Summer 2012

Volume. 1 Issue. 2

Summer 2012

Housing Construction on Roosevelt Row The Glory Days of Chris-Town Mall Arizona Roads at Statehood in 1912 Architects Predict the Future Work Starts on New East Valley Freeway

Volume. 1 Issue. 2 Summer 2012

CONTENTS

4. Editor’s Column - Douglas Towne 6. Valley Contracting 12. ADOT 2012 Updates 16. Territorial Trails - Douglas Towne 18. Heart and Try - Paul Beaulieu 22. Architects Predict the Future - Taz Loomans 23. Get Arizona Back to Work - Doug Click 24. The Glory Days of Chris-Town Mall - John Bueker 28. Do You Dig Arizona? - Connie Corder 30. Digging Through the Archives - William Horner Publisher William Horner azcc.publisher@hotmail.com

Editor Douglas Towne azcc.editor@gmail.com

Marketing & Sales Consultant Chuck Runbeck

Advertising Barry Warner

Production Manager Laura Harley azcc.design@hotmail.com

Contributors Paul Beaulieu John Bueker Taz Loomans

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Suntec Concrete prepares south building shear wall for concrete pour on Hardison Downey’s Roosevelt Row project. p. 11

Arizona Contractor & Community

Editor’s Column Douglas Towne

If you happen to observe Arizona Contractor & Community

to form intricate, eye-catching designs. Such striking flooring was common in stores located downtown which had heavy foot

magazine staff walking around with their heads hanging low, don’t worry. We’re probably just on the lookout for inscriptions left on the sidewalk by Arizona’s construction industry.

Publisher Billy Horner’s interests are the imprints embedded in concrete that provide the name of the construction firm and the date of the pour. These concrete stamps reveal a history of construction companies in Arizona and provide important clues as to the age of a particular building or housing development.

My own underfoot fixation is an outgrowth of decades-long research of commercial signs. Besides neon, plastic, or handpainted signs hung from poles or buildings, a store’s entryway was an important advertising location. These speckled and polished terrazzo walkways featured the business name embedded into the floor, sometimes inlaid with brass borders,

traffic. The terrazzo reached from the front door to the sidewalk to draw in potential customers with its strong graphic qualities and beautiful color combinations.

Terrazzo has a long construction history. In ancient times, it was made using otherwise discarded marble chips that were bound together with clay and goat milk. The more modern terrazzo entryways you’re likely to see around Phoenix were made with cement and an aggregate of quartz and marble, then sanded and buffed for a matte shine. Besides creating a beautiful piece of art that you can walk on, terrazzo’s use of waste materials make it a “green” product too.

More than their inherent beauty and sustainability, my favorite feature of terrazzo floor signs is their unsurpassed Left: Concrete imprint in downtown Phoenix. Below: Hanny’s Department Store postcard, late 1940s. Above left: Hanny’s terrazo entryway.

“More than their inherent beauty and sustainability, my favorite feature of terrazzo floor signs is their unsurpassed optimism. “ Four

“Architects and craftsman of an earlier era likely created an amazing terrazzo floor that’s sure to compliment even the most elegant footwear.”

Douglas Towne

Images courtesy of Douglas Towne

optimism. Imagine the proprietors’ conviction in the future prosperity of their stores that they had the names of their businesses carved in stone to welcome customers for eternity.

Did these shopkeepers ever envision a time when their enterprise would not be a part of the business community?

Many of these signs have, not surprisingly, outlived the businesses they advertised. Along with their buildings, a lucky few have been rehabilitated. Perhaps the best example of this in Phoenix is Hanny’s, the International Style former department store located downtown at the southwest corner of Adams and 1�� Streets. Opened in 1947, the department store had an almost 40-year run before closing in 1986. The building was eventually refurbished and reopened a few years ago with a new life as a swank nightspot. Hanny’s not only retained their terrazzo entryways, they feature them on complimentary postcards provided to customers with each check.

The sense of permanence provided by terrazzo entryways stands in stark contrast to many commercial buildings that have been constructed over the past 30 years. These businesses seem to have a lack of conviction in their future, especially those which advertise themselves using vinyl banners tied to their facades. A strong wind is seemingly all that is necessary to blow away these transient businesses.

Perhaps the current skittish economic climate has something to do with the implied lack of permanence in commercial construction, but it can’t be worse than what was encountered during the Great Depression of the 1930s when some of these terrazzo entryways were created. Maybe there are other reasons though. Certainly in the internet age, brick and mortar businesses have to be spry and respond quickly to

the marketplace, which doesn’t bode well for expensive commercial buildings.

Like so many “disposable” items available for household use, are recently constructed buildings with too few outstanding features, unconsciously destined to only be used for a limited period? Does this factor influence decisions to demolish rather than renovate them? Should these buildings come with a “raze by” date like many food products that have a “sell by” date? As with many things we eventually come to appreciate, will the passage of time allow us to become nostalgic for these structures? Or will trends again flip so commercial structures will again be built with such faith in their future that they will emblazon their name in a terrazzo floor?

Only time will tell but I don’t think I’ll be hedging my bet….

So as you gaze up at some of Arizona’s most beautiful buildings, don’t forget to look down as you enter the structure.

Architects and craftsman of an earlier era likely created an amazing terrazzo floor that’s sure to compliment even the most elegant footwear.

Arizona Contractor & Community

Valley Contracting ASU West Hungers for Dining Facility Completion

There’s nothing like the wrath of hungry students to spur a construction project to stay on schedule. “It’s a race to the finish to make sure meals are ready for students,” says Hardison Downey Construction Supervisor Eric Williams. His company is striving to open the ASU West Dining Facility in time for the start of the fall semester.

There are some unique aspects of the work such as the jumbo bricks used in the dining area to match the existing police building and moving the Jamba Juice outlet on campus into the new facility. To create an “industrial feel,” all concrete and ceilings are exposed. “Probably the biggest challenge though is building in the midst of an operational school and keeping everyone coordinated safely,” says Williams.

