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95-528: Phoenix City Square is on Central Avenue in Phoenix, Arizona. The Metro Light Rail track runs down this portion of Central Avenue. This project is part of the Valley Metro system. On December 27, 2008, Valley Metro Light Rail officially opened. It remains to be seen if this will have an impact in increasing tenancy at City Square, though it will serve to connect the area to Downtown Phoenix . There are

190-724: A "light rail" vehicle (it is a heavy rail vehicle), and is only included for comparison purposes. Low-floor LRVs have the advantage of a low-floor design, allowing them to load passengers directly from low-rise platforms that can be little more than raised curbs. High-floor light rail systems also exist, featuring larger stations. Historically, the track gauge has had considerable variations, with narrow gauge common in many early systems. However, most light rail systems are now standard gauge . Older standard-gauge vehicles could not negotiate sharp turns as easily as narrow-gauge ones, but modern light rail systems achieve tighter turning radii by using articulated cars . An important advantage of

285-405: A basement level, giving a total of 106,000 sq ft (9,800 m ) of floor space. The frame was constructed from poured-in-place reinforced concrete and employed post-tensioned girders to distribute the weight of each floor to the tower's exterior columns and central core, allowing for a column-free interior. The post-tensioning system also reduced the overall height of each story, allowing

380-458: A bus, there will be even more capacity when there is a combination of cars and light rail. Table 3 shows an example of peak passenger capacity. The cost of light rail construction varies widely, largely depending on the amount of tunneling and elevated structures required. A survey of North American light rail projects shows that costs of most LRT systems range from $ 15 million to over $ 100 million per mile. Seattle's new light rail system

475-403: A chaotic breakdown inflow and a dramatic drop in speed (a traffic jam ) if they exceed about 2,000 vehicles per hour per lane (each car roughly two seconds behind another). Since most people who drive to work or on business trips do so alone, studies show that the average car occupancy on many roads carrying commuters is only about 1.5 people per car during the high-demand rush hour periods of

570-1142: A common right-of-way (however, Link converted to full separation in 2019). Some systems, such as the AirTrain JFK in New York City, the DLR in London, and Kelana Jaya Line in Kuala Lumpur , have dispensed with the need for an operator. The Vancouver SkyTrain was an early adopter of driverless vehicles, while the Toronto Scarborough rapid transit operated the same trains as Vancouver, but used drivers. In most discussions and comparisons, these specialized systems are generally not considered light rail but as light metro systems. Around Karlsruhe , Kassel , and Saarbrücken in Germany, dual-voltage light rail trains partly use mainline railroad tracks, sharing these tracks with heavy rail trains. In

665-545: A lease at City Square for a near 6-year tenancy. The deal was worth around $ 9.5 million and included approximately 100,000 square feet (9,300 m) of office space. DES chose the 4000 Tower for its location. In 2007, a news release noted that the Arizona DES had extended their lease and increased office space to nearly 140,000 square feet. 3800 Tower, formerly the Del Webb Building, was the first structure in

760-629: A library, and a closed circuit television system. In the late 1990s both the Continental Bank and Pepsi buildings were demolished and replaced with a parking lot. 3838 Tower, formerly Greyhound Tower, located at 3838 N. Central Ave., and City Square Plaza were the final phase of Phoenix City Square and were completed in April 1971. The 20-story structure was the headquarters of the Greyhound Corporation , who occupied 14 floors in

855-416: A light rail train may have three to four cars of much larger capacity in one train under the control of one driver, or no driver at all in fully automated systems, increasing the labor costs of BRT systems compared to LRT systems. BRT systems are also usually less fuel-efficient as they use non-electrified vehicles. The peak passenger capacity per lane per hour depends on which types of vehicles are allowed on

950-435: A live rail. In outer areas, the trams switch to conventional overhead wires . The Bordeaux power system costs about three times as much as a conventional overhead wire system and took 24 months to achieve acceptable levels of reliability, requiring the replacement of all the main cables and power supplies. Operating and maintenance costs of the innovative power system still remain high. However, despite numerous service outages,

