Art and architecture in Phoenix and nearby
AZCat
Phoenix resident; lover of art and architecture
Sep 9, 2006
based on 2 votes
Phoenix area is not a cultural wasteland. After the day of golf or spa treatments and sporting events, check out some Phoenix art and architecture. #1 -3 are in Scottsdale, #4 is in Tempe, #5 is in Glendale, the rest are in Phoenix. Most of these are right in the areas you will be if you go to Scottsdale, downtown Phoenix for a game or heading out to Glendale for an Arizona Cardinals game or Tempe for an ASU game.
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Explore locations featured in this Traveler List:
Scottsdale, Tempe, Glendale, Phoenix
- Category: Best of
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Traveler type: Culture
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Appeals to: Singles, Seniors, Students, Tourists
- Seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall
- Tags: art, architecture
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1. Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art
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| Located in Old Town Scottsdale at 7374 E. Second St. adjacent to the Scottsdale Center for the Arts. Closed Monday. Opened in 1999 in a building that once was a movie theater. Building was redesigned by local architect Will Bruder, who also designed Phoenix's Burton Barr Library. Devoted to art, architecture and design of today. There is also an outdoor sculpture garden. |
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2. Scottsdale Public Art Self-Guided Tour
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| The City of Scottsdale owns 1950 works of art located in public areas throughout the city. The website offers three self-guided tours of the public art. This being the southwest, this is a driving tour not a walking tour. But, if you are visiting the Old Town shops get copies of the three guides and you can add some art stios to your shopping tour. |
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3. Taliesin West/Frank Lloyd Wright in Arizona
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Taliesin West is located in Scottsdale, Arizona. Established in 1932 as community of architects and apprentices learing the art of organic architecture. This is the current headquarters of the FLW Foundation and Archives. Tours are available for a charge. Call and book ahead of time. See list of tours on website.
There are only three Phoenix area FLW buildings open to the public: Grady Gammage Auditorium on the campus of Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ; The Arizona Biltmore Hotel at 24th St and Missouri; First Christian Church on 7th Ave south of Glendale Ave http://www.fccphx.com |
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4. Arizona State University Art Museum
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| Located on the campus of Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona. The museum started in 1950 with gifts of American and Mexican art. Today, the emphasis here is on contemporary art. There are over 10,000 works. Under the direction of the College of Fine Arts, works to provide art education for teachers and students. |
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| Located in downtown Glendale, Arizona's historic district. Open 7 days a week. Founded in 1984 with an internationally recognized collection of beads and bead artifacts. Beads have been used for thousands of years the world-over. The museum uses the beads to tell the story of other cultures from 30,000 B.C.E to current times. There are lots of antique shops in the historic district around the museum. |
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| Located at Central Avenue and McDowell Rd. Closed Mondays. The largest art museum in the southwest houses 17,000 works. Of course, there are Western American and Latin American collections. But you might be interested to know that there is also a 2500+ world-reknowned collection of Asian art. The Fashion Design collection encompasses 4500 objects from the 18th century to current times. The Art Museum Cafe operated by Arcadia Farms serves sandwiches, soups and salads and sinfully rich desserts. |
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7. Heard Museum of Native Cultures and Art
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| Located at 2301 N. Central Avenue just north of the Phoenix Art Museum. This museum was established in 1929 for learning about the cultural heritage of Native Americans. The 39,000 collection of works is the one of the most comprehensive in the U.S. The museum hosts several annual events: February: World Championship Hoop Dance Contest; March: Guild Indian Fair and Market; November: Spanish Market with artists from Arizona and New Mexico; December: Basketry and Native Foods Feast. |
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8. Shemer Art Center and Museum
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| Family-oriented art education center and museum operated by the City of Phoenix Parks Dept. Museum has contemporary works of art, many donated by the Arzona artist. Offers year-round art classes and lectures for all ages. |
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9. First Friday Art Walks
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| Art galleries open from 6pm to 11pm on the first Friday each month. Start at Burton Barr Public Library to pick up a brochure of participating galleries. There are five shuttle buses running every 20 minutes on different routes from the library. While you are at the library, explore this Will Bruder designed structure. |
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10. Burton Barr Central Library
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| Located on Central Avenue south of McDowell Rd. This Will Bruder designed copper-sheeted mammoth structure created some controversy when it first opened. The central core, the Crystal Canyon, is a five story glass atrium providing vertical cirulation and is viewed from the glass high-speed elevators. Beneath the elevators on the first floor is a relecting pool that was quickly roped off after one too many visitors stepped in by accident. The great reading room on the top floor is the largest in North America. The design shows off Bruder's engineering background; with its mechanical rotating skylights and horizonal louvres the light is controlled to indirect light and no direct sunlight. The building is hailed for its use of green architecture to cut the energy cost to 1/3 of projections. The library's @Central Gallery is the first stop on the First Friday artwalks. |
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11. Historic Heritage Square