FIRMS INVOLVED: Architect - Hanbury Evens Wright Vlattas & Company.

YARDS OF EXCAVATION/ABC/AMOUNTS: Minimal, mostly taking out of existing parking lot.

ARCHITECTS/ ENGINEERS: SCA Houston (structural), TME Inc. (MEP) Dibble Engineers (Civil), Webb Development (food service,) Jeremiah Associates (Telecom) FUNDING/ OWNERS: American Campus Communities & ASU COMPLETION DATE: August 8, 2012.

Dorm Construction Dodges Courtyard Problems

The old adage, “don’t paint yourself into a corner,” proved good advice for the construction of the Casa de Oro student housing complex at ASU West in Glendale. “To avoid a fiasco at the end of the project, trees and granite were added to the courtyard area early in the project so we did not close ourselves out,” says Hardison Downey Project Engineer Rebecca Freitas. Other interesting aspects of the construction work were after the building was framed in wood, a thick brick veneer was added to match the existing campus facilities.

PROJECT NAME/LOCATION: ASU West Student Housing “Casa De Oro” Glendale AZ FIRMS INVOLVED: Architect - Todd and Associates OWNERS: American Campus Communities & ASU

Top: Interior view of exposed mechanical work and ceiling in the main dining facility.

Second: View from east side of ASU West housing project, exterior skin includes stucco, red brick veneer, and precast concrete bands.

Third: Maverick Masonry, El Mirage laying out for install of 4x4x16 brick veneer on west face of the ASU West Dining Hall.

Bottom: ASU West SRC project being built by Haydon Building Corp.

Six

Red Mountain Machinery Offers D10R and D9R Tractors Equipped with Cushion Dozers

The Cushion Blade is used for push-loading. Rubber cushions allow the dozer to absorb the impact of contacting a scraper push block. When not push-loading, the dozer can be used for cut maintenance and other general dozing jobs. The narrow width of the C-blade increases machine maneuverability in congested cuts and reduces the possibility of cutting tires associated with SU and U-blades

Transport costs are also reduced by eliminating blade and push arm removal requirements in moving the tractor from job to job.

Riggs Road Upgraded T

he Town of Gilbert has recently contracted with Intermountain West Civil Constructors, Payson, to construct improvements along Riggs Road from Val Vista Drive to Recker Road within the Town of Gilbert. Upgrades include widening Riggs Road to three lanes in each direction; previously the traffic was limited to a single-lane in each direction. This three-mile stretch of roadway is bordered on the east by the Town of Queen Creek and on the west by the City of Chandler. Construction began in late November and is scheduled to be completed in January 2013. Intermountain will work the project in two phases. Overall cost of the project is estimated at $10.2 million and funded by Gilbert.

Above: A nine-wheel roller compacts final processed lift of ABC. Left: A 4,000 gallon water truck provides constant moisture to the ABC grade for dust control.

Right: Jeff Price, Project Superintendent for Intermountain West.

No Dusty Roads for Tanner M.R. Tanner Construction, Gilbert, is moving lots of soil for the new subdivision by Taylor Morrison, Adora Trails. Located just south of Riggs and Higley Roads, it is one of a number of new developments in the East Valley. Water is the biggest issue for this 200-plus housing project as Tanner crews are pumping this resource nearly a mile at a rate of 1,000,000 gallons per shift to keep up with their earthmoving machines.

Right: Among the 14 pieces of equipment on Tanner’s jobsite are 2 623B Cat scrapers rolling in a long row of pads for the new housing track. Below: Facing south are Tanner’s heavy iron working below the San Tan Mountains. Inset: Project Superintendent Ron Anglin and blade operator Mike Scott.

Roosevelt Row Residences I

t seems no one—people, stores or even construction projects—are unaffected by the artistic vibe on Roosevelt Row. Ribbon, usually associated with cutting ceremonies involving local dignitaries at the end of a building project, was used to beautify the construction site located along Roosevelt Street between Third and Fourth Streets. Shortly after ground was broken in February on the residential project that consists of three buildings ranging in height from five-to-seven stories, Hands On Greater Phoenix created a diamond-design ribbon mural on the construction fence utilizing over 400 volunteers. And there’s yet another mural project in the works to be created on site this fall.

Besides the creative energy along Roosevelt Row, fans of First Friday are also familiar with another characteristic of the neighborhood: a lack of parking. The limited space for vehicles has proven a challenge to construction workers who also have had to be resourceful in working around the site’s limited layout space.

Project Name/Location: The working name is Downtown Phoenix Housing; the official name has not yet been released. The site is located on the south side of Roosevelt Street.

Project Summary: This is a residential project consisting of three buildings constructed in one phase. The south parcel on Fourth Street between Garfield and McKinley is an eight-story with 178,488 gross square feet (gsf) post-tensioned building with 160 units. The north parcel on Roosevelt between Third and Fourth Streets is a seven-story, mixed use post-tensioned building (147,784 gsf) with retail space available on the first floor and 166 residential units. The third structure is a five-story precast parking garage with 432 parking spaces that will accommodate the residents of both buildings and also allow parking for the neighborhood retail.

START/FINISH DATE: February, 2012 – June, 2013 FIRMS INVOLVED: Concord Eastridge, Inc. and EdR, Hardison Downey Construction, Inc. ARCHITECTS/ENGINEERS: Ayers Saint Gross Architects +Planners, Dibble Engineering, Inc., Civil Engineers Henderson Engineers, Inc., MEP Engineering Paul-Koehler Assoc., LLC, Structural Engineer SmithGroup/JJR, Landscape Architect FUNDING/OWNERS: EdR Phoenix / Summa West, LLC

Background image: North building looking west at ribbon mural.

Top right: Suntec Concrete prepares south building shear wall for pour.

Mid right: L-R Susan Cruz- Hardison Downey Safety Coordinator, Gonzalo Lozano- operator from JD Steel and subcontractor to Suntec Concrete, who are performing all the cast-in-place concrete on the project, and Teri Krawitz- Project Manager for Hardison Downey. Bottom right: West building looking north at shear wall.