1045-543: A longer distance. Light rail cars are often coupled into multiple units of two to four cars. Light rail systems may also exhibit attributes of heavy rail systems, including having downtown subways, as in San Francisco and Seattle . Light rail is designed to address a gap in interurban transportation between heavy rail and bus services, carrying high passenger numbers more quickly than local buses and more cheaply than heavy rail. It serves corridors in which heavy rail

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1140-642: A more diverse range of design characteristics than LRT, depending on the demand and constraints that exist, and BRT using dedicated lanes can have a theoretical capacity of over 30,000 passengers per hour per direction (for example, the Guangzhou Bus Rapid Transit system operates up to 350 buses per hour per direction). For the effective operation of a bus or BRT system, buses must have priority at traffic lights and have their dedicated lanes, especially as bus frequencies exceed 30 buses per hour per direction. The higher theoretical of BRT relates to

1235-577: A new marble and blue glass exterior. The rooftop of the tower was topped with a new pyramid-shaped metal trellis crown. The front spray fountain was removed in favor of a grand new entrance with additional retail shops and a prominent clock tower. The original appearance of the structure was identical to the Bank of the West Tower in Albuquerque, New Mexico also built by Webb. 3800 is the smallest of

1330-407: A result, has many of the operating characteristics of a metro system rather than a light rail system. A capacity of 1,350 passengers per train is more similar to the heavy rail than light rail. Bus rapid transit (BRT) is an alternative to LRT and many planning studies undertake a comparison of each mode when considering appropriate investments in transit corridor development. BRT systems can exhibit

1425-534: A top speed of 55–71.5 miles per hour (88.51–115.1 km/h) depending on the system, while the trains on the all-underground Montreal Metro can only reach a top speed of 72 kilometres per hour (44.74 mph). LACMTA light rail vehicles have higher top and average speeds than Montreal Metro or New York City Subway trains. Many light rail systems—even fairly old ones—have a combination of both on- and off-road sections. In some countries (especially in Europe), only

1520-481: A tramway, a light metro, and, in a narrow sense, rapid transit. This is especially common in the United States, where there is not a popularly perceived distinction between these different types of urban rail systems. The development of technology for low-floor and catenary-free trams facilitates the construction of such mixed systems with only short and shallow underground sections below critical intersections as

1615-612: A variety of businesses that are part of the complex. Besides having a fitness center, there are also cafes, a day care, a barber shop, law offices, accounting firms, engineering consultants, etc. There is also an on-site U.S. Bank as part of the City Square area. The plot of land used to develop the Rosenzweig Center had been owned by the Rosenzweig family for 46 years when construction began in 1961. Portions of

1710-470: Is a generic international English phrase for types of rail systems using modern streetcars/trams, which means more or less the same thing throughout the English-speaking world . Light rail systems can range from trams runnig in streets along with other traffic, to semi-metro systems having portions of grade separated track. People movers are even "lighter", in terms of capacity. Monorail

1805-575: Is a separate technology that has been more successful in specialized services than in a commuter transit role. The use of the generic term light rail avoids some serious incompatibilities between British and American English . The word tram , for instance, is generally used in the UK and many former British colonies to refer to what is known in North America as a streetcar , but in North America tram can instead refer to an aerial tramway , or, in

1900-602: Is a significant amount of overlap between the technologies; similar rolling stock may be used for either, and it is common to classify streetcars or trams as a subcategory of light rail rather than as a distinct type of transportation. However, some distinctions can be made, though systems may combine elements of both. Low-floor light rail lines tend to follow a reserved right-of-way and with trains receiving priority at intersections, and tend not to operate in mixed traffic, enabling higher operating speeds. Light rail lines tend to have less frequent stops than tramways, and operate over

1995-563: Is by far the most expensive in the US, at $ 179 million per mile, since it includes extensive tunneling in poor soil conditions, elevated sections, and stations as deep as 180 feet (55 m) below ground level. This results in costs more typical of subways or rapid transit systems than light rail. At the other end of the scale, four systems (Baltimore, Maryland; Camden, New Jersey; Sacramento, California; and Salt Lake City, Utah) incurred construction costs of less than $ 20 million per mile. Over

