Are you familiar with Kenilworth Elementary in downtown Phoenix? I think it’s the oldest school here and it’s still there. My husband and I were in the first grade there together and lived next door to each other in a duplex downtown before our families split off to different suburbs. At least downtown Phoenix is fairly well preserved but also going through a lot of changes.

I’ve been in the bank many times; I lived in the neighborhood 40 years ago when it went up! I can no longer remember, however, when that corner was all desert, but I have photos that once belonged to my grandparents, showing the area before the canal went in, and when the area was mostly orange groves. I need to dig those out…

Appreciate you adding your voice to those who love this odd wonderful bank. The way to win this fight is to be NOISY. Opus was defeated on its zoning ruling; now the city must decide whether or not to give it landmark status.

Those two bronzes are indeed John Waddell. And just for the record, the architects were Weaver & Drover, and Frank Henry was the designer of this bank, not the architect. I’ve been reminded that it’s an important distinction to some of Fred Weaver’s family.

…. Go inside the bank if you possibly can. I didn’t ‘get’ this building until I stood inside, where there are few straight lines or flat surfaces, and the ceiling is held up in a mysterious way, and there’s a terrific view of Camelback Mountain.

cheers
Walt

The Deaton house is indeed beautiful. Speaking of futuristic round buildings, Biosphere II outside of Tucson was also recently snapped up by a developer:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19055888

http://www.kentwoodhomestour.com/kentwood/sculpturedhouse/home.html

I was in the business of archaeological/historical consulting for 12 years or so, and evetually found it to be a very unsatisfying job because it seemed so pointless and futile. I remember one occasion when my company was asked to document and photograph several standing structures in a late 1800’s mining town (one was a false front saloon!), only to see them blown to bits days later by a series of modern gold mining ANFO explosions.

Prehistoric and Historic preservation laws often carry a bit more weight when a particular undertaking is federal (e.g. public land or a federal license). It’s a different story altogether when the preservation fight is at the local level. Developers usually win after granting a few token concessions, as will likely be the case with the bank. I hope not.

did they use that for the bank in “what planet are you from?” — the shandling movie…?