Bottom left: Suntec prepares north building for first slab pour.

Eleven

Summer Detours: $250 Million in Construction Projects Planned for

Interstate 17/State Route 69 Cordes Junction Traffic Interchange: The Cordes Junction traffic interchange is being reconstructed at the junction of I-17 and State Route 69, approximately 65 miles north of downtown Phoenix. Built nearly 50 years ago when traffic volumes were much lower, the interchange mixes local and through traffic, causing congestion and delays. Highway traffic headed to Prescott will be separated from local traffic driving at slower speeds. The $50.9 million project is scheduled to be completed in summer 2013.

Images courtesy of ADOT

Tucson Interstate 10 Widening Project: Interstate 10 is expanding to four lanes in each direction to better handle increases in traffic between Ruthrauff Road and Prince Road in Tucson. One major improvement will be reconstructing the Prince Road traffic interchange so that it will pass over the Union Pacific Railroad tracks and I-10. Other construction includes updating the on-ramps and off-ramps to provide better connections and improved access for motorists as well as new landscaping throughout the project area.

Twelve

Northern Arizona Interstate 17 Munds Park Traffic Interchange: The Munds Park traffic interchange, located approximately 20 miles south of Flagstaff, is undergoing a complete reconstruction, including the replacement of two bridges that were built in 1958. The two new bridges will measure 100-feet long (replacing the old 25-foot long bridges). After completing the northbound bridge in 2011, ADOT is replacing the southbound bridge and repaving I-17 through the work zone. While the work is being done, motorists are being detoured over to the northbound lanes of I-17. The $10 million project is scheduled to be completed this fall.

Projects scheduled for completion.

U.S. 93 Southbound Wagon Bow Ranch and Southbound Deluge Wash Widening: This seven-mile segment of U.S. 93 north of Wikieup (mileposts 109-116) includes the construction of new southbound lanes, which will make it a four-lane divided highway.

The $25.9 million project is one of a series of widening projects ADOT has completed on this heavily-traveled corridor between Phoenix and Las Vegas. Work is expected to be completed this fall.

Interstate 40 Re-paving, Perkins Valley to Holbrook: An eight-mile long pavement improvement project on I-40 (mileposts 282-290) is currently under way near Holbrook. The $7.9 project, which started last fall, is scheduled to be completed this summer.

Interstate 40 Little and Big Lithodendron Wash Bridges: Built in 1959 and 1960, the Little and Big Lithodendron Wash bridges on I-40 (milepost 301), approximately 15 miles east of Holbrook, are being replaced. The $9.7 project will be complete this fall.

State Route 260 Doubtful Canyon Widening: The Doubtful Canyon widening project, approximately 20 miles east of Payson, includes the construction of three miles of four-lane divided highway between the previously improved Kohl’s Ranch and Christopher Creek segments along SR 260. The widening of SR 260 at Doubtful Canyon is the fifth of six projects designed to widen the highway from Star Valley to the Mogollon Rim. The $29.4 million project is scheduled for completion this fall.

State Route 89A Spur (Fain Road) Widening: After becoming a state highway in 2011, SR 89A Spur (Fain Road) will be transformed from a two-lane roadway to a four-lane divided highway between SR 69 and SR 89A in Yavapai County. The majority of the work will involve construction of a new northbound roadway parallel to the existing five-mile stretch of Fain Road. The $16 million widening project is scheduled for completion this fall.

Interstate 17 Re-paving, Camp Verde to State Route 179: A nine-mile stretch of I-17 will be re-paved from Middle Verde Road in Camp Verde to SR 179, approximately 40 miles south of Flagstaff. The $4.2 million project will start in June and will be completed by fall.

Interstate 17 Southbound Climbing Lane (Uphill from Camp Verde): This $15 million project includes the construction of a third lane, two-miles long at the top of Copper Canyon and an auxiliary lane between the State Route 260 interchange and the General Crook Trail traffic interchange. ADOT expects the project to start before the end of the summer.

Interstate 40 Re-paving, Buffalo Range to Two Guns: Approximately 25 miles east of Flagstaff, a five-mile segment of I-40 will be re-paved this summer. The $6.9 million pavement improvement project is scheduled for completion in September.

Arizona Contractor & Community

Work Starts on New East Valley Freeway Although initial funding only calls for construction of a single mile of freeway, State Route 24 (SR 24) is forecast to have a major impact on transportation in the East Valley. The freeway will connect the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport with many new businesses planned for the former Mesa Proving Grounds site. Planned to open in late 2013, the freeway will begin where the Loop 202 Santan Freeway curves near the airport and heads southeast, ending at Ellsworth Road. Among the benefits of SR 24 is improving access to a large volume of traffic coming from Queen Creek, San Tan Valley and Johnson Ranch. The project is estimated to cost $71 million.

Banicki Construction is the major contractor on the freeway. Their crews will excavate 400,000 yards of soil from two retention ponds and still have to import an additional 1,000,000 yards of fill material for the freeway base. The Tempe firm is also contracted for ABC work later in the year. Crews are currently excavating material to build the massive bridge abutments. In conjunction with Banicki Construction, R.L. Wadsworth, Utah, will head the structural bridge work.

Future plans call for an extension east into Pinal County, continuing east and southeast potentially tying into either US 60 or SR 79. Funding plans call for construction of the portion of SR 24 in Maricopa County to begin after 2015. No funding is currently identified for the portion in Pinal County.

Background: Banicki’s equipment and D9N dozer pulling a slope. Top: Facing south is a panoramic view of Banicki’s short haul operation. Above right: Project Superintendent, Jack Fountain overlooking his dirt crews. Right: D9N lines up to assist loading of a 631 push scraper.

Territorial Trails: Transportation in Arizona before Statehood Douglas Towne

As Arizona celebrates its centennial, motorists travel in air-

Image courtesy of www.treasurenet.com

conditioned comfort around the state, serenaded by their favorite music via satellite radio and guided to their destination

by GPS. Modern roadways allow safe, speedy travel which provides Valley residents many benefits including quick highway escapes to enjoy cool mountain air.