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2090-426: Is especially important for wheelchair access, as narrower gauges (e.g. metre gauge) can make it challenging or impossible to pass the tram's wheels. Furthermore, standard-gauge rolling stock can be switched between networks either temporarily or permanently, and both newly built and used standard-gauge rolling stock tends to be cheaper to buy, as more companies offer such vehicles. Overhead lines supply electricity to

2185-502: Is expensive. Similarly, the most expensive US highway expansion project was the " Big Dig " in Boston, Massachusetts, which cost $ 200 million per lane mile for a total cost of $ 14.6 billion. A light rail track can carry up to 20,000 people per hour as compared with 2,000–2,200 vehicles per hour for one freeway lane. For example, in Boston and San Francisco, light rail lines carry 9,600 and 13,100 passengers per hour, respectively, in

2280-575: Is hard to distinguish between what is called light rail, and other forms of urban and commuter rail. A system described as a light rail in one city may be considered to be a streetcar or tram system in another. Conversely, some lines that are called "light rail" are very similar to rapid transit ; in recent years, new terms such as light metro have been used to describe these medium-capacity systems. Some "light rail" systems, such as Sprinter , bear little similarity to urban rail, and could alternatively be classified as commuter rail or even inter-city rail. In

2375-559: Is impractical. Light metro systems are essentially hybrids of light rail and rapid transit. Metro trains are larger and faster than light rail trains, with stops being further apart. Many systems have mixed characteristics. Indeed, with proper engineering, a rail line could run along a street, then go underground, and then run along an elevated viaduct. For example, the Los Angeles Metro Rail 's A Line "light rail" has sections that could alternatively be described as

2470-590: Is on the north side of Clarendon Avenue, whereas both 3800 and 3838 are on the southern side. In 1965 a standalone building was built on Central Ave. directly east of the 4000 Tower. As the headquarters of the Continental National Bank. The two story building had marble facing and a precast concrete waffle roof. In 1968 a new three story structure was constructed directly north of the Continental Bank building for Pepsi-Cola as their Management Institute. The building housed classrooms, an auditorium,

2565-484: Is one of the highest capacity ones, having been upgraded in a series of expansions to handle 40,000 passengers per hour per direction, and having carried as many as 582,989 passengers in a single day on its Line 1 . It achieves this volume by running four-car trains with a capacity of up to 1,350 passengers each at a frequency of up to 30 trains per hour. However, the Manila light rail system has full grade separation and as

2660-407: Is similar to that of a traditional tram, while operating at a higher capacity and speed, often on an exclusive right-of-way. In broader use, it includes tram-like operations mostly on streets. A few light rail networks have characteristics closer to rapid transit or even commuter rail , yet only when these systems are fully grade-separated are they referred to as light metros . The term light rail

2755-584: The Atomic Age (16th floor), and the Duke of Alburquerque (17th floor). Like much of Garver's work, the murals were fragile and have not survived. On the exterior, white paint and tinted glass were used to reduce the building's cooling load. Each spandrel is faced with gold ceramic tile, which architect Max Flatow described as containing actual 23-karat gold, saying "We would be a richer society if we used our precious things on buildings instead of burying them in

2850-542: The Cádiz TramBahia , where trams share track with commuter and long-distance trains from the main terminus in the city and curve off to serve cities without a railway connection. Some of the issues involved in such schemes are: There is a history of what would now be considered light rail vehicles operating on heavy rail rapid transit tracks in the US, especially in the case of interurban streetcars . Notable examples are Lehigh Valley Transit trains running on

2945-758: The London Underground and the New York City Subway . Conventional rail technologies including high-speed , freight, commuter , and rapid transit urban transit systems are considered "heavy rail". The main difference between light rail and heavy rail rapid transit is the ability for a light rail vehicle to operate in mixed traffic if the routing requires it. The world's first electric tram operated in Sestroretsk near Saint Petersburg , Russia , invented and operated on an experimental basis by Fyodor Pirotsky in 1880. The first tramway

