The skyline in Downtown Phoenix got a little less sparse last week with the topping off of the two-building apartment complex, now dubbed Roosevelt Point. The plot of land, stretching along Roosevelt Street between 3rd and 4th streets, will finally be occupied after years of sitting empty in the center of a burgeoning arts district. Related Links: New $52M Apartment Complex in Phoenix Adds to Student Housing Boom ENR Southwest's Ranking of the Top Regional Contractors in 2012 General contractor Hardison/Downey Construction and concrete subcontractor Suntec Concrete, both Phoenix, worked diligently to get the buildings to their final height prior

The University of New Mexico will hold a series of town hall meetings next week to gather public input on a proposed $146-million hospital in Albuquerque. The 96-bed adult-care facility was put on hold on Sept. 18 to allow for more public input as some groups in the community have expressed concerns. Image courtesy UNM The six-story hospital will house 96 beds within 195,000 sq ft of space. A future phase will add a two-story, 65,000-sq-ft medical office building. Related Links: 2010 Best Projects Awards: University of New Mexico Cancer Center Nimble Footwork: UNM Children's Hospital Expansion Steps Forward UNM

With a unique ribbon-cutting ceremony, Arizona State University inaugurated its new $110-million Interdisciplinary Science and Technology IV research building on the Tempe, Ariz. campus last week. Related Links: New ISTB IV Science Lab Uses Ample Green Systems At 298,000 sq ft, the new building is the largest single research facility on the campus. It provides the new home for the School of Earth and Space Exploration, which is involved in many NASA space missions and research. A replica of the NASA Curiosity rover currently exploring Mars graces visitors as they first enter the building.Fittingly, it was a similar autonomous rover,

Two sports stadiums now under construction required intensive community outreach and careful coordination among the design and construction teams to become a reality. Related Links: Read about other challenging projects on the ENR Southwest Projects Page UNM Renovates Legendary 'The Pit' Arena in Albuquerque (Aug. 2009) Albuquerque Public Schools' $35.9-million Community Athletic Facility is the first stadium to be built by the New Mexico school district in more than 40 years. Meanwhile, the University of Arizona is expanding and improving its 84-year-old Lowell-Stevens Football Facility in Tucson.Welcome to the NeighborhoodFor decades, just two stadiums have been serving all of the

Arizona State University and YMCA broke ground on a 64,283-sq-ft addition to the Lincoln Family Downtown YMCA at 350 N. First Ave. in downtown Phoenix. The building was originally erected in 1955 and was last renovated in 2006. Related Links: New ASU ISTB IV Science Lab Uses Ample Green Systems NAU's Health & Learning Center Combines Four Programs Under One Roof The ASU Downtown Phoenix Campus Recreation Center (or Y@ASU for short) is one of four fitness centers across the ASU university system that students voted to fund with an increase to their recreation fees of $75 per each semester

Banner Estrella Medical Center broke ground today on a new $151-million patient tower. Designed to accommodate 175 beds, the new six-story patient tower is the second on the campus located on the southeast corner of the Loop 101 Freeway and Thomas Road. Image courtesy Banner Health The six-story patient tower addition at the Banner Estrella Medical Center in Arizona will provide 175 beds and expanded emergency room services. Related Links: A Banner Year for Hospitals: Banner Health Injects Vigor into the Valley's Health Care Sector New MD Anderson Banner Cancer Center Becomes a Beacon of Hope for Patients in Arizona With nearly 100,000

A decade ago, Pima County's Regional Wastewater Reclamation Dept., or RWRD, was facing a problem: The Arizona Dept. of Environmental Quality had ruled that the levels of nitrogen coming from RWRD's network of 10 wastewater-stripping and treatment plants were too high. As a result, RWRD embarked on a $720-million Regional Optimization Plan (ROMP) to improve the quality of its effluent. Related Links: DAF Placement Saves on Capital Costs Archeological Discoveries Coexist With Construction Crews at Pima County Project The ROMP program is using innovative techniques as it expands and upgrades the 37.5-million-gallons-a-day Ina Road plant to 50 mgd and replaces

Bill Doelle groans every time he reads a newspaper headline that says “Archeology Find Halts Construction Project.” As the president of Tucson-based Desert Archaeology Inc.—consultant to Pima County on the cultural preservation efforts during the Regional Wastewater Reclamation Department’s $720-million Regional Optimization Plan—Doelle and his team were just as attentive to the present day needs of construction crews as they were to investigating the past. Related Links: Nitrogen Diet Reduces Arizona Drinking Water Threat Scientific Discoveries at the Panama Canal “The county has been developing for 25 years a pretty standardized procedure of assessing what’s in the ground and taking

More than 40 million passengers fly in and out of Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix every year. City officials couldn't risk stifling this sizable economic engine during construction of a much-needed passenger train project. Related Links: PHX Sky Train Phase 1 Takes Flight - ENR Southwest (June 2010) Phoenix Airport Sky Train Project Performs First Test Run To stay out of the way of planes, PHX Sky Train's guideway design takes it 90 ft over an active taxiway—billed by airport officials as a worldwide first—and then dips underneath two more taxiways before rising up to pass over a passenger

When McCarran International Airport's $2.4-billion third terminal complex opens on June 27, it will mark the end of a decade-long string of big projects in the region. The five-year undertaking employed 1,800 people working more than 9.5 million man-hours. "It's a bit of a letdown to see it done," says Sean Stewart, executive vice president, Associated General Contractors, Las Vegas chapter. "There aren't any billion-dollar projects on the horizon."Bechtel Infrastructure Corp. was the program manager; Perini Building Co. was general contractor for the three-level, 1.9-million-sq-ft terminal building under a $1.2-billion contract. The terminal is joined by several other projects that were