On their journeys, most drivers take the state’s highways for granted, not pausing to appreciate the engineering, construction, and tax dollars that went into creating the transportation network. Some may even be as delusional as to think these roads were largely intact upon Arizona becoming the 48th state in 1912. Didn’t the Native American trails and pioneer roads just need a few guardrails and some yellow center line markers to allow auto easy passage?

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Arizona had historically been difficult country through which to travel and the situation hadn’t improved much upon statehood. The condition of the few existing roads was poor and only a handful of small stretches were properly graded or drained according to the recent report, Arizona Transportation History, commissioned by the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT). “There are a few miles of graveled road in Graham, about ½ mile in Yuma and several miles of caliche road in Maricopa,” State Engineer Lamar Cobb reported to

Governor George W.P. Hunt in 1913. “I know of no other improved roads in the state, outside of cities, towns, or special road districts, though I may have missed a half mile or so elsewhere.”

Aside from Native American footpaths, the first major attempt at clearing a pathway through Arizona was in 1846.

Cooke’s Wagon Road was a rough trail that connected Santa Fe with San Diego. Blazed by soldiers under the command of Captain Philip St. George Cooke during the Mexican-American War, “road building” largely consisted of removing the occasional obstacle and marking the trail that connected reliable water holes.

In 1857, Congress commissioned two trails across what was then called the Territory of New Mexico. In the north, Beale’s Wagon Road was built along a path which many years later would become Route 66. In the south was the El Paso – Ft. Yuma Wagon Road which would become famous for the Butterfield Overland Mail that used it from 1858 - 1861. On its first run across what would become Arizona, the stage took three and a half bone jarring days to travel its 437-mile length.

Upon creation of the Arizona Territory in 1864, the lack of wagon roads continued to be a major problem. Yet the Territorial Legislature, wanting to hold down taxes, ceded that responsibility to counties and private companies. Only a few

Sixteen

Images courtesy of ADOT

private toll roads were built and those were either soon abandoned or converted into public roads.

For over four decades, counties were in charge of public road construction and progress on improving the territory’s roads was slow. Most new roads were local pathways connecting mines, farms, or ranches with towns, according to the ADOT report. The only roads designed for traveling longer distances were army wagon roads that connected federal military camps. Perhaps the most famous is the General Crook Trail built between 1871 and 1874 that connected Fort Whipple near Prescott with Fort Apache south of Pinetop-Lakeside. Yet even travel along these army “roads” was slow and difficult.

The construction of railroads in the 1870s helped ease the Arizona Territory’s transportation challenges, with the Santa Fe, Atchison and Topeka crossing in the north and the Southern Pacific utilizing a southern route. This transportation activity inspired a change of heart with the Territorial Legislature, which authorized the first bonds for highway construction in Arizona in 1877. Totaling $10,000, the funds were used to construct a wagon road connecting Globe with Phoenix.

The legislature funded several other roads until Congress passed the Harrison Act in 1886 that imposed new limits on how much debt each territory could incur. Because the Arizona Territory had already exceeded those limits, all new road construction for the next 23 years was undertaken by counties.

As a result, most new road construction occurred in more populous counties like Maricopa, Pima, and Yavapai. This left the Arizona Territory with the most basic road network that was of widely-varying quality and possessing only a single bridge that crossed the Gila River at Florence. The territory’s arid climate allowed this network to barely function until muddy conditions slowed and sometimes halted wagon and auto traffic.

A few years before statehood, the legislature made changes that would help create a modern road system. In 1909, it created the position of Territorial Engineer who was charged with designing and supervising the construction of a formal highway system. The system was started with only two roads, one running east-west connecting Duncan and Yuma, and the other running north-south between Douglas and the Grand Canyon, according to the ADOT report. Most importantly, the legislature created Arizona’s first road tax levied on property.

The new tax raised limited funds because of its low rate and limited tax base but allowed construction of 145 miles of new roadway and improvements to existing roadways.

The creation of a functioning system of roads would have to wait however, until Arizona became a state and could rely more heavily on assistance from the federal government.

Across top right: US postage,1884. Across bottom: Laying tracks on the Prescott and Eastern Railroad in Arizona Territory, 1898. Above left: Wiley Post flying his bi-plane under the Navajo Bridge at Marble Canyon, 1930. Above right: Paving Thomas Road, 1934. Bottom right: Fisher Contracting Company with their steam-powered trenching machine, 1913.

Image courtesy of Bob Fisher

“Didn’t the Native American trails and pioneer roads just need a few guardrails and some yellow center line markers to allow auto easy passage?

Nothing could be further from the truth.”

Arizona Contractor & Community

Heart and Try Paul Beaulieu Turn after turn, Kelly stuck it on Sunshine and rode him thorough the buzzer. In back-to-back nights, Frank had provided the director with the two key bull riding scenes: Bonner’s brutal hang up and his victorious return.

Frank “Machine Gun” Kelly’s story is one filled with historical Arizona highlights. His family moved to the state in 1941 when he was one year old. Their first night was spent in the motel whose ruins still stand in the bottom of the Salt River Canyon on Highway 60. He grew up in the East Valley where, at fifteen years old, he began his lifelong love affair with bull riding. The riding strengthened his body, forged his iron will, shaped his tireless work ethic, and provided him with his ticket to the Arizona experience.

As a young man he rode in several movies which were filmed in Arizona. He was part of the land rush in “Cimarron” (Benson, AZ; 1960), in “The Greatest Story Ever Told” (Page, AZ; 1965) he doubled for King Herod, and in “Junior Bonner” (Prescott, AZ; 1972) as he rode the bull for Steve McQueen.

Frank began working as an operating engineer to provide a steady stream of income to support his family and pay for rodeo entry fees. He chose that type of work because it kept him “strong and tough enough to keep riding.” His civil construction career began on the railway project of Morrison Knudsen (MK) that was undertaken to connect the Black Mesa Coal Mine to the power plant in Page. Frank walked on the project with little heavy equipment experience, but he immediately distinguished himself with his ability to learn quickly, his relentless drive for excellence, and his strong self confidence. He was soon moved to ballast foreman and, eventually, conductor.

