PHOENIX (AP) - Preservationists are trying to save a former bank building in Tempe from being destroyed to make way for a new building at Arizona State University.
The gold-colored domed building, built in 1962, is one of the few nontraditional buildings in Tempe. The university plans to raze it to make way for a new Barrett Honors College.
The building now serves as the university's visitor information center and houses a handful of school organizations and about two dozen employees.
The university's plans envision building room for about 1,700 beds, classrooms, administrative offices, a dining hall and activity spaces. Pending approvals, the timeline for completion is 2009.
No final decisions have been made, according to university officials.
The university said the space is essential and that it doesn't have many options.
"This is a fully built campus surrounded by a community," said university spokeswoman Terri Shafer. "By building this additional residential facility, the plan is that students can live on campus and take up fewer single-family homes in the area, which has been a big issue."
Preservationists are upset the university is considering doing away with the building and registered complaints and concerns with Tempe and the university.
"I'm very disappointed," said Bob Gasser, chairman of the Tempe Historic Preservation Commission. "To me it's a highly prominent building. We need places like that so they are there for a future so they can in turn relate to our past."
The Tempe Historic Preservation Commission wrote a letter to Arizona State President Michael Crow and the Arizona Board of Regents last year, asking that they consider saving the building by incorporating it into another project.
The 670-member Modern Phoenix Neighborhood Network also has started a letter-writing campaign on the building's behalf.
The building was built as part of a post-World War II trend toward building bank branches in Arizona, said Walt Lockley, a Scottsdale architecture writer.
The style of design is a geodesic dome, which weighs several tons and raises three-quarters of an inch in the heat of the day and contracts at night. The Valley National Bank's Tempe branch is one of six or seven examples of domed architecture in the state, Lockley said.
Although the building has great value for preservationists, the building does have its downfalls, he said. Leaks and heating and cooling problems have plagued it for years.
