[Project Reborn V3 Cracked Feet
Facunda Ganesh
Contractors finished construction on three new buildings this summer: McCord Hall, the new home to W. P. Carey business graduate students; the Downtown Phoenix campus Sun Devil Fitness Complex; and the Tempe campus Sun Devil Fitness Complex. And after a complete interior demolition and renovation, Manzanita Hall opened its doors to students in August.
Executive Vice President, Treasurer and CFO Morgan R. Olsen noted that the scope of the work completed this summer, as well as other projects like College Avenue Commons at the Tempe campus underway, was truly extraordinary.
Work on solar projects continued apace this summer, with 14 solar power plant installations underway at the Tempe campus. Two of the most prominent began in June and July: pedestrian shade structures that double as solar power plants over Orange and Cady Malls near the MU, and the Gammage Parkway medians.
ASU solar-system installations on the Tempe campus are facilitated, in part, by Arizona Public Service's Renewable Energy Incentive Program. By November 2013, all four ASU campuses and the ASU Research Park are projected to have solar power generating systems totaling 23.5 megawatts DC, producing nearly 41 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually.
At the Downtown Phoenix campus, ASU removed 55 aging air conditioning units at the Mercado and replaced them with energy-efficient systems. The change will reduce electricity costs and allow ASU to take advantage of APS and Energize Phoenix rebate incentives.
Intent on keeping pedestrians safe and reducing vehicle congestion, ASU introduced Walk-Only Zones for the most heavily travelled Tempe campus malls in August. Recent physical changes to the Tempe campus that support the Walk-Only Zones include: signs, removable and permanent bollards, new bicycle racks and locations, and daytime cart parking. Learn about wheeled-restriction times and see zone, cart and vehicle access maps at walk.asu.edu. The Walk-Only Zones make accommodations for the use of mobility devices by individuals with disabilities, and will make the core Tempe campus a much safer and more pleasant place for pedestrians
And beginning August 1, ASU went tobacco free. Permanent signs were installed throughout ASU campuses and 450 ashtrays were removed. ASU joins the nearly 800 colleges and universities across the country that has given up smoking and chewing. This student-driven initiative encourages members of the campus community to kick the habit and create a healthier learning environment. For more information, see
After nearly three years of construction work, Manzanita Hall has been reborn. Gone are the dark corners, creaky elevators and leaky pipes, and in its place are two-story lounges with floor-to-ceiling windows, flat-screen TVs, and study areas with comfortable furniture. An exterior wall of the once- gloomy basement was removed to bring in more light to the floor that now features arcade games, air-hockey tables, study spaces and meeting areas. Outside are a new basketball court, sand volleyball and dining tables. The 215,000-square-foot building will house 816 students from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in a state-of-the-art living and learning environment.
Students, faculty and staff now will have access to a large gym, a weight room, an indoor track, multi-purpose space, group activity gyms, locker rooms and a leisure pool on the roof of the new Downtown Phoenix Campus Sun Devil Fitness Center. The department of Exercise, Nutrition and Wellness also is housed in the new building, providing significant new classroom and instructional space. The 73,800-square-foot building is immediately south of the Lincoln Family Downtown YMCA at 350 N. 1st Ave in downtown Phoenix.
This 84,500-square-foot addition to the existing Sun Devil Fitness Complex includes a large, multiple-court gym, strength and cardio areas, a free weights area/small gym, multi-purpose space, wellness space, a social recreation area and partial renovation of the existing building.
This renovation project converted a 28,000-square-foot portion of the existing Creativity Hall at the ASU Polytechnic campus into innovative educational space for elementary students. Space for the ASU Preparatory Academy elementary school now allows for traditional instruction, as well as smaller break-out areas.
The bikeway itself is intuitive to use and feels very safe. Because the street is only one lane of car drivers in each direction and the speed limit is just 25 mph, the overall riding environment is pleasant and calm.
On both ends of the project, I was sad to see the same thing our bike network suffers from almost everywhere else: the protected environment erodes quickly into narrow, unprotected bike lanes and then drops to nothing right when all the good destinations appear. On the Multnomah Village side, the project dumps riders onto a narrow, paint-only bike lane (that was full of gravel) as it descends into the shops and cafes where it them becomes a shared-lane environment.