Images courtesy of Frank Kelly

Frank Kelly awoke in a Prescott hospital to the soft voice of his nurse and the stabbing pain of the broken rib in his side. This Arizona cowboy and construction worker had grown tough and salty while riding and working in the unforgiving desert landscape. He had also grown to expect these types of injuries, being a veteran of the Southwest’s Pro Rodeo circuit.

But what his sun-bleached, steel blue eyes did not expect to see was the four hundred dollars in the envelope next to his bed.

“Four hundred dollars! For getting hung up and thrown off?

I got to get back and find out how much they’ll pay me to ride him.”

Frank slipped out of bed, pulled on his blue jeans, and buttoned up his shirt. He chewed through the excruciating, dagger-like pain while dragging each boot past the heel and then he made for the door.

Frank arrived back on the 1971 movie set of “Junior Bonner” and was stopped by one of the film crew just outside the bucking shoots.

“You can’t ride! We just took you to the hospital last night,” said the excited Hollywood roadie. It was true that Frank had tried to ride Sunshine the night before and ended up both hung-up and hooked. But this was why the movie casting agents had hired Arizona cowboys, because the Hollywood boys could not ride this bull and did not have the heart to try.

The stunt adjuster, Cassie Tibbs, saw Frank and the studio employee and called over, “Let him through. He’ll ride him.”

As the film crew prepared to shoot, Frank donned the blonde Steve McQueen wig and pulled his rope tight around the irritated mass of hair, horns, and hate that was Sunshine.

Eighteen

Across Left: L-R Alvin Deal, Frank Kelly, Jerry Young, Gary Leffew, and Lloyd Baze after a fight at the rodeo.

Top right: Left to Right: Doug Kelly (Frank’s cousin) and Frank Kelly.

Above: Frank Kelly atop a bull in Houston, 1966.

As Frank told this story he added, “I always had a lot of try. You need to have heart and try to make it.”

Frank had both and he took them to every jobsite and rodeo he ever attended. It was heart and try that made him a successful operator and foreman on projects he did for Pulice Construction, Combs Construction, Rummell Construction and FNF Construction. At 51 years old, that same heart and try carried him to the Senior Pro Finals Bull Riding in Reno and the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) Turquoise Circuit Finals.

He is proud to show his PRCA Gold Card, which is only given to cowboys who have competed in at least twenty years of PRCA events. He says with a wily smile, “I am the only PRCA gold card member that has made the PRCA Finals with the kids.” Frank competed in bull riding for more than thirty years and rode his last bull at age fifty-three.

With a warm, yet gritty voice, Frank tells me, “Adding it all up, it has been a pretty good life because of bull riding. Once you have accomplished it, you feel like you can do anything.” Frank’s resume of PRCA fame (that took him from Arizona to Madison Square Garden), successful construction projects, and movie stardom all stand as evidence to the validity of that statement. Frank is also quick to add, “I am not done yet either.” At 72 years old he still works as a heavy equipment operator, teaches bull riding clinics, and is a proud husband, father and grandfather. This last fall he took his eleven-year-old son, Hunter, on his first deer hunt, and Frank is teaching him about tracking and trapping in the Arizona wilderness.

Frank slipped the toothpick back into the black band of his straw cowboy hat as we finished our lunch at Moreno’s Mexican Restaurant in Queen Creek. It was about then that a young man and woman, maybe eighteen years old, stopped Frank to say hello. Respect and admiration were painted on their youthful faces and the boy’s eyes testified to Frank’s legacy in his community. It is a legacy that continues to grow even today.

Images courtesy of Frank Kelly

Top: Black Mesa Train Project, 1972 Middle: Belt buckle and ring- 1990 PRCA Champion Bottom: Frank Kelly with son Hunter

Twenty

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Architects Predict the Future: Paolo Soleri, Paul Yeager and Vernon Swaback Taz Loomans Excerpt from a short article on Vernon Swaback in the May 1971 issue of Builder/Architect: Vernon Swaback: “The housing industry is going into its own industrial revolution in a deplorably polarized condition. At the one pole we have the products of contractors and mobile home manufacturers which at best are Excerpt from an interview with Paul Yeager in the May 1971 hygienic but uninspiring. At the other issue of Builder/Architect: pole, are the architects who continue to Builder/Architect: Let’s face it, many builders are designing create lonely works of art, which are custom homes today. And if they themselves don’t do the increasingly irrelevant.” designing, a designer or staff architect is hired. Can you foresee the day when the independent architect specializing in the custom home will become a thing of the past?

Paul Yeager: If we are not already there, it’s going to be Above: Paolo Soleri. very soon. The individual client-architect relationship is Right: Paul Yeager. disappearing because the discriminating custom home client is disappearing. There isn’t apparently enough taste among the people with money to warrant it anymore. The builders have the market because, as they say, it sells. Which of course goes back to H.L. Mencken’s comment: “No one ever lost any money underestimating the taste of the American public.”

Some

Arizona Hi-Lift

Excerpt from an interview with Paolo Soleri in the July 1971 issue of Builder/Architect: Builder/Architect: What do you see as the main reasons for urban decay in our cities?

Paolo Soleri: The abandonment a long time ago of developing the public sector of urban life so that everything was geared on the premise that the private sector and free enterprise was ‘it’. Now we find out that it is absurd. There is no society without a very strong public sector that has to be cared for.

(602) 462-1315 830 South 23rd Avenue Phoenix, AZ 85009

Images courtesy of CRA

of the highlights of the original Builder/Architect magazines are the interviews with the great architects of the time, many of whom we recognize today as being extremely innovative and influential. Below are short excerpts from interviews with Paolo Soleri and Paul Yeager conducted by Builder/Architect in 1971. As a bonus, there is a quote from Vernon Swaback about the state of home-building.

Proposition 116 Will Get Arizona Back to Work Creating Jobs

Guest Editorial

Doug Click Which tax do you hate paying the most?

