Alta Phoenix Construction Thread

[JimInCal]

I think the height limit for frame/wood construction is 5 stories.

Can you say future condo conversion?

[andrewkfromaz]

Are there any midway points between woodframe and solid concrete? Is the Alta project pretty much the same type of construction as a high-rise, only shorter and with a larger footprint? What construction type are the ASU dorms?

[loftlovr]

Most low rises are wood frame or else maybe CMU block perimiter walls and wood and stucco in the middle...

[combusean]

Originally Posted by andrewkfromaz

Are there any midway points between woodframe and solid concrete? Is the Alta project pretty much the same type of construction as a high-rise, only shorter and with a larger footprint? What construction type are the ASU dorms?

Yeah--use more wood and less concrete or vice versa.

One of the Garfield infill developments went up with tall block walls and the frame unit was built out. The common one I think Phoenix will see more of is 4-over-1, concrete parking and 4 floors of frame. Dorsey Place is built this way in Tempe off University Dr, and Fillmore 555 in Phoenix will be too. You can get a lot of density this way on the upper end in Phoenix's incentive areas without the highest non-mid/highrise entitlements.

I think Alta differs from the traditional highrise is that the traditional highrise is lots of columns supporting horizontal slabs and Alta is a concrete grid. Alta's cast-in-place walls take forever to build.

[HX_Guy]

New rendering and we've got glass!

This is turning out better and better by the day and the density it's adding is great. The area north of downtown (as in, north of Fillmore) could really turn into a great residential "uptown".

[CANUC]

^Thanks for the updated pics. I would however question how 'new' that rendering is because it was either drawn well before the Sheraton broke ground or they intentionally left it out to give possible tenants the illusion that they would have both unobstructed view of downtown as well as view of the mountains to the south..hmm.

[oliveurban]

Alta Phoenix is a great addition to the area, however sort of under the radar in terms of the attention it gets. Though slow, it's exciting to see it coming along.

[HX_Guy]

Another perspective of Alta...

[JAHOPL]

HX Guy, thanks for taking the trouble of travelling around and snapping photos of the several new buildings and posting in the different folders. It's always appreciated.

[sundevilgrad]

Originally Posted by CANUC

^Thanks for the updated pics. I would however question how 'new' that rendering is because it was either drawn well before the Sheraton broke ground or they intentionally left it out to give possible tenants the illusion that they would have both unobstructed view of downtown as well as view of the mountains to the south..hmm.

No Sheraton or Chase Field or US Airways Center or Summit...

[CANUC]

I tooled around with Virtual Earth and Google Earth in 3D mode to achieve a similar view as the rendering and I came to a couple of conclusions. First SCS might still be blocked by the APS building from this perspective and the buildings are far to close to each other in the rendering but there are indeed a few others missing; Sheraton Hotel, Phelps Dodge Tower, T-Gen Building, Phoenix Conventions Center Phase I and Chase Field. But the most important conclusion is that this rendering SUCKS! I mean really this thing is months and months into construction and the only thing they release is a crappy, outdated, under-detailed rendering that looks like something a grade school kid would draw in art class. Any of guys remember learning about disappearing points of perspective and then having to draw square houses that diminished as the perspective point on your drawing grew smaller? Honestly who drew this and why haven’t they released more detailed information; floor plans, rental rates, projected completion dates or at least…oh I don’t know…a professionally created rendering.

[AZ KID]

Some shots from today. This thing is moving much faster now.





Also does anyone know the height the buildings are going to get?? Are appartment floors taller, shorter or the same of condos??

[HX_Guy]

Update March 16th.

[admdavid]

That place seemed to drag forever but it looks like they've made some amazing progress in the past couple weeks.

[vwwolfe]

I met a friend of mine at the AMC at the Arizona Center today and thought I'd snap a couple pics from the top of the garage. (sorry, only had my cellphone with me.)

[HX_Guy]

This thing is really coming along...great addition to downtown, we need lots more projects like this one.

[HooverDam]

I really like the contrast of the off white building with the blue windows, it looks very sharp. I'm so glad its not beige or some other variant of brown.

[Phxbyrd211]

I like the project too and because it's rentals it should have no problem. I just wish it were further uptown and not keeping the towers further apart.

[kevininlb]

Really?

The coolest thing about Alta is where it's located - in downtown, near ASU (assuming lots of students will be renters there) and close to stuff that gets too little foot traffic like az center.

[RichTempe]

I was by Alta yesterday and it's really moving along. The website listed on the sign still doesn't really have any info on opening date, prices, floorplans, etc. Has anybody heard what the price range will be for these units and how big they're supposed to be?