Maricopa County Downtown Court Tower

[oliveurban]

Maybe I missed an explanation (???), but those models pictured on the first page show Madison between 1st and 2nd Avenues completely removed. Is that accurate?

[scottkag]

Originally Posted by plinko

A question, where is the funding coming from? Is it just coming right off the top of the County General Fund or did they sell bonds at some point? Or is it like Phoenix City Hall, which was funded through a couple of public mechanisms?

Look back to the first post in the thread for your answer. In short, the county saved up their pennies over the years specifically for this purpose and now they're paying [more or less] in cash. Who ever heard of such a thing?

[plinko]

Originally Posted by scottkag

Look back to the first post in the thread for your answer. In short, the county saved up their pennies over the years specifically for this purpose and now they're paying [more or less] in cash. Who ever heard of such a thing?

In which case, kudos to the County for thinking ahead, planning for the long term, and getting what they need. Good.

Too bad they didn't do the same thing to build a centralized County Administration Building (a la Plaza de Maricopa). That would have been sweet.

[PHX31]

ahhhhh yes, plaza de maricopa... The only building we had to look forward to for a while on the forum.

[combusean]

Originally Posted by oliveurban

Maybe I missed an explanation (???), but those models pictured on the first page show Madison between 1st and 2nd Avenues completely removed. Is that accurate?

Yup. It will be closed.

[PhxPavilion]

I can see why it's short and fat due to height limitations but ANOTHER damn brown building. For god's sake choose another color.

What is wrong with these people.

[AZ KID]

It is absolutely ridiculous. I think they have the perception that brown signifies Arizona but it just looks bad after the 20th tower. The only exception is if it is implemented with glass like City Hall. Then i would be ok with it.

[HX_Guy]

Is it possible that the tower will be clad in copper (similar to the ASU nursing building)? It sort of looks like that to me from the renderings.

[scottkag]

The lovely color was selected to be reminiscent of the old court house. Nice effort with the historic tribute, but I'm with the "enough with the beige buildings" faction.

[Leo the Dog]

Brown isn't always a bad thing. One of our nation's better developed DTs is Boston, take a look at their financial district.

http://www.knowledgerush.com/kr/ency...Massachusetts/

[HooverDam]

http://www.azcentral.com/community/m...ssuit0603.html

EV groups consider filing suit to keep courts in Mesa
1 comment by Jim Walsh - Jun. 2, 2009 11:16 AM
The Arizona Republic
Opponents of plans to move the criminal divisions of Maricopa County Superior Court from Mesa to Phoenix are researching a possible class action lawsuit to block court consolidation.

Milt Lee, president of the Mesa Public Safety Foundation, said the East Valley's population has doubled since the county's Southeast Regional Public Service Facility opened in 1991 to bring the courts and other services closer to the people.

He said it took 10 years of effort to get the courthouse built in Mesa and he will join Mayor Scott Smith in fighting to keep convenient services for East Valley residents.

"It's an old wound that has been re-opened and shouldn't have been," Lee said, referring to Presiding Superior Court Judge Barbara Rodriguez Mundell's plans to move all criminal divisions back to Phoenix.

Lee said he has asked a top constitutional attorney to review whether Mundell's plan reneges on promises made to voters before they approved a $260 million bond issue in 1986 that built the Mesa complex and paid for other improvements.

Citing the recession and the need for budget cuts, Mundell plans to move the five Southeast criminal divisions from Mesa to Phoenix by the end of this year. She would make room by transferring more family court and civil judges to Mesa.

She said the move would cut transportation costs and allow for more efficient use of court resources by having all criminal courts at one location, including court reporters and interpreters. The county is building a $350 million criminal courts tower.

Long-term plans called for moving the Mesa criminal courts when the tower opens in 2012, but Mundell decided to "accelerate" that process because of budget issues.

Lee, Smith and other opponents say that any cost savings to the county would get passed on to East Valley residents through higher transportation costs for victims, witnesses, and cities that pay the salaries of police officers for their additional trips to Phoenix.

The Mesa facility features Superior Court, assessor's and recorder's offices, a busy clerk of courts office, a law library, and separate buildings to house a juvenile court and detention center.

At the time, then-Maricopa County Supervisor Tom Freestone hailed the $16.8 million facility as "kind of like a regional shopping center" for county services, according to an April 1991 story in The Arizona Republic about the building's dedication.

All services but criminal court for felony cases would remain available under Mundell's plan. Justice courts and municipal courts that handle misdemeanors would not be affected.

So much drama over a court tower, here's a tip, don't go to court and the drive won't be an issue!

[combusean]

^ I can't fricking believe it. They're transferring the criminal court divisions to Phoenix and moving family and civil courts to Mesa. You'd think they were axing the whole Mesa facility by the way the EV folks are whining about this.

The Mesa facility doesn't have the jail capacity to sustain a criminal court. As I understand it right now, defendants are being transported from Phoenix jails to Mesa. That makes no sense whatsoever if they're talking about people's time.

[CANUC]

^Exactly. Let me see if I understand this rational. They are going to fight to keep criminal trials in Mesa. And they are going to fight to keep the criminal trials in Mesa as a convenience to the people going to those trials. So they don’t want to inconvenience who? The criminal or the victim? Let’s assume it’s the victim – at least I hope it’s the victims their talking about – isn’t it more convenient for them to go to a new court that will offer them the ability to be separate from the criminal? Also how often are Mesa residents going to criminal trials that it is an inconvenience to victims to drive a few miles for a trial? Is all this hoopla really have the victims in mind or isn’t it just the freaking lawyers and judges thinking about their own interest.

[JAHOPL]

After being called for jury duty a number of times in the Mesa Superior Court, last year I was called for the first time to the downtown Phoenix courts, and I was pleasantly surprised with how well they manage parking for people coming in from a distance. A multi-level parking structure is there just for jurists, and a shuttle to and from there every few minutes takes you to and from court. Better than I expected.

[Tranquility]

my reaction:

[Don B.]

^ LOL...

--don

[HX_Guy]

It looks like there may be two tower cranes used to build the Courts Tower.

A permit was filed for with the FAA on 03/17/09 for a 366' tall crane to be used from 06/15/2009 to 06/15/2011 and then another permit today for a 440' crane to be used from 07/15/2009 to 11/15/2010.

[Vicelord John]

ahhhhhhhhh it's coming out of his nose!!

[PHX_PD]

[Evil Empire]

Maybe this is a dated image but this was the tower rendering from an ABC15 story from the 18th of last month...