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3040-637: The Netherlands , this concept was first applied on the RijnGouweLijn . This allows commuters to ride directly into the city center, rather than taking a mainline train only as far as a central station and then having to change to a tram. In France, similar tram-trains are planned for Paris, Mulhouse , and Strasbourg ; further projects exist. In some cases, tram trains use previously abandoned or lightly used heavy rail lines in addition to or instead of still in use mainline tracks. In 2022, Spain opened

3135-874: The O-Train Trillium Line in Ottawa, Ontario , Canada, the River Line in New Jersey , United States, and the Sprinter in California , United States, which use diesel multiple unit (DMU) cars. Light rail is different from the British English term light railway , long-used to distinguish railway operations carried out under a less rigorous set of regulations using lighter equipment at lower speeds from mainline railways. Light rail

3230-703: The Philadelphia and Western Railroad high-speed third rail line (now the Norristown High-Speed Line ). Such arrangements are almost impossible now, due to the Federal Railroad Administration refusing (for crash safety reasons) to allow non-FRA compliant railcars (i.e., subway and light rail vehicles) to run on the same tracks at the same times as compliant railcars, which includes locomotives and standard railroad passenger and freight equipment. Notable exceptions in

3325-530: The medians of roads . If run in streets , trains are usually limited by city block lengths to about four 180-passenger vehicles (720 passengers). Operating on two-minute headways using traffic signal progression, a well-designed two-track system can handle up to 30 trains per hour per track, achieving peak rates of over 20,000 passengers per hour in each direction. More advanced systems with separate rights-of-way using moving block signaling can exceed 25,000 passengers per hour per track. Most light rail systems in

3420-624: The 1970s was proven to have been a technical failure by the following decade. After World War II, the Germans retained many of their streetcar networks and evolved them into model light rail systems ( Stadtbahnen ). With the exception of Hamburg , all large and most medium-sized German cities maintain light rail networks. The concept of a "limited tramway" was proposed by American transport planner H. Dean Quinby in 1962. Quinby distinguished this new concept in rail transportation from historic streetcar or tram systems as: The term light rail transit

3515-591: The 64.9 m (213 ft) tower surpassed the New Mexico Bank & Trust Building to become the tallest in New Mexico. Its construction, far from the existing highrises downtown, reflected an ongoing shift of people and capital from Albuquerque's decaying city center to the more suburban Northeast Heights. The building was intended to become the focal point of a new urban development called First National Bank Center, though ultimately only one other tower

3610-495: The French city of Bordeaux , the tramway network is powered by a third rail in the city center, where the tracks are not always segregated from pedestrians and cars. The third rail (actually two closely spaced rails) is placed in the middle of the track and divided into eight-metre sections, each of which is powered only while it is completely covered by a tram. This minimizes the risk of a person or animal coming into contact with

3705-697: The Praedium Group. In 2005 the present owner, Parallel Capital Partners (then part of the Shidler Group), purchased the complex from Praedium Group. At the time, the construction of another tower was considered; however this never did materialize, which is a possible result of the real estate downturn. Parallel Capital Partners maintains properties in San Diego , Phoenix , Los Angeles , Orange County , Dallas , Denver , and Honolulu . In 2006, The Arizona Department of Economic Security signed

3800-486: The Ramada Townehouse and Dell Webb’s Townehouse, at 4000 N. Central Ave. is a 23-story combination executive hotel and office building. The skyscraper started construction in midsummer 1963 and was completed by February 1965. It featured 275 hotel rooms occupying 9 floors of the 23-story tower as well the adjoining 3-story cabana wing. The uppermost 12 floors of the tower were leased as office space. When built,

3895-662: The US are the NJ Transit River Line from Camden to Trenton and Austin's Capital MetroRail , which have received exemptions to the provision that light rail operations occur only during daytime hours and Conrail freight service only at night, with several hours separating one operation from the other. The O-Train Trillium Line in Ottawa also has freight service at certain hours. With its mix of right-of-way types and train control technologies, LRT offers

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3990-455: The US as a whole, excluding Seattle, new light rail construction costs average about $ 35 million per mile. By comparison, a freeway lane expansion typically costs $ 1.0 million to $ 8.5 million per lane mile for two directions, with an average of $ 2.3 million. However, freeways are frequently built in suburbs or rural areas, whereas light rail tends to be concentrated in urban areas, where right of way and property acquisition

