RELATED Updated Oct 25, 2022
Poitier Name Elevates Mesa ASU Building Cachet
Now, it has a name as well:
The Sidney Poitier New American Film School, honoring the first Black man and Afro-Bahamian actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor (for his 1963 performance in “Lilies of the Field”) and the oldest living recipient of that Oscar.
- Poitier himself did not appear and turned down interview requests, but such stars as singer Harry Belafonte and actor John Lithgow made cameo appearances praising him.
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“We are already getting economic benefits from the ASU building,” Giles said.
“ASU gives a lot of confidence to people that it is a wise investment to come downtown.”
A trailblazing actor who starred in several films highlighting the evils of racism, Poitier, 93, starred in numerous noteworthy films, including
“Raisin in the Sun” (1961),
“Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” and
“In the Heat of the Night” (both 1967).
Giles said he is thrilled the film school is being named after Poitier, underscoring Mesa’s diversity.
Kiana Marie Sears, president of the East Valley NAACP and a Mesa Public Schools Governing Board member, also applauded ASU’s move.
“I think this is an amazing thing ASU is doing,” Sears said. “I think he’s a very historic and iconic person,” serving as an ambassador for civil rights at the height of the movement in the 1960s.
“He’s the symbol of someone who built bridges,” Sears said.
Giles said the imminent opening of the ASU building gives some extra incentive to businesses that might have been interested in downtown but “didn’t want to be first in line.”
- Shortly after his election as mayor in 2014, Giles said he met with ASU President Michael Crow and sought to lure the university to downtown Mesa, hoping for a transformation similar to what it did in downtown Phoenix.
- Giles said the city and ASU are anticipating that additional facilities beyond the $63.5 million building now under construction will be built.
City officials anticipate a summer 2022 grand opening while ASU officials said during the Poitier Film School announcement that it will be more like fall 2022.
Giles said Crow told him, “when we come to your downtown, we will change it permanently,” with a large number of students suddenly injecting a new buzz into the area.
Moreover, industries beyond downtown are “fascinated with the technology ASU is advancing,” such as augmented reality, Giles said, noting, “All of it has applications in every industry you can imagine.
“This is going to grow exponentially going forward,” Giles said.
While the newly-renamed film school’s home is in Mesa, it will be linked as well to the Tempe campus and a newly renovated facility in the Herald Examiner building in Los Angeles, making an important connection to the mecca of the American film industry.
Annie DeGraw, an ASU spokeswoman, said the Mesa facility will remain ASU at Mesa City Center, while the LA building will be known as ASU LA Center.
- She said both buildings will have signage identifying the Sidney Poitier New American Film School.
- She said that Michael Burns, the vice chairman of Lionsgate Entertainment, one of the world’s largest film and media companies, has a close working relationship with Crow.
“Mesa is a very diverse city. About 1/3 of our city is Hispanic,” with a substantial Black population, he said.
“A lot of the people coming to school here will be diverse. We want this facility to be an inspiration to them.”
Among the Sidney Poitier Film School’s goals is to improve diversity in the film industry – not only in front of the camera but behind it.
Among the Sidney Poitier Film School’s goals is to improve diversity in the film industry – not only in front of the camera but behind it.
“Our society has been moved forward by film and television,” said Beverly Poitier-Henderson, one of Sidney Poitier’s three daughters who spoke at the digital unveiling Jan 25, which also featured Crow, Stephen J. Tepper, dean of the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, and several students.
- Poitier’s daughters, Sydney Tamila Poitier and Anika Poitier, described how their father is honored to have his name attached to the film school, combining his passions for advancing education and civil rights.
You are shaping the world,” Poitier-Henderson said.
Upcoming events
16 November 2019
One More Reveal > Already-High Costs For ASU Downtown Mesa Are Sky-Rocketing
We knew at that time that The Devil is always in the details.
Time has proven that suspicion that correct.
First when Mesa taxpayers REJECTED it in 2016, then got tricked in 2018 to approve $64,000,000 to finance Debt Bond Obligations for a smaller scaled-down version of the original $200M proposition for the construction of three new buildings.
City Manager Chris Brady stated -no matter what - that he still planned to push for original plan any way he could.
It would only work out for if public taxpayer money paid for a satellite ASU campus sited in an area for a public plaza next to City Hall in effect blurring the line between ASU and city government to benefit a closely-connected network of "friends-and-family" who have controlled this city for generations.
That's a conflict of interest from the start when ASU would clearly benefit from the proposition and that fact brought up that if ASU wanted to expand into Downtown Mesa they were than able to pay for itself. As late as April 2019 in a Community Workshop, Jeff McVay swore in public, when questioned, that $64M is the amount.
At least one Mesa City Council member questioned the original numbers that were cooked-up by city officials to state his opposition:
$100 million handout to ASU by Mesa Mayor on middle class is just wrong
There’s a ton of misinformation going around regarding the new downtown ASU project that I wanted to take the time to address. Everyone is entitled to their opinion on this issue but not to their own facts . . .
It was against his principles. One of the core problems with this ASU campus is how it is funded.
Wasn’t the ASU campus idea organic from ImagineMesa.com campaign?
"No, creatively Mayor Giles and downtown cohorts tried to pretend that this idea organically sprouted through the “Imagine Mesa” campaign and that we could “bring an ASU campus to Downtown Mesa – without a tax increase in Mesa”, reference – https://neighborland.com/ideas/mesa-az-to-bring-an-asu-campus-to
However, this idea was not organic or unique at all. Sean Huntington the author of this post was also the same person who did the original video when “Question 1” was on the ballot in 2016 and failed. This was merely a ploy to make people think this was a community inspired idea to further the Mayor’s agenda . . .
READ MORE > Click or Tap on this underlined link
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Let's move on to November 4, 2019 to this item on the City Council's Agenda
"No, creatively Mayor Giles and downtown cohorts tried to pretend that this idea organically sprouted through the “Imagine Mesa” campaign and that we could “bring an ASU campus to Downtown Mesa – without a tax increase in Mesa”, reference – https://neighborland.com/ideas/mesa-az-to-bring-an-asu-campus-to
However, this idea was not organic or unique at all. Sean Huntington the author of this post was also the same person who did the original video when “Question 1” was on the ballot in 2016 and failed. This was merely a ploy to make people think this was a community inspired idea to further the Mayor’s agenda . . .
READ MORE > Click or Tap on this underlined link
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> 19-1181 Mesa City Center - First Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP No. 1) - City Infrastructure Improvements (District 4)
GMP No. 1 includes improvements to the City’s infrastructure necessary to support the ASU building, the Plaza, the Studios, as well as future development and improvements in the area.
The infrastructure work includes water, sewer, electric, gas, and communications facilities, as well as vehicular and pedestrian access improvements, street repair, and street repaving.
Staff recommends awarding a contract for this project to the selected Construction Manager at Risk, DPR Construction, in the amount of $4,896.762 (GMP) and authorizing a change order allowance in the amount of $489,676 (10%),
for a total amount of $5,386,438.
This project is funded by- Utility Bonds,
- 2018 Public Safety Bonds,
- ITD operating budge, and
- 2013 Streets General Obligation Bonds.
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