Tempe Town Lake

The Tempe Town Toilet isn't a park where normal people can go hang out and enjoy the weather. It's mostly a place that the city of Tempe uses to raise revenue by putting on rock concerts and other events.

The concerts at the Tempe Town Toilet keep people awake late at night as far north as McDowell Road in Scottsdale where the loud music can be heard. And of course it keeps people awake all night in the downtown Tempe area.

Source

Where did the idea for Tempe Town Lake come from? City honors architect behind the project

Jay Mark, Special for The Republic | azcentral.com 7:03 a.m. MT March 16, 2017

Tempe is honoring the late ASU architecture dean, James Walter Elmore, whose class spawned the Rio Salado Project.

Few in Tempe today probably know the name James Walter Elmore. Hopefully, that will soon change.

Reared in Nebraska, Elmore earned architectural degrees at the University of Nebraska (1934) and Columbia University (1938). After a stint in the military, he worked as a draftsman for the prestigious architectural New York firm Skidmore, Owens & Merrill, before coming to Arizona in 1948.

Here, he was employed by architects Guirey & Jones and Edward L. Varney. Elmore established his own practice in September 1949 — the same year he became an instructor at Arizona State University's Teachers College at Tempe. While there, he set up the state’s first architectural education program.

A decade later, the School of Architecture was established and Elmore was elevated to its first Dean, a post he held until 1974 when he stepped down to concentrate on teaching and research. He retired in 1986.

In a career full of accomplishments, Dean Elmore is best remembered for inspiring and challenging 16 fifth-year graduate students in 1966 to devise a scheme for transforming the Salt River, a normally dry riverbed, from a littered eyesore into a successful urban, green-belt attraction.

A year later the students presented their idea for “a vast reservoir of open space unique to the heart of a great city.” Valley leaders were so impressed, they began a campaign to bring the concept — then named the Rio Salado Project — to reality.

Dean Elmore led an 18-year process that refined the idea into a master plan and build consensus before asking Maricopa County voters in 1987 to approve $2.65 billion for the massive 28-mile long, quarter-century construction project.

Voters overwhelmingly defeated the ambitious plan, except in Tempe where the Salt River’s adjacency had the most impact.

Tempe leaders, buoyed by their residents' support, decided to go it alone — ultimately creating Tempe Town Lake in 1999.

Living to see how his 43-year-old vision materialized, Elmore passed away in 2007 at age 89.

Dedication ceremony

Now, a half-century since Dean Elmore first challenged his students, he is at long last being honored for his remarkable vision, passion and decades-long dedication to recovering the Salt River channel.

At noon on March 18th during a free event, Tempe artist Laurie Lundquist’s designed soaring footbridge, adjacent to the Tempe Center for the Arts, will be officially dedicated the Elmore Pedestrian Bridge.

Along with members of Elmore’s family, some of those 16 students who first conceived of recapturing the river channel into a vibrant place full of life and activities will be on-hand to help recount the chain of events that culminated in Town Lake.

A plaque honoring Elmore will be installed, as well as others chronicling the path from concept to Town Lake.

Additionally the winners of the more than 600 Town Lake photos submitted for the #ElmoreBridge Instagram Photo Contest will be announced. All the entries can be viewed at https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/elmorebridge/

Undoubtedly, Dean Elmore would be pleased.

Reach historian Jay Mark at jaymark@twtdbooks.com