4085-666: The United States and in North America . In Britain, modern light rail systems began to appear in the 1980s, starting with the Tyne and Wear Metro from 1980 and followed by the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) in London in 1987, continuing into the 1990s including the establishment of the Manchester Metrolink in 1992 and the Sheffield Supertram from 1994. Due to varying definitions, it

4180-590: The United States are limited by demand rather than capacity (by and large, most American LRT systems carry fewer than 4,000 persons per hour per direction), but Boston's and San Francisco's light rail lines carry 9,600 and 13,100 passengers per hour per track during rush hour. Elsewhere in North America, the Calgary C-Train and Monterrey Metro have higher light rail ridership than Boston or San Francisco. Systems outside North America often have much higher passenger volumes. The Manila Light Rail Transit System

4275-533: The United States as an English equivalent for the German word Stadtbahn , meaning "city railway". Different definitions exist in some countries, but in the United States, light rail operates primarily along exclusive rights-of-way and uses either individual tramcars or multiple units coupled together, with a lower capacity and speed than a long heavy rail passenger train or rapid transit system. Narrowly defined, light rail transit uses rolling stock that

4370-472: The United States, "light rail" has become a catch-all term to describe a wide variety of passenger rail systems. Light rail corridors may constitute a fully segregated corridor, a dedicated right-of-way on a street, an on-street corridor shared with other traffic, a corridor shared with other public transport, or a corridor shared with pedestrians. The most difficult distinction to draw is that between low-floor light rail and streetcar or tram systems. There

4465-415: The ability of buses to travel closer to each other than rail vehicles and their ability to overtake each other at designated locations allowing express services to bypass those that have stopped at stations. However, to achieve capacities this high, BRT station footprints need to be significantly larger than a typical LRT station. In terms of cost of operation, each bus vehicle requires a single driver, whereas

4560-430: The building was First National Bank Building East to avoid confusion with the bank's main building downtown. Groundbreaking ceremonies took place on July 12, 1961, and the bank was officially opened for business on February 16, 1963. During construction, the builders reportedly attached numbers to the side of the building to prevent drivers from being distracted by trying to count the number of floors. When completed,

4655-437: The building, while the basement housed the vaults and lock boxes, an event room, and a cafe. The top two floors were reserved for the members-only Albuquerque City Club. The club facilities included a bar, dining room, beauty salon, and saunas on the 16th floor, and a gymnasium and rooftop deck "for dancing, sunbathing and other outside activities" on the 17th floor. The club went out of business after only two years and its space

4750-429: The building. The open air plaza is the centerpiece of the complex and features a retail structure connecting the 3838 Tower to 3800 Tower. Among the original tenants of the plaza was Rosenzweig jewelers, which originally opened in the lobby of the Del Webb Building in 1962 before moving to the plaza at its opening in 1971. The jeweler eventually closed. The tower and the plaza were both heavily renovated in 1987 along with

4845-686: The building. Webb’s offices occupy 50,000 square feet on the top six floors of the tower. On the ground floor was a branch of the First National Bank of Arizona, a Rosenzweig jewelry store and other business firms. The jewelry store moved to the adjacent open-air retail plaza in 1971. The office structure is rectangular, with all utility rooms, elevators and stairs built around a central core. This permits all offices to have outside windows. There are no interior columns to restrict space layouts. The exterior originally used precast stone and mosaic tile panels and trim of gold anodized aluminum. Ground

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4940-866: The case of the Disney amusement parks , even a land train . (The usual British term for an aerial tramway is cable car , which in the US usually refers to a ground-level car pulled along by subterranean cables .) The word trolley is often used as a synonym for streetcar in the United States but is usually taken to mean a cart, particularly a shopping cart, in the UK and elsewhere. Many North American transportation planners reserve streetcar for traditional vehicles that operate exclusively in mixed traffic on city streets, while they use light rail to refer to more modern vehicles operating mostly in exclusive rights of way, since they may operate both side-by-side targeted at different passenger groups. The difference between British English and American English terminology arose in

