The Phoenix Corporate Tower (formerly known as First Federal Savings Building) is a 26-story high-rise office building in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...

. It was built in 1965 and designed in the

International Style The International Style is a major architectural style and movement that began in western Europe in the 1920s and dominated modern architecture until the 1970s. It is defined by strict adherence to Functionalism (architecture), functional and Fo ...

. The tower was built two miles north of

Downtown Phoenix Downtown Phoenix is the central business district (CBD) of the City of Phoenix, Arizona, United States. It is in the heart of the Phoenix metropolitan area or Valley of the Sun. Phoenix, being the county seat of Maricopa County, Arizona, ...

in the Central Corridor. At that time, corporate investment turned its attention away from downtown. When the tower was completed, it was the tallest building in Phoenix, taking that distinction away from the Executive Towers Condominiums. It remained the tallest building for six years until the Wells Fargo Plaza was completed in 1971.

History

When Phoenix Corporate Center was originally built, all north and south facing windows had

balconies A balcony (from , "scaffold") is a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade, usually above the ground floor. They are commonly found on multi-level houses, apartme ...

. There were seven

columns A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...

stretching from the ground floor to the top where they formed a series of arches. Each column visually attached to its neighboring column. There was also a glass elevator on the western elevation, which served the top floor. In 1990, San Francisco-based development firm The Krausz Companies, Inc. purchased what was then called "Prudential Plaza," and undertook an ambitious repositioning of the near-vacant office tower. Balconies were removed, and glass was reinstalled flush with the slab edge, substantially expanding the leasable interior space on each floor. Additionally, several vertical columns on the north and south facades were removed, giving the building a smoother more modern appearance. The skylift elevator is no longer functional. In June 2013, the property was scheduled for

foreclosure Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has Default (finance), stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the Collateral (finance), coll ...

. The mortgage secured by the property was purchased by Colony Capital in 2013. The building was in receivership with Trident Pacific Real Estate and Colony closed on the building towards the end of the year. Colony has made significant upgrades to the property, including: renovating the lobby, painting the exterior, and building a marketing center.

References

External links

* on
3003 North Central Avenuearchive
{{s-end Skyscraper office buildings in Phoenix, Arizona Office buildings completed in 1965 International style architecture in Arizona 1965 establishments in Arizona