< It won't look anything like this!. It's now 3 stories and a "360-Dilemma" . . . that's about we know in-a-nutshell now from last Wednesday's public meeting of the Planning & Zoning Board that lasted for about two hours. More than one hour was devoted to hearing from a verbally-combative aggressive Jeff MacVay, the Director of Downtown Transformation saying "Trust me". . . . 
Everyone speaking and addressing the PZ Board four days appeared to be uncomfortable in public after intensive high-level sessions earlier at ASU. Jeff McVay in particular was hitting-hard trying to defend what sketchy plans the city has presented at least in public. As we have learned since 2014 the devil is always in the details
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Please take the time to listen to and watch the streaming video of last Wednesday's public meeting of the Mesa Planning & Zoning Board . . . You might want to take some notes and observe the behavior of Jeff McVay, Diane Jacobs from Holly Street Studio and Steven Chaitow, Principal with Bohlin Cywinski Jackson (BCJ).
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If all that doesn't overwhelm you and take up more than 45 minutes of your precious time, here are the documents submitted to the city earlier for "a working session"
Design Review Board Minutes
Tuesday, August 13, 2019
Council Chambers – Lower Level 57 East 1st Street 4:30 PM
A work session of the Design Review Board was held at the City of Mesa Council Chamber – Lower Level, 57 East 1st Street at 4:30 p.m.
_________________________________________________________________________________LINK TO THE WORK SESSION DOCUMENTS AND MINUTES
Note: The Download for the Agenda takes a long time to download - more than 10 minutes
Hello! It's a whopping 109 pages long
ASU + The Plaza at Mesa City Center begins on Page 75
> Images from the architects Bohlin Cyrwinski Jackson appear on pages 81-88.
> Details from Dribble Engineering, that were submitted for review on 29 July 2019, start on pages 93-98.
> DPR Construction was selected as the Construction Manager at Risk for both projects on January 28 and awarded a contract for over $980,000
If anyone who reads this blog is interested in details it's worth saving and looking at
| 8/13/2019 | Agenda | Regular | Agendas |  |
| 8/13/2019 | Minutes | Regular | Minutes | |
Staff Present: [see notations from the work session minutes farther down)
Others Present: - Nana Appiah, AICP, Planning Director
- Councilmember Jen Duff
- Tom Ellsworth, Principal Planner
- Jessica Potter
- Lesley Davis, Senior Planner
- Jeff McVay
- Heather Omta, Planning Assistant
- Angelica Guevara
- Lisa Davis, AICP, Planner II
- Wahid Alam, AICP, Planner II
- Cassidy Welch, Planner I
B. Downtown ASU Presentation and discussion Diane Jacobs, Holly Street Studios Architects presented the Downtown ASU Project.
She explained that this is a partnership with ASU for Herberger Institute for Design: Digital Media Arts program. The design of the building ties in the art program elements with downtown touches.
The project is larger with a park adjacent to the City Plaza building, but this discussion is focused on the building for ASU.
The park plan will come later.
Currently, they are in the in the schematic design phase
and materials are being evaluated for durability, longevity, and cost.
Design Review Board August 13, 2019
Steven Chaitow, Principal with Bohlin Cywinski Jackson (BCJ), contributed to the presentation by explaining it is a 3-story building.
He said that initially the building was going to be more stories. The ground floor was revised to accommodate production studios and public spaces (café, community space, conference room space).
There is rear access with bays to accommodate loading from the ground floor for production equipment.
This north side access will be an active alley.
The revisions helped improve the reduction in vibration in the studio areas, cost, one less elevator, and overall design.
The building will use a lot of energy and they will offset energy consumption with use of photovoltaics.
The redesign lifted the production spaces that need dark spaces up; allowing lightened lower spaces to the exterior with the use of glass and lighting.
Low resolutions on the screens can be used for outside projections; LED lighting behind the slats in the building’s exterior will add visual effect
Chair Carter asked,
“is there a possibility that the design will dramatically change?”