5035-421: The closure of Glasgow Corporation Tramways (one of the largest in Europe) in 1962. Although some traditional trolley or tram systems continued to exist in San Francisco and elsewhere, the term "light rail" has come to mean a different type of rail system as modern light rail technology has primarily post-WWII West German origins. An attempt by Boeing Vertol to introduce a new American light rail vehicle in

5130-492: The complex completed, and is located at 3800 N. Central Ave. The tower offers approximately 175,000 square feet of rentable space. The basic construction loan was furnished by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company and Coldwell Banker was the building leasing agent. The principal tenant is the Webb Corporation which houses its international headquarters for construction, housing, building and operating hotels in

5225-415: The day. This combination of factors limits roads carrying only automobile commuters to a maximum observed capacity of about 3,000 passengers per hour per lane. The problem can be mitigated by introducing high-occupancy vehicle ( HOV ) lanes and ride-sharing programs, but in most cases, policymakers have chosen to add more lanes to the roads, despite a small risk that in unfavorable situations an extension of

5320-622: The developers to add an extra floor without changing the planned height. The building's ground floor features pillars faced with gray Italian marble framing 28 large plate glass windows. The lobby and banking hall were originally finished in gray and cream-colored marble with walnut and aluminum trim, while "a dark green Grecian marbleized vinyl covering" was used on the upper floors. The elevator lobbies were decorated with fifteen 8-by-12-foot (2.4 by 3.7 m) murals by Alice Garver depicting various aspects of New Mexico history, including indigenous peoples (second floor), covered wagons (10th floor),

5415-755: The direct translation, which is city rail (the Norwegian term, by bane , means the same). However, UMTA finally adopted the term light rail instead. Light in this context is used in the sense of "intended for light loads and fast movement", rather than referring to physical weight. The infrastructure investment is also usually lighter than would be found for a heavy rail system. The American Public Transportation Association (APTA), in its Glossary of Transit Terminology, defines light rail as: ...a mode of transit service (also called streetcar, tramway, or trolley) operating passenger rail cars singly (or in short, usually two-car or three-car, trains) on fixed rails in

5510-426: The ground." Approximately 2.5 million of the one inch square tiles were required to cover the building. The exterior of the tower is also decorated with gold-colored aluminum screens on the eleventh floor. The top of the building originally featured the text "FIRST NATIONAL BANK" in illuminated green letters on all four sides. This was replaced in 1993 with "FIRST SECURITY BANK" in red lettering, and then in 2001 with

5605-499: The guestrooms featured individual guest controlled air conditioning and heating, and telephones equipped with message-reminder service, and balconies overlooking the swimming pool in cabana wing rooms. The structure included the largest hotel convention facilities in the city, including the Los Conquistadores Ballroom to seat 2,000 diners or 3,000 persons for theater style meetings. A seven-level 1,200-car parking

5700-458: The late 19th century when Americans adopted the term "street railway", rather than "tramway", with the vehicles being called "streetcars" rather than "trams". Some have suggested that the Americans' preference for the term "street railway" at that time was influenced by German emigrants to the United States (who were more numerous than British immigrants in the industrialized Northeast), as it is

5795-524: The latter is described as light rail. In those places, trams running on mixed rights-of-way are not regarded as a light rail but considered distinctly as streetcars or trams. However, the requirement for saying that a rail line is "separated" can be quite low—sometimes just with concrete "buttons" to discourage automobile drivers from getting onto the tracks. Some systems such as Seattle's Link had on-road mixed sections but were closed to regular road traffic, with light rail vehicles and buses both operating along

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5890-462: The light rail concept was the "Shaker Heights Rapid Transit" which started in the 1920s, was renovated in 1980-81 and is now part of RTA Rapid Transit . Many original tram and streetcar systems in the United Kingdom , United States , and elsewhere were decommissioned starting in the 1950s as subsidies for the car increased. Britain abandoned its tram systems, except for Blackpool , with

5985-424: The office towers in City Square, coming in under 200,000 square feet (19,000 m). It contains an attached day care, and it is located directly on Central Avenue. 3800 Tower has a variety of businesses, such as Just Mortgage Inc., The Valley Forward Association, Law Offices of Michael Cordova, PMA Consultants, Black, Gould & Associates, Inc. and Maricopa County Legal Advocate. 4000 Tower, formerly Kent Tower,

