By Dianna M. Nañez for The Arizona Republic
Working in a high-rise at Tempe Town Lake gave architect Mike Davis a bird’s-eye view of the waterfront and an insider’s perspective on developing it. Davis says it’s his eye for the imaginative and mind for math that scored his Tempe-based architectural design firm the contract to craft Marina Heights, a massive office development on the lake’s southern shore that will house a State Farm regional headquarters. “It’s a work of art,” he said of the project. Davis heralded the selection of a local firm for the design contract as significant. Billed as the largest office complex in Arizona to date, Marina Heights should be a “community icon,” not just another building, he said.
Marina Heights will span 20 acres along Rio Salado Parkway from Packard Drive to just east of the Bridgeview at Hayden Ferry Lakeside condominiums near Mill Avenue, replacing what is mostly vacant land and parking lots with five buildings ranging from six to 16 stories.
“I think with the varying heights of the buildings, it’s going to have a beautiful approach,” Davis said. “It’s not just a big stack of boxes.”
The sprawling 2MSF, $600M development, on which construction started in August, is expected to dramatically change the Tempe skyline.
Davis said he understands why some consider the landmark development a testament to Tempe being the little city that could.
Town Lake has become a “nice postcard for the Valley,” he said. “Tempe for a long time has really been kind of our (Valley’s) urban place.”
Marina Heights and the State Farm hub are a “powerful statement and further attention-getter to attract other companies,” Davis said.
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