Volume 6 Issue 2
$4.99 Summer 2017
Serving Contracting Firms and the Arizona Community. . .
●Plane Fun: Sky Harbor's Terminal 1 ●Real Horsepower: Turf Paradise Airport ●Crop Dusting with Marsh Aviation ●Stan Jones: Ghost Rider in the Sky
●New Western rentals Celebrates 20 Years ●Bennie Gonzalez: Reinterpreting Ruins ●Arizona Takes Off During World War II ●Building Altitude: Construction Aircraft
www.Arizcc.com
Arizona contractor & Community
Publisher William Horner Billy@arizcc.com Editor Douglas Towne Douglas@arizcc.com Contributing Writers Jim Baker Jim Bolek Tina Crigler W. Scott Donaldson Christia Gibbons Luke M. Snell Douglas Sydnor Isaac Windes Production Manager Laura Horner Laura@arizcc.com Magazine Consultant Chuck Runbeck Chuck@arizcc.com Publisher’s Representatives Shane Addington Shane@arizcc.com Tom Hogarty Tom@arizcc.com Rick Lafond Rick@arizcc.com Barry Warner Barry@arizcc.com Advertising 602-931-0069 Arizcc.com/advertise.html
Serving Contracting Firms and the Arizona Community… Then & Now Arizona Contractor & Community (ACC) magazine is published quarterly (spring, summer, fall, & winter). ACC is a professional publication designed for the contracting industry, engineers, architects, equipment rentals, suppliers, and others interested in Arizona and its history. Content including text, photographs or illustrations may not be reproduced without the written permission from the publisher. The publisher does not assume responsibility for unsolicited submissions. ACC reserves the right to reject any editorial and advertising material and reserves the right to edit all submitted content material. Arizona Contractor & Community Copyright © 2017 All rights reserved.
FOUR
Summer 2017
We want to hear from
you!
Your Ideas Your Stories Your Suggestions Your comments
Contact us 602-931-0069 Billy@arizcc.com
Help us make ACC the Best it can be! www.Arizcc.com
Arizona contractor & Community
Meet the Staff
ALL THE GEAR YOU NEED Hercrentals.com Call for rates and reservations Gilbert: 480-507-1680 Phoenix: 602-269-5931 Tucson: 520-573-1344
SIX
Isaac Windes - Writer Article on page 17
William Horner - Publisher Articles on page 50 & 70
Arizona State University student and freelance reporter Isaac Windes is a junior at the Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Isaac, a multimedia journalist, has produced content for various mediums. Born and raised in Tucson, Isaac has had a life-long interest in journalism, which he is majoring in accompanied by a minor in political science. In just over a year, Isaac has covered a variety of events for the first-ever politics desk at the award-winning student publication, The State Press. He produced content for the Arizona Capitol Times over the last legislative session, notably exploring Arizona’s declining transportation infrastructure. He has also worked for CNN as a runner at the Democratic National Convention. Isaac is interested in topics ranging from water policy and voting trends to construction projects and protests. Within the beat of water policy, he explored the binational relationship between Mexico and the United States in regards to water allotment and their future under the current administration. Isaac will continue his education overseas this summer, in both London and Israel with the Cronkite School before reporting from Washington D.C. for Cronkite News. Outside of journalism, Issac enjoys percussion instruments and the culinary arts.
Looking back after four decades, I’ve stayed pretty consistent to my childhood roots. While growing up, I loved Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone and William Wyler’s 1944 documentary, Memphis Belle on Bill Rose’s Channel 5 show. The latter program started my collection of World War II artifacts and building 1/48-scale aviation dioramas. As an overactive child, my parents encouraged me to channel my energy into hobbies. I enjoyed Little League baseball, drumming, and skateboarding. I still have the first practice pad I purchased at Arizona Music Center in Glendale along with my Rob Roskopp skateboard. My father, who passed away ten years ago, was a talented baseball player, musician, humorist, and heavy equipment operator. As I try to accentuate his good habits and leave behind the bad, I realize the many valuable lessons I learned working with him. As Arizona Contractor & Community magazine enters in its sixth year of publication, I have new challenges and mentors for guidance. I sometimes tell people, “This magazine is construction with a Twilight Zone twist.” The magazine staff and close friends have listened to my ideas and helped incorporate them into the pages. After assessing the competition, I think we’ve succeeded in providing something unique for our advertisers and readers.
Summer 2017
Volume 6 Issue 2 Summer 2017
CONTENTS 10.
Editor’s Column: Arizona Takes Off: Pilot Training During World War II - Douglas Towne
13.
Construction Around Arizona: Projects • People • Practices
32.
Celebrating Two Decades of Equipment Supply: New Western Rentals
39. 40.
Back When: Ghost Rider In The Sky - Douglas Towne
46.
Terminal Talker: Sky Harbor’s Homespun Control Tower - Douglas Towne
48.
Faster Than a Speeding Thoroughbred: Turf Paradise Airport - Tina Crigler
50.
Building on the Past: 1956: First National Bank at Sky Harbor Airport - William Horner
52.
On a Wing and a Prayer: Arizona Aviation Adventures - Jim Baker as told to ACC magazine
56.
Arizona Aerial Warfare: Crop Dusting with Marsh Aviation - Jim Baker as told to ACC magazine
62.
Building Altitude: Piloting Construction Company Aircraft - Douglas Towne
66.
Architect’s Perspective: Bennie M. Gonzales, FAIA: Reinterpreting Ruins - Doug Sydnor, FAIA
70.
Digging Through the Archives: Constructing Sky Harbor - William Horner
75. 76.