It’s a complex question and your business’ particular structure will likely determine your answer. But I’d wager that one of the top if not the top answer is the personal property tax.

Unlike with the income tax, businesses must pay their property taxes regardless if they made a profit or not or if they expanded or slashed their workforce.

There is no loss carry-forward or other such ways to mitigate your personal property tax liability during lean times. It’s an awful lot like paying rent on something you already own.

Simply put, Arizona’s personal property tax is a job-killer. It literally punishes businesses for making the necessary investments that causes the private sector to create new jobs and grow the economy. It essentially posts a “closed for business” sign on Arizona that discourages the relocation of capitalintensive companies looking for refuge from high-tax and high-regulation states like California and those back east.

My business is Arizona Hi-Lift and we specialize in aerial, boom and scissor lift equipment rentals and sales. I know first hand that the Great Recession hasn’t been kind to new equipment and machinery sales.

In Maricopa County where 85 percent of the state’s personal property is located, we have seen the acquisition of locallyaccessed personal property plummet 56 percent to levels not seen since the mid1990s.

When businesses stop buying new equipment and machinery they stop creating jobs. When job creation stops it’s no wonder why Arizona’s “real” unemployment rate has settled in at 17.1% which counts the officially unemployed along with those working part-time but wanting full-time work and

those so discouraged that they’ve given up looking altogether.

Arizona has to get back to work creating jobs.

The good news is that in a few short months, Arizona voters can help reverse this sorry state of affairs and unleash our small business job creators by passing Proposition 116, the Small Business Job Creation Act. Proposition 116 amends the Arizona Constitution to set the personal property tax exemption for new equipment and machinery purchases to an amount equal to the earnings of 50 Arizona workers— approximately $2.4 million. Personal property purchased before 2013 would remain subject to the current indexed amount which this year is $68,079.

Structuring the change prospectively rather than applying it to existing personal property means 100 percent of any tax relief will be focused on jobcreating new investment. There will be zero windfall or unearned reward for a business doing nothing to create new jobs. Instead, only those businesses reinvesting in Arizona through new equipment and machinery purchases will see a benefit—as will their new employees indirectly.

The National Federation of Independent Business’ Farrell Quinlan and Senator Andy Biggs (R-Gilbert) specifically wrote Proposition 116 to ensure that K-12 school budgets would be protected. An official state economic analysis concludes that Proposition 116 will “provide the same amount of total funding to schools” and would result in no reduction in K-12 funding. (Source: Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC) Fiscal Note on SCR 1012, January 24, 2012) Sen. Biggs and NFIB’s Arizona state director also wrote the referendum to protect owner-occupied residential property taxpayers. Homeowners will see

no tax shift from the personal property already on the books while the typical residential property taxpayer could experience an “almost negligible” 0.3 percent annual impact moving forward— or about three dollars on a $114,800 home in a typical taxing jurisdiction.

(Source: JLBC Analysis, December 15, 2011) Clearly demonstrating the soundness of the referendum, Proposition 116 received unanimous, bipartisan support this year when the Arizona Legislature referred the measure to the November 6th General Election ballot. Its passage is endorsed by small business owners, farmers, contractors, manufacturers, economic development experts and chambers of commerce.

Despite this strong support, we must not forget that Proposition 116 proposes to rollback a tax so it is by no means a sure thing. We cannot afford to rest on our early successes especially in a political environment where class warfare appeals abound.

We can win this vote, not only for ourselves but for the thousands of our fellow Arizona citizens who desperately need the jobs passage of Proposition 116 will create I invite you to contact the “Vote YES on 116” campaign to request more information or perhaps a yard sign. Also, if you can, please consider making a contribution to help us spread the word on “Vote YES on 116”.

Doug Click is president of Arizona Hi-Lift in Phoenix, Arizona and is chairman of the “Vote Yes on 116” campaign (www.VoteYESon116.com, PO Box 13692, Tempe, Arizona 85284, VoteYESon116@Q.com).

Arizona Contractor & Community

Image courtesy of www.chris-town.com

The Glory Days of Chris-Town Mall John Bueker Phoenix in the 1960s was a vastly smaller and more intimate community than

Top: View from the north mall facing southeast, 1963. Far left: 1961 logo.

Across right: Chris Harri, the farmer who sold the land for Chris-Town in 1955 and for whom the mall was named.

At the time Harri, 84, had 50 head of Holsteins on 30 acres. Harri had operated a dairy farm at the location since coming to Phoenix with his father in 1904. Bottom: View from the north parking lot, 1961.

Image courtesy of Christown Spectrum Mall

the sprawling megalopolis that now engulfs the Valley of the Sun. Major shopping venues were few in number and often lacked the atmosphere and retail mix necessary for long term viability. Shopping malls such as Tower Plaza, Thomas Mall and the relatively high-brow, Park Central all prospered to varying degrees and yet they were simply no match for the pre-eminent shopping experience of the era: Chris-Town Mall.

Opened in 1961, Chris-Town was the first self-enclosed, air-conditioned mall in Arizona. It offered an exceptional selection of anchor stores and smaller shops, had a superbly conceived design and layout, and its unique character and charm set it apart from the other local malls.

Named for Chris Harri, a Swiss-born farmer who owned the land upon which the mall stands, it was constructed by Del Webb Corporation at the southeast corner of 19th Avenue and Bethany Home Road which, at the time, was practically the outskirts of Phoenix. Chris-Town proved to be an eminently accessible facility and quickly became a popular place to shop and be seen in Phoenix.

The mall was much more than a mere collection of stores; it provided the city with a genuine communal experience. Visitors would often come and spend the day shopping, socializing, watch a movie or simply enjoy the mall’s matchless atmosphere. It’s important to remember the social and cultural context of the

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Images courtesy of www.chris-town.com

Below: 1963 aerial view.

Below right: 1962 Billboard

time: the city’s population was still small enough that running into one of your next-door neighbors at the mall was not an unusual experience. And so it was with Chris-Town.

