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PEACE, LOVE AND URBAN REVITALIZATION
How Shawn Goetzinger’s Peace Corps parents helped him build a solid foundation BY ALISON BAILIN BATZ PHOTO BY MARK MORGAN
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hawn Goetzinger’s parents, former Peace Corps volunteers, raised him in California – except for their adventures in India, Japan and Africa, that is. “When I was seven, my parents took a year off to live in the villages where they once volunteered,” Goetzinger says. “Like any kid, I just wanted to play, which took improvisation and imagination.” There he transformed trash cans into instruments and branches into toys. “A trust fund kid I wasn’t, but I was filthy rich in experiences by 10. And thanks to working at my family’s construction company stateside, I got good at building more than toys,” Goetzinger explains. He studied architecture at Arizona State University, and then developed a successful urban infill project adjacent to Roosevelt Row. There, he met Robert Des Rosiers of FORM THIRD Design. Now business partners, they oversee some of the most exciting design-build, architecture and construction projects in Phoenix, including en Hance Park, where they are working with an international team that literally intends to enhance the historic Margaret T. Hance Park by adding this nearby modern housing.
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What’s your coolest Uptown-area project in process? The Dressing Room, a 500-square-foot former speakeasy for the Phoenix cross dressing community that has sat vacant for years. We are respecting the initial structure and the building’s soul, graffiti and all, but helping reimagine it into an eatery with a funky alley patio. What would people be surprised to know about you? I ran cross country in college and actually took a few years off before coming to Arizona to bum around Portland as a climbing guide. Just more experiences to add to my list! UPTOWN |
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| DECEMBER 2016