The city will begin preparation today to build a landmark center for the arts where a landfill now stands.
In May 2000, Tempe residents voted to approve a one-tenth of a cent sales tax to pay for the $63 million Tempe Center for the Arts.
The center will house a 600-seat theater, a 200-seat theater and a 3,500-square-foot gallery, and will host local performance groups like the Tempe Little Theater, the Tempe Symphony, the Arizona Academy for Performing Arts and the Desert Dance Theater.
Preparation begins today at 8 a.m. with a ceremonial ground opening on the future site of the Tempe Center for the Arts. The 84,831-square-foot center will be located on the Tempe Town Lake's south bank near Hardy Drive and Rio Salado Parkway, according to Don Fassinger, cultural facilities administrator for the city of Tempe.
During the next nine months, the landfill materials will be removed from the site to make way for construction.
Construction of the structure is expected to begin early next year and finish in spring 2006, Fassinger said.
According to Joe Salvatore, a principal architect for the Tempe-based firm Achitekton, the structure is designed to block noises from trains, the freeway and low-flying airplanes coming in to land at the nearby Phoenix Sky Harbor airport.
"It is the perfect marriage of the technology and the beauty of the performance space, nested inside this acoustic shell that takes on its own beautiful shape," Salvatore said.
Fassinger said the best part of the Tempe Center for the Arts was the amount of community participation.
"Several community members and user groups have been involved since the conceptual stages," Fassinger said. "I think it's going to be a striking edition to the skyline of Tempe Town Lake."
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Reach the reporter at meagan.pollnow@asu.edu.