Bid Results - Bidjudge
Plane Fun: Sky Harbor’s Terminal 1 Douglas Towne
ACC Advertisers’ Index
Front Cover A family exits their private plane at Sky Harbor Airport in 1965. See story on page 46
EIGHT
Summer 2017
Let us tell your story
“We Don’t Try to Sell What You Don’t Need”
INDEPENDENT TIRE SERVICE Independent Tire Service Owner/Operator Jeff Villain has followed this sound and honest business philosophy for over 35 years in the Arizona construction industry: “We always try to repair your tire first, and not just sell you one.” It’s what earned Jeff the title of “Tire Guy”. His second generation reputation proceeds him. So does the line of tires he represents.
Cell: 602-510-3585 • Fax: 602-298-7542 independenttireservice@gmail.com
Titan Tire-Made in the U.S.A
Interested? Contact us 602-931-0069 Billy@arizcc.com
Editor’s Column Arizona Takes Off: Pilot Training During World War II Douglas Towne
A
rizona’s sunny skies helped produce a cornucopia of cotton and citrus by the early 20th century, but another even more lucrative crop took off in the late 1930s. On these fields, airplanes were raised as the U.S. Army took advantage of the state’s enviable climate in its rush to train aviators as the world descended into World War II. The military still operates three of the airfields. Luke Air Force Base in Glendale came to be when the city of Phoenix purchased 1,440 acres of land and leased it to the military for a dollar a year in 1941. Originally named Litchfield Park Air Base, the base was renamed after local pilot Frank Luke Jr., who scored 18 aerial victories before dying in World War I. The airfield’s first building was constructed by the Del E.
TEN
Webb Construction Company that same year. One of the base’s challenges was retaining female employees. Young women often got married and left the job force, according to a 1942 Arizona Republic article with the headline, “Men-Haters Wanted.” More than 12,000 pilots graduated from Luke during World War II, and the base continues training aviators today for the F-16 Fighting Falcon and the F-35 Lightning II. Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson started as a landing strip in 1925. Two years later, Charles Lindbergh dedicated Davis-Monthan Field, which was then the largest municipal airport in the country. To celebrate the famed aviator’s
recent success flying from New York City to Paris, Tucson built a full-size replica of his plane, the Spirit of St. Louis. This homegrown model was constructed of ocotillos and saguaros; its cylinders were made of barrel cactus and the propeller composed of prickly pear pads. White cholla flowers spelled out “Spirit of Tucson” on the fuselage. The airfield served both civilian and military airplanes, until exclusively becoming an Army Air Field in 1940. The base now houses the venerable A-10 Warthog, a plane designed for ground attack in the 1970s. The Marine Corps Air Station Yuma began in 1962, but had been an Army training center since 1943. The base closed
Yucca Army Air Field was adaptively reused to become Ford Motors Yucca Proving Ground.
Summer 2017
www.Arizcc.com
Images courtesy of Author
after the war and became the Yuma County Airport. It was reactivated by the Air Force in 1954 as a training facility called Yuma Air Base. Two years later, it was renamed Vincent Air Base for the late Brigadier General Clinton D. "Casey" Vincent, who commanded fighter pilots in China during World War II and became the inspiration for two characters in the comic strip, Terry and the Pilots. Currently, the base operates Marine F-35B jets. Many other military air bases opened during World War II were converted to civilian aviation airports. Williams Air Force Base was active in Chandler until 1992, eventually becoming Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport. Other conversions include: Mesa’s Falcon Army Air Field to Falcon Field; Thunderbird Field #2 to Scottsdale Airport; Douglas Field to Douglas Municipal Airport; Coolidge Army Air Field to Coolidge Municipal; Kingman Army Airfield to Kingman Airport; Ajo Army Air Field to Eric Marcus Municipal Airport; and Marana Army Air Field became Pinal Air Park, the largest commercial airline storage facility in the world. Other airfields were adaptively reused for different purposes. Yucca Army Air Field became the Yucca Proving Ground for Ford Motors. Perhaps most famously, Thunderbird Field #1 in Glendale became the Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University. Every Arizona airfield has a unique story, but that each was created because the clear desert skies proved exceptional for pilot training. These military facilities, funded by the federal government, fasttracked much of Arizona's post-war economic development. Q
Top left: Luke Field. Top right: Williams Field. Above: The Spirit of Tucson plane constructed from various cacti. Bottom: Luke Field. Bottom right: A Terry and the Pirates comic book.
Arizona contractor & Community
Act now!
Construction Around Arizona Image courtesy of DPR
Gretchen Kinsella at the job site.
“Good” Hospital Renovations at Banner-University Medical Center Christia Gibbons
A
new Emergency Department’s opening June 27 launches a new era at Banner-University Medical Center Phoenix. The hospital envisioned nearly a 100 years ago by a Methodist woman from Nebraska recovering from tuberculosis,
www.Arizcc.com
became Good Samaritan Hospital in 1923, and opened with a 12-story tower designed by Chicago architect Bertrand Goldberg in 1978. In 2015, the hospital merged with the University of Arizona Health Network and took on its new name. Since last year, almost 600 construction-related people are on site any given day, executing a plan that not only includes the new ED but a new patient tower, expanded parking and a new lobby fronting on McDowell Road by 2020. Project executives Steve Eiss, on the Banner side, and Gretchen Kinsella for DPR Construction are overseeing the $418-mil-
lion project that includes 705,000 square feet of new building to the center’s campus and 50,000 square feet in renovations. HKS Architects rounds out the team. “The biggest challenge, without a doubt,” Eiss says, “was the utility relocation.” Kinsella points out that the answer to that puzzle exemplifies what works best about the mega project – collaboration. “An idea chucked out on the table,” Kinsella said about what happened when the teams working together questioned how to best relocate all the utilities. The answer? A bridge.
Arizona contractor & Community