The quickly changing skyline of Downtown Phoenix as seem from the rooftop deck of Portland Place Condos.

Perini, the construction company who built the Downtown Sheraton Hotel decided to engage in a little shameless self-promotion last week by spelling their name in lights on the north side of the building.

I wonder if we can get them to spell kontakt next.

Work has been underway for some time on the new Downtown park located between 1^st Ave. and Central just south of Filmore. The framework has been put up for the large sculpture that will be hanging over the center of the park. Restoration of the historic building located on the Central side of the park has been a priority. Brickwork has been restored using bricks reclaimed from other Downtown buildings that have been torn down.

The park is scheduled to be completed early next year.

The new office build just north of the Chase Building is progressing on schedule. The first 9 floors have been raised with the metal screen facing already going up. The first nine floors are parking and now construction has begun on the office space part of the building. The center elevator shaft is quickly rising several stories above the 9^th level and the steel girder frame is being put in place.

Construction sometimes continues into the night as the entire site is lit up. There is very little doubt that this building will be completed on time.

In preparation of the start of the new school year, ASU is diligently working to complete the new student housing project, Taylor Place, and the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism. The new journalism building will house PBS Channel 8 with two studios and plenty of classrooms. There is no doubt that the influx of students will have an effect on Downtown as it will effectively double the residential population.

The ribbon cutting ceremony for the journalism school is August 20th, with none other than Walter Cronkite himself doing the honors.

Students will start moving into Taylor Place this week. They are the pioneers and are paving the way for future students as Downtown businesses get geared up to provide goods and services to the incoming students.

Greetings from the kontakt staff and welcome to our new blog. Expect to see the same quality content that you can find in every kontakt magazine, but summarized for those on the go. If you’d like to see something covered, feel free to let us know.