Chris-Town Mall in the 1960s boasted an impressive line-up of anchors and major retailers including Korricks, Montgomery Ward, J.C. Penney, Woolworth, Walgreens, and S. S. Kresge. The larger stores were intertwined with smaller boutiques and local businesses like Hunter's Books, Chess King, Godber's Gifts, Bill's Records, Tony's Shoe Repair, Kerr Sporting Goods, Hanny's, and Bob Fox. Arizona Public Service even sponsored a "Gas Appliance Showcase" in the mall promoting the virtues of gas as an alternative household energy resource.

Incidentally, Tony’s Shoe Repair still remains in operation at the mall, the lone surviving original business (if you don’t count the reincarnated J.C. Penney).

Much of the elegance and enchantment of Chris-Town was inherent in the original layout and design, which was organized around three themed courtyards: The Court of Fountains at the center of the mall, the Court of Flowers at the east end near Korricks, and the Court of Birds at the west end outside Montgomery Wards. The courtyard motif expanded the scope and character of the mall, lifting it into an entirely new context for a shopping center.

Chris-Town’s front entrance with its “cushion of air” opened into the Court of Fountains, a popular meeting place in front of Penney’s that was graced by an array of attractive fountains. The expansive space of the Fountain Court was adorned with Googie art sculptures and framed by a pair of “slipper arch” stairways that lead upstairs to mall management offices and military recruitment centers. For entertainment, there was the legendary organ grinder and his passive-aggressive monkey, who performed in the Fountain Court until the early 1970s. The court also hosted many special events including coin shows, rock concerts, cow milking demonstrations, and beauty contests.

Images courtesy of Christown Spectrum Mall

Above left: The Fountain Court was the scene of many special events at Chris-Town over the years, and was frequented in the 1960s and early 1970s by a very popular organ grinder and his monkey.

Above middle: The Court of Flowers and the entrance to Korricks at right. Above right: The Court of Birds. Chico, a popular talking parrot, greeted shoppers with a cheery, "Welcome to Chris-Town."

Arizona Contractor & Community

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retailers Wal-Mart and Costco replaced the once proud Broadway and Penney's, while Montgomery Ward was ultimately divided into Petsmart and Ross.

Grossman Company Properties, which purchased Chris-Town in 1964 for $9.6 million, inexplicably renamed the place "Phoenix Spectrum Mall" in 2001 as part of a $10 million overhaul. This rebranding would prove to be a remarkably unpopular decision. In 2006, Grossman finally sold the long-held property to Developers Diversified Realty, an Ohio-based management company.

Developers Diversified made several changes of lasting consequence. The entire west wing of the mall was demolished in 2006 to make way for the return of J.C. Penney, and iconic features such as the court fountain and old-fashioned lamp posts were permanently removed. On the brighter side, after years of palpable public dissatisfaction with the “Spectrum” name, Diversified wisely restored the Chris-Town brand, sort of, re-christening the mall “Christown Spectrum” in 2007. In January 2012, mall management was transferred to Vestar Development Company.

Chris-Town’s 50th anniversary came and went last year with curiously little fanfare. The shopping center that now remains bears little resemblance to the fantastic Chris-Town Mall of yore, and yet that a major shopping mall has endured in the Phoenix area for five decades without being completely razed to the ground is nothing less than miraculous. All the other Valley malls of the 1960s have long since vanished: Park Central, Tower Plaza, Thomas Mall, Maryvale Mall, Tri-City Mall, Los Arcos Mall.

Chris-Town alone remains. And while a mere shadow of its former self, the glorious old mall nevertheless retains a certain majesty, and it has long since provided a lifetime of splendid memories for those of us privileged enough to have known it in its very prime of life.

Bottom left: Chris-Town Theatre membership card.

Bottom right: 1961 Korricks-Chris-Town store intimate apparel display)

Images courtesy of www.chris-town.com

Image courtesy of Jim Strait

At the east end of Chris-Town, in front of Korricks (later The Broadway) was the Court of Flowers which originally featured a beautiful garden of flowers inhabited by a plaster statue of Ferdinand the Bull. The court’s popularity was enhanced with the addition of a Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlor in the late 1960s.

Also nearby was the underground tavern known as Janitors Closet, which opened in 1967, and a small eclectic food court with vendors like Orange Julius and Pizza D'Amore.

At the opposite end of the mall was the Court of Birds, a collection of aviary structures suspended around a four-way concrete bridge. It featured a remarkable array of winged creatures in colorful pop art cages, some of whom would speak to the delight of passing shoppers. Artist Jac T Bowen, creator of the Flower Court’s Ferdinand statue, also produced a Roadrunner figure for the bird courtyard.

An eclectic complement of surrounding businesses completed the mall. Across Bethany Home Road to the north was the Chris-Town Car Wash, with its extraordinary car-on-aclothespin sign. To the south, the El Rancho Market provided groceries and sundries, while on the southwest corner of 15th Avenue and Bethany Home Road was the first Piccadilly Cafeteria in Arizona. The Chris-Town Theatre, facing 19th Avenue hosted feature films and phenomenal stage shows by local television stars, Wallace and Ladmo. Chris-Town in the 1960s was simply a sublime realm, a shopping and entertainment utopia in an age just prior to the advent of the soulless mega-malls.

Unfortunately, the years since Chris-Town's zenith in the 1960s and early 1970s have been less than kind. Two ambitious expansion projects nearly doubled the size of the center in the mid-1970s, but the original vision of the mall was thereby lost, and the inevitable signs of age and wear were soon apparent.

The 1990s witnessed the start of a sad exodus of the original mall anchors: The Broadway closed in 1994, followed by J.C. Penney a few years later, and finally Montgomery Ward passed into history in 2000.

Competition from other west side malls, particularly Metrocenter, was instrumental in the decline of Chris-Town.

There was also a general waning of the overall socio-economic vitality of the neighborhoods surrounding the mall. Lower end

Note from the Publisher If you find our magazine interesting and enjoyable, please do us a favor and tell the businesses who advertise in the magazine that you appreciate their support of this quarterly publication. If it was not for our advertisers, this magazine would not be possible. Please let them know that you appreciate them!