Ms. Jacobs advised the board that the the massing of the building is well set on the site.
The building exterior design is tied to the arrangement of inside elements.
Therefore, they don’t anticipate much change in the building as the design is finalized.
Chair Carter added the building is a nice addition to the city.
Boardmember Posten-Thompson commented
“I don’t see downtown parking”.
And asked, “where is the parking?”Jeff McVay addressed the parking questions.)
She also notices minimal landscape and a lot of concrete and asphalt; mostly concrete between the new buildings.
Mr. Chaitow stated that the concrete feel comes from the need for an active alley and preserving as much parking as possible.
The outside edges of the site are landscaped; however, the alley and parking area make it seem like there is more concrete than landscaping on the site plan.
Boardmember Posten-Thompson voiced that she likes the building design.
Jeff McVay, City Downtown Project Manager, addressed parking question. The parking solution will be the City’s role to determine and resolve.
Mr. McVay stated that there is enough parking in existing parking structures and parking lots throughout the downtown area.
Displaced employee parking will be relocated to parking structures.
There will be minor on-street parking changes on the north side of the parcel.
A variety of city sites, including the convention center have additional parking available.
The current parking inventory is sufficient as it is; however, the city will restructure the downtown parking program to create more parking where the need arises.
Boardmember Green raised concerns about noise pollution and the outdoor venue capability? The concern was addressed by Mr. Chaitow who stated that the project anticipates the use of directable speakers throughout the site to combat noise travel during exterior screen use. Boardmember Banda feels this is a beautiful building.
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Mesa planners looks at ASU campus plans https://roselawgroupreporter.com
By Mike Sunnucks | Rose Law Group Reporter  |
| Image insert from MesaZona 08/01/2017 LANDSAPE RENOVATION FUNDED BY BUREAU OF RECLAMATION CONVERSION GRANT |
The Planning Commission will examine plans for a new plaza and office building to house ASU’s Creative Futures Lab near Main and Center streets in downtown Mesa.
The city of Mesa owns the properties slated to house ASU programs including 3-D printing and design.
Site plans call for creation of a new plaza as part of the university development. . .
The office building slated to house the ASU programs will be 3 stories and total 127,062 square feet, according to city documents
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POST ON THIS BLOG earlier
27 January 2019
Heads Up! ASU @ Mesa City Center > Another alternative is to not perform the work.
Time to take a closer look at one or two selected items for today's regular Mesa City Council meeting where the scheduled study session ahead of time has a review of the items. One of the items from the study session on Thursday of last week deserves some more informed discussion attention: The plans for ASU in downtown have been controversial from the get-go that became public two years ago. Here's the current item for more scrutiny: Implementing the City Council’s prior approvals for the Arizona State University facilities and other improvements in downtown Mesa. How to do that?What it says:
- by approving and authorizing the City Manager to enter into the Pre-Construction Services Contract with the selected Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR) for the development and construction of a multi-story building for certain educational facilities and other improvements at the Mesa City Center
- by ratifying the actions of the City Council related to the City’s excise tax revenue obligations for the financing of the development and construction.
STOP RIGHT THERE! Exactly what actions and the City's excise tax obligations for the financing of the development and construction are up again for review - and the City Manager wants those actions ratified now? Readers of this blog might note that the Arizona State Attorney General is taking legal action now against ASU over questionable financing of real estate deals in Tempe.
Why revisit this now when Jeff McVay, the city's Director of Downtown Transformation, made the case for that (or tried to) back in May of last year. He used a questionable study produced by ASU to support the purported economic benefits of "a presence" of ASU downtown. Totally bogus, but Mesa taxpayers got hood-winked by a slick public relations trick to approve the financing plan foisted in public. 
The Council approved an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) with ASU for the new building project in February 2018. The City and ASU subsequently entered into a lease agreement for the building in November 2018. Those actions again were controversial in spite of what City Manager Chris Brady said time-and-time again both in a series of City Council study sessions and regular public meetings. Most of the public were kept-in-the-dark. Only two Councilmembers raised any questions at all. 