I assume our division of street maintenance and stormwater management into separate bureaucratic silos is partly to blame here, since storm drains would probably have to have been moved away from the corners to allow for a raised crosswalk.
When I used to live in that area, I commuted to downtown and this section was on my route, so I would have used this every day if it existed. Would have been much appreciated, as this was the main sketchy part of my ride. That, and the part where capitol highway turns into that ramp to merge onto Barbur after Hillsdale, but that was just fun for me, I liked recklessly going 35 with traffic. Not for everyone.
Indeed! The city of Milwaukie already completed their portion of Linwood avenue a year or two ago so you can ride it now. The bumps at all the driveways are a little annoying, but like this Capitol Highway project, it is still a huge improvement!
Another good argument against requiring people to ride in the bike facility. It reminds me of a comment in another recent article about the danger of riding in a bike lane that puts you in the door zone, especially when passing a car with large doors and tinted windows.
Porous concrete is great to ride on- check out the MUP along the river on Swan Island south of the Daimler HQ. (I know it does live up to the permeability hype w/o being vacuumed, I am just talking about rollability)
Yeah the driveway cuts really are bad, but I think they are made much worse by the interaction with the sidewalk style paving. The up/down from the cut mixed with the bumps from the sidewalk is a dangerous feeling combination, especially going at speed downhill.
At various points in time, alleys were considered to be seedy and/or dangerous and have fallen in and out of favor depending on factors beyond what I could tell you. But apparently, very few alleys have been constructed in the US post-war, so maybe this all was a long-winded way of agreeing with you.
Thank you for the examples of stroads around the world. It is somehow comforting to see these mistakes occur elsewhere; at least we were not unique in our stupidity. I note that none of your examples show grade separated infrastructure. All of the examples that had cycling infrastructure shared the roadway with the cars at the same grade.
When I think about examples of an throughway that has separated cycle ways and lots of driveways, I think the best example I have personally seen is Jackson School in Hillsboro, but the cross section is about 20+ feet wider than the one for SW Capitol HWY. In this respect it seems like the design is quite novel.
I always felt the same way about the initial caution signs along the 17th Ave bike route south of Sellwood. It inverts Oregon statutes and the responsibility of people driving to stop twice before exiting driveways: Drivers stop once at the sidewalk and once again before entering the roadway.
(d)Operates the bicycle at a speed greater than an ordinary walk when approaching or entering a crosswalk, approaching or crossing a driveway or crossing a curb cut or pedestrian ramp and a motor vehicle is approaching the crosswalk, driveway, curb cut or pedestrian ramp. This paragraph does not require reduced speeds for bicycles at places on sidewalks or other pedestrian ways other than places where the path for pedestrians or bicycle traffic approaches or crosses that for motor vehicle traffic.
12.The Woodward Avenue Esplanade is a public park in the median of Woodward Avenue that opened in 2017. It is the result of a $400,000 investment by Quicken Loans, Inc. to convert the median of Woodward into a gathering place that includes sidewalks, public art installations, seating and other interactive amenities.
14.Opened on September 5, 2017, the $862.9 million Little Caesars Arena is the new home of the Detroit Red Wings (NHL) and the Detroit Pistons (NBA). It is the anchor of a new $2.1 billion sports and entertainment that will include mixed-use neighborhoods with new residential and retail between Downtown and Midtown Detroit.
15.The QLine is a privately operated 3.3-mile modern streetcar line that opened on May 12, 2017. Connecting downtown with Midtown and New Center, the fixed transit system averaged 3,700 riders a day during its first year of operation.
17.Tower cranes reign supreme on the downtown skyline these days. A tower crane for the expansion of One Campus Martius can be seen in the background. Built in 2003, One Campus Maritus is a 16-story landmark office tower overlooking Campus Martius Park. A $95-million, 14-story addition is currently underway to add 310,000-square-feet of office space.
18.A $313 million restoration project is underway on the historic 38-story Book Tower. Abandoned since 1989, it anchors the Washington Boulevard Historic District and was the tallest building in the city when it was completed in 1926. Acquired by Bedrock Real Estate in 2015, the tower will include 95 residential units, 180,000-square-feet of retail and office space and a hotel when it is completed.
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