We at Arizona Contractor & Community magazine strive to provide in depth coverage of current and past- built projects, firms, and people in the construction industry. Our limited staff works tirelessly to bring you articles and images that document the expansion of our state’s infrastructure.

To keep this material flowing, we ask for your support. We invite you to contact us with current article material, old stories, information, tips, photographs, or anything which could help educate readers on construction activity in Arizona and its growth through the years. We want to continue to make this publication a vital trade source for you and your firm.

Thank you, William “Billy” Horner Publisher Arizona Contractor & Community

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Do You Dig Arizona?

Before digging in Arizona remember to file your locating tickets, know and communicate with your locator and prevent expensive and costly damages to utilities.

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Two key elements I hear often that need improvement in our industry are communication and utility locating (which believe it or not are related issues). As technology races forward, people are doing more than one job and rely on the convenience of emails and texting correspondence to get the immediate task taken care of so they can move onto the next job instead of scheduling face-toface meetings or making time for phone calls. This has caused a disconnect and invariably, misplaced assumed intentions and adversarial feelings where none need exist.

With the complexity of underground utilities increasing, not only is it imperative that anyone intending to dig in Arizona contact Arizona Blue Stake (ABS) and file a utility locate ticket, it is also the law. This can be done by calling 8-1-1- from anywhere within Arizona, but the easiest way to do this is to use E-Stake, their online ticket system, which is available 24/7 and has many advantages over a phone ticket.

The Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) is the enforcement agency for the “Blue Stake Law”, which defines excavation as “any operation in which earth, rock or other material in the ground is moved, removed or otherwise displaced by means or use of any tools, equipment or explosives and includes, without limitation, grading, trenching, digging, ditching, drilling, auguring, boring, tunneling, scraping, cable or pipe plowing and driving”. The ACC can issue citations for digging without a valid Blue Stake ticket which can be as high as $5,000.00 for each utility present at an excavation site. That can add up fast.

Know your locators. Who do you find it easier to work with? Someone you know and respect or someone you think is out to get you and make your job more

difficult? Communication, collaboration and cooperation are key to any successful project. We are fortunate in Arizona to have the commitment to all three between our agencies, utilities, locators and contractors. We hear that other areas of the country do not have the benefit of industry cooperation that we do. We find the more we work together through communication, the less chance we have of misunderstandings or job delays.

A great educational tool excavators also have available is the Damage Prevention Seminars that are put on by the ABS Damage Prevention Partnership throughout Arizona every year.

Arizonan’s have the opportunity to hear from utility owners about working around their facilities, identifying hazards and preventing damage; the Arizona Corporation Commission about enforcement, AZBS educates on how to most effectively file a ticket; and NUCA talks about safe trenching practices. The seminar qualifies for 2.5 personal development hours and a certificate of attendance is distributed to all those that attend. In 2011, 29 of these free educational events were presented to over 2,100 attendees across the state.

While invitations are sent out, anybody can register for any of the seminar dates, which are posted on the ABS website at www.azbluestake.com

Image courtesy of Connie Corder

The National Utility Contractors of Arizona (NUCA AZ) was formed in 1975 to represent the interests of Utility, Contractor, Vendor and Agency members who are involved in underground utilities in our state. We monitor issues and serve on multiple industry committees in an advocacy capacity. We foster communication between our different member types, provide safety training, advise on regulations and keep our members informed of pending changes that will affect them in the field, jobsite regulation and in their bottom line profitability.

Connie Corder Executive Director connie@nucaaz.org 602.540.1767 www.nucaaz.org

The other side of Chris-Town Mall “Shop and work in comfort”was the theme of Chris-Town Shopping City.

The $15 million center was built by the Del E. Webb Construction Company. The complex was designed by Welton Becket & Associates, Los Angeles architects and engineers, in cooperation with Del Webb personnel and Friedman & Jobusch, Tucson architects and engineers.

Structural - Basic construction of the Korricks and Montgomery Ward stores were reinforced concrete columns and floors. The 360,000 square foot shopping area between these two stores with its enclosed malls would be one-story with basement, with use of steel columns and beams, combined with precast pre-stressed concrete slab floors. This section called for 800 long-span parallel chord joists ranging in length from 40 to 60 feet, plus 200 longer truss-type members from 70 to 100 feet. In addition, there were several thousand linear feet of parallel chord pickup trusses resting on the steel column grid system. The shops, stores, and central mall area combined totaled 650,000 square feet.

Outside - Parking was originally planned for 600 automobiles, arranged so that walking from any space to the mall was held to a minimum. The famous Monarch (blue tiles) which graced the outer shell of the complex were created by Monarch Tile Manufacturing Inc., San Angelo, Texas.

Images courtesy of CRA

Top: View from the northeast parking lot, shows Marco Equipment Company’s P&H and Lorain cranes. Middle: View from interior of main floor of the Montgomery Ward store. Bottom: Chris-Town Mall billboard, circa 1962-1963.

Image courtesy of Christown Spectrum Mall

Index to Advertisers Arizona Desert Brooms………………..……..p.27 Arizona Hi-Lift……………………………………..p. 22 Arizona Materials……………………..…..…...p.10 Atlas Copco…………………………………..…….p.15 Bidadoo Auctions……………………………..…p.21 Blooming Rock……………………………..…....p.22 Branco Machinery……………………………...p.31 DDI Equip Inc…………………………………..….p.3 Direct Sales LLC………………………………..…p.27 Ditch Witch………………………………………...p.29 Doosan……………………………………………..…p.29 ECCO Heavy Equip Rentals……………....…p. 10 Empire Machinery……………………………….p.2 Heavy Equip Machinery Inc…………….…..p. 21 New Western Rentals………………………….p.21 PacWest Rentals ……………………………..…p.7 Red Mountain Machinery.…………………..p.8,32 Sunstate Equip Co……………………………….p.14 Tempe Crane & Rigging……………………….p.19 Water Movers Equip Rentals……………….p.15