Photo Credit: ABC15.com
One of the biggest knocks about Phoenix is a lack of history, especially insofar as architecture goes. If it’s more than a couple decades old, it’s due for a tear down and a rebuild. In the process a good amount of history can be lost and the character of the city is chipped away, bit by bit.
That said, not everything that is old is worth preserving. Sometimes what emerges from the rhetorical ashes can be both more useful and more beautiful. And that is precisely the case with a recent development.
Enter the “Punchcard Building”, an office building in central Phoenix so named because it looks like a punchcard from the ancient days of computing. What was once an ode to modernity is now beyond dated and simply, if we can be frank, pretty ugly. And not only that, but it has remained mostly empty for years as its previous government tenants abandoned it long ago.
The building is soon to be reinvented and reimagined; New York development firm Left Lane intends to turn it into a mixed-use “urban resort oasis” consisting of 209 hotel rooms and 143 multifamily units. However, instead of simply turning it from empty office space to a residential space, it is also planning a second structure complete with a rooftop deck and spa.
It’s worth noting that this is far from coming to fruition. The project is currently in the planning phase and still needs to navigate the maze of municipal approvals, and groundbreaking is likely at least a year away. But as we move further away from the global pandemic, the working world’s approach to work-from-home policies has mostly stabilized, and it’s safe to say that demand for office space will not return to pre-pandemic levels for a long time. Repurposing office space should be a focus in municipalities around the country.
Reimagining an unattractive and largely unused building and creating something attractive and functional is the ultimate win-win. Here’s to this hopefully being the first of many such instances of this in the Valley, as there are plenty of other buildings that could use a similar revamp.