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| Right downtown amid the Arizona Diamondbacks and Phoenix Suns fans is the Heritage Square and Science Park, this section consists of Historic Heritage Square, the Phoenix Museum of History and the Arizona Science Center. Located at 7th St. and Washington and owned by the City of Phoenix. The Heritiage Square section of the park is at 6th St and Monroe. This block shows Phoenix Victorian-era architecture. The Rosson House, see below, is original to this site. Several other houses have been moved to the site and now operate as shops and restaurants. Pizzeria Bianco is housed in the 1929 Baird Machine Shop. Bar Bianco was once the 1909 Neoclassical Thomas home. Teeter House Tea shop is in an 1899 house built by cattle barron Leon Bouvier, who sold the house to Eliza Teeter in 1911. It now operates as a Victorian Tea Room. Restaurant Circa 1900 is in the bungalow-style Silva house, This neoclassical revival house was built in 1900 for A.F.C. Kirchoff, a Phoenix liquor dealor. If you are interested in Arizona territorial history, stop in at the City of Phoenix Museum of History. |
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| Located at 6th St. and Monroe at the Historic Heritage Square (see above). This Eastlake architectural style house was built in 1895 and has been lovingly restored to its Victorian grandeur. The house includes ten rooms and five fireplaces. The Rosson House is a museum showing life during Arizona territorial times. Docent guided tours are available. |
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| Now owned by the City of Phoenix, the elegant Orpheum Theatre was built in 1929 as a vaudeville showplace. The architectural style is Spanish Baroque Revival. Vaudeville died and movies took over the Orpheum which was renamed the Paramount. Phoenix grew and the population moved away from downtown. The graceful theatre was outdated and its years as a movie theater saw much of the interior decor painted over and architectural details removed. Next the theater renamed, Place West, was a venue for traveling Broadway plays. For several more years, the building became a Spanish language theater. In the late 1980's, preservation funds began to be raised and the Orpheum Theatre was revived as part of the City of Phoenix new city hall project. Today the theater hosts concerts and Broadway plays and much of its early decor has been restored thanks to a $14 million fund raising effort including city bonds and private donations. The theater is located in downtown Phoenix at 2nd Street and Adams. |
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| Located in downtown Phoenix at 3rd St. and Monroe St. Open daily one hour before and after mass. This 1915 Spanish Revival style church is built on the site of the original 1881 adobe church. It was the first Catholic church established in Phoenix. The magificent stained glass windows were designed in the style of the Munich School of stained glass art by the Emil Frei company of St. Louis. The windows honor some of Phoenix's pioneer families. The exterior has two towers topped by crosses. There is a Via Asisis gift shop and cafe beside the basilica. |
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| On the campus of Brophy College Preparatory at Central Avenue just south of Camelback Rd. The chapel, built in 1928 for the students, in a Spanish colonial and Moorish-style was influenced by the architect's travels in Andalusia, Spain and Mexico. The altar is a pink volcanic tufa stone, quarried in Wickenburg, Arizona and carved in the Mexican baroque style. Above the altar is a 15th century Italian painting of the Holy Family. To the left of the altar is an enormous wooden crucifix dating to 1670. The crucifix survived the WWI Battle of Verdun in France. A common theme in Colonial Spanish architecture is the use of seashells, a tradition begun with the shells of St. James (Santiago de Compostela). Note the shell carvings on the altar and around the windows.The black wrought-iron chandeliers also reflect the Spanish influence. The chapel features a series of stained glass windows based on the Apostles' Creed. The windows were designed in Dublin, Ireland by Guildworkers from An Tur Gloine ("Tower of Glass") . The windows are "jewel" or symbol windows as opposed to "figure" windows. There are only three other U.S. buildings with An Tur Gloine jewel windows; all on the eastcoast. The chapel is located on a high school campus so the day to visit is Sunday. Mass is at 10:00am during the school year and visits can be made before or after if you are not attending mass. |
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16. St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church
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| Located on Central Avenue just south of Camelback Rd. Brophy Chapel is adjacent to the church. The Jesuits were brought to this area, then outside of the Phoenix city limits, in 1928 with the donation of 29.9 acres of land by Mrs. William Henry Brophy. The parish used Brophy Chapel until the current church was constructed at a cost of $850,000. The church offered the first mass on July 31, 1959. The building is a modern Renaissance style in the traditional cruciform design. The massive structure is built of non-combustible materials from the concrete floor to the concrete roof topped with Spanish tile. The Grand Dome topped with a Celtic Cross is constructed of a single, seamless poured concrete. Over the south facade are three 20 foot tall statues, St. Francis Xavier in the center; to the right, Padre Eusebio Francisco Kino, a 17th century Jesuit who ministered to the Pima Indians; to the left, Blessed Junipero Serra, Franciscan, founder of the California missions. In the vestibule, the terrazo floors, black and amber light fixtures and white marble holy water fonts show an Art Deco influence. The main feature of the church interior is the 78 foot high octagonal Grand Dome containing 120 star-like small stained glass windows. The ten wrought iron chandeliers weigh 200 pounds each and were made in Arizona. Note the cross-topped copper globe in the center of each chandelier. The altar is white Carrara marble resting on a predella of gold marble. In the center front of the altar is a detailed mosaic of 22 carat gold depicting the Lamb of God. Above the altar is a 34 foot high canopy (baldachino) held aloft by Corinthian columns. Note the turquoise colored mosaic spiral ribbons rising up the columns as a symbol of prayers rising to God. The extraordinary and realistic 15 foot crucifiix suspended above the altar is from Ortisei, Italy. The stained glass windows were designed by Gabriel Loire of Chartres, France. The windows are chipped on the inside for greater brilliance. The church is open daily. See website for mass times. |
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