chambers and restorative-justice services, in which people try to repair the harm caused by crime by working in the community.

[AZ KID]

New permit for the court tower. Nothing significant but is something....It was issued yesterday....

Permit# CMC-T490062 Issue Date Expires 11/18/10
Permit Description DRILLING IN ROW
Project 07-4320 MARICOPA COUNTY COURTS TOWER

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Address 101 W MADISON ST PHOENIX AZ 85003 Zoning
L 12 B 62 ORIGINAL TOWNSITE OF PHOENIX QS Q10-27 APN 112-22-035A Dist 08

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Description/Scope of Work: MISCELLANEOUS CIVIL WORK

[CANUC]

Originally Posted by combusean

The public transit building methinks. Great shots!

Massings of the Criminal Court Tower:

Damn, Combusean how the hell do you do it? I spent nearly my entire lunch the other day trying to pull up information on the Court Tower and the best that I could up with was a schematic sketch. Yet here you come along with a full blown massing mock up. You have to have some connections. Anyways my guess is that Madison will disappear. I can’t really tell from the mock up since its not detailed enough but could those ramps be stairs on the north and east sides?

[Don B.]

^ May I make a suggestion? When you quote someone else's post, remove the redundant photos, to save room in the thread and bandwidth (especially as the same photos are repeated just above in the same page of the thread), as some of us have slower internet connections.

Many thanks.

--don

[PHX31]

The model/mockup makers sure don't know anything. They neatly show the light rail train... but they show a 4 car setup. Everyone knows there will only be a max of 3 cars per train. geez.

[HX_Guy]

Out of curiosity...how will they replace all the parking spots that will be lost from the demolition of the parking garage?
Hopefully they just tell people "too bad...park outside of downtown and grab the light rail".

[glynnjamin]

^ I thought the plan said it had two levels of parking garage under ground. Not sure if there is a +/- compared to the existing garage, but I think the light rail should provide some relief to parking.

[combusean]

^ I haven't heard anything about parking in this. I seem to recall that they'll be shuttling folks from garages further west. I walked around the site the other day and saw a juror shuttle so I guess this isn't too much of a stretch.

Originally Posted by Don B.

^ May I make a suggestion? When you quote someone else's post, remove the redundant photos, to save room in the thread and bandwidth (especially as the same photos are repeated just above in the same page of the thread), as some of us have slower internet connections.

Many thanks.

--don

The bandwith considerations shouldn't matter: when you've downloaded the photo earlier on, your browser should use the same photo further down in the page without getting it again. But the room they take up is important to consider, especially with the unscaled images.

Originally Posted by CANUC

Damn, Combusean how the hell do you do it? I spent nearly my entire lunch the other day trying to pull up information on the Court Tower and the best that I could up with was a schematic sketch. Yet here you come along with a full blown massing mock up. You have to have some connections. Anyways my guess is that Madison will disappear. I can’t really tell from the mock up since its not detailed enough but could those ramps be stairs on the north and east sides?

I called Maricopa Facilities Management and went through the phone tree. The first guy I called about the project a while ago was much more happy to talk about it, the second person I got the massing mockups gives the far more traditional "who the hell are you?" response and tone one would expect from local government.

Everyone is welcome to do the same (or PM me for her email) but if anybody has questions about the project post them here. But she actually called me back twice that afternoon as I missed the first one so it can't be that bad.

[scottkag]

Originally Posted by glynnjamin

^ I thought the plan said it had two levels of parking garage under ground. Not sure if there is a +/- compared to the existing garage, but I think the light rail should provide some relief to parking.

The county has 3 large parking structures (not counting the one it is blowing up) with plenty of spaces:

1) adjacent to County Building at 4th ave and Jefferson
2) adjacent to the Downtown Justice Center at 5th ave and Jackson
3) across from the Forensic Services Building at 7th ave and Madison

They are shuttling employees and jurors to these existing garages.

[combusean]

One other thing I forgot to mention, my contact indicated the project height will be 284' above Jackson St, making it just a hair shorter (not higher) than the 289' Phelps Dodge Tower on the north side of Washington St.

Anyone have any good skyline shots that could show this thing's best impact? PM me.

[HX_Guy]

Here is a decent skyline shot that could show the impact of the Court Tower.
The Central Courts Tower, built in 1977 (the windowless north face one) is 234', with the new Courts Tower being 50' taller, and further back, it won't pop up above the rest that much, but it should still make a decent impact.



(I have the picture in a larger format as well)

[HooverDam]

Perhaps a dumb question but, how tall is the roof of Chase? I imagine the Court tower won't be at all visible from the east, right?

[scottkag]

Maricopa County has posted this so you all may bitch about the beige-ness of the new Court Tower.

http://www.maricopa.gov/courttower/index.htm

[HooverDam]

Welp its pretty bland, ugly and institutional. I'm so glad to have more beige on the skyline. Ah well, as long as its good at street level (unlikely considering its use) I'll be happy.

[plinko]

If they actually use green accents and reflective glass, it might look pretty good. It is definitely government architecture though...

Didn't somebody have a height for this thing sometime back? Somewhere in the 240' range?

[Jsmscaleros]

I take it back... I do have one complaint - or observation, I suppose. This tower will be built on a block that is now a large parking structure; couldn't they build it on the block bordered by Jefferson/Madison, and 6th/5th avenue? That block right now is just a ground-level parking lot and is still connected to the government blocks.

Plowing down a large structure with hundreds of parking spaces so close to CityScape, US Airways Center, etc... doesn't seem like a good idea when the ultimate goal is to make downtown a more dense entertainment/living destination.

...and they're spending 340 million on it?! Let's get a Rem Koolhaas design for that price tag!

[combusean]

^ No, because it has to tie in with the existing facilities. There's an underground network of tunnels for prisoner transport that already exists between the jails and courthouses that this is *much* closer to. 5th Avenue is way the hell off the beaten path for something like this.

How does demolishing a 2 story ugly garage (that was never public anyway) at all inhibit anything? Granted, it's very much more of the same--more courtrooms downtown means more lawyers downtown and thus a demand for more office space ... as opposed to entertainment and living ... but I'll take the injection of capital to build a critical infrastructure project as tall as possible. They are limited to 289' in that block, and it's going to be just that tall.

Plus when they originally announced the criminal court tower a private owner saw that as a good cue to announce a condo/office tower complex on one of the adjoining blocks. Didn't quite go anywhere as it was very much late in the boom.

[HX_Guy]

Speaking of the Maricopa County Courts Tower, an FAA height request appeared today for 277 ft.

[Vicelord John]

how can you tell from those renderings if it is overpriced or not?

To me it looks like outdated architecture that is typical of what the county builds. The city of Phoenix is doing a nice job of building nice looking buildings. The city and county though, suck like a high school girl on prom night; fast, hard, and bad.

[KEVINphx]

Originally Posted by Vicelord John

how can you tell from those renderings if it is overpriced or not?

To me it looks like outdated architecture that is typical of what the county builds. The city of Phoenix is doing a nice job of building nice looking buildings. The city and county though, suck like a high school girl on prom night; fast, hard, and bad.

Seriously! Looks like someone found this design (particularly, the podium) in a desk drawer after it was lost in 1963.

I kind of like the look of the podium though! Very 60s, call me crazy