6080-465: The old and new systems. Since the 1980s, Portland, Oregon , has built all three types of system: a high-capacity light rail system in dedicated lanes and rights-of-way, a low-capacity streetcar system integrated with street traffic, and an aerial tram system . The opposite phrase heavy rail , used for higher-capacity, higher-speed systems, also avoids some incompatibilities in terminology between British and American English, for instance in comparing

6175-468: The peak direction during rush hour. Bank of the West Tower (Albuquerque) Bank of the West Tower is a highrise office building in Albuquerque , New Mexico . It is located on Central Avenue some 3.5 mi (5.6 km) east of Downtown . At 64.9 m (213 ft), the 17-story tower was the tallest building in New Mexico when completed in 1963. It is now the fifth tallest building in

6270-645: The property as a Ramada Renaissance property; however, these plans did not come to fruition. Ramada ceased managing the property on October 31, 1983. Management was turned over to LaMancha Racquet Club Inc. in November 1983. LaMancha closed the property for renovation and reopened in July 1984 as the LaMancha Athletic Club and Hotel. During the renovation the rooms and facilities in the 23-story tower were removed and replaced with office space, lowering

6365-646: The property was renamed the Hilton Garden Inn. Since then, the City Square Sports Club has been managed independently from the hotel. 4000 is the tallest tower in City Square, and has been noted on the List of tallest buildings in Phoenix , which lists 25 Skyscrapers in the city. Businesses inside 4000 Tower include Arizona Drug Screening & Investigations, First Community Financial Corporation, and Parsons & Goltry Law Firm. 4000 Tower

6460-536: The property were formerly occupied by the Mirador Ballroom and a yard owned by Superlite Builders Supply Co. on the north portion. The Webb Corporation planned the complex as a "dramatic, high quality, self-contained complex of buildings around a landscaped plaza that, in time, will mean to this area (downtown Phoenix) what New York's Rockefeller Center or Philadelphia's Penn Center means to the East." The project

6555-461: The renovation was completed by Kitchell Contractors, Inc. The past couple decades have seen a lot of activity around the City Square development. In 1996, the Singapore government went into escrow for the purchase of City Square. At the time the Phoenix metropolitan area was experiencing drastic increases in commercial tenancy rates. In 2000, the government of Singapore sold Phoenix City Square to

6650-526: The renovation, all public spaces were refreshed and the Aztec Room and Lounge was transformed into the new Saguaro Room and Saloon. A new hotel tower was also constructed south of the pool, bringing the total room count to 383. In July 1981, Ramada Inns took over management of the property from the Webb Corporation and it was subsequently renamed the Ramada townhouse. Ramada had initially intended to remodel

6745-556: The required clearance height can be reduced significantly compared to conventional light rail vehicles. Reference speed from major light rail systems, including station stop time, is shown below. However, low top speed is not always a differentiating characteristic between light rail and other systems. For example, the Siemens S70 LRVs used in the Houston METRORail and other North American LRT systems have

6840-593: The rest of the complex. Management of the hotel facilities was turned over to the Hotel Group of Seattle in 1990 and was renamed the City Square Hotel and Athletic Club. In June 1992, management was turned over to Lexington Hotel Suites and Inns of Irving, Texas and the hotel was again renamed the Lexington Hotel and City Square Sport Club. Hotel management changed for a final time in 2003, and

6935-401: The rest of the complex. In 1991 Greyhound Corporation moved to a new facility and the building was renamed 3838 Tower. Light Rail Light rail (or light rail transit , abbreviated to LRT ) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology while also having some features from heavy rapid transit . The term was coined in 1972 in

7030-432: The right-of-way that is often separated from other traffic for part or much of the way. Light rail vehicles are typically driven electrically with power being drawn from an overhead electric line via a trolley [pole] or a pantograph ; driven by an operator onboard the vehicle; and may have either high platform loading or low-level boarding using steps." However, some diesel-powered transit is designated light rail, such as

7125-415: The road network might lead to increased travel times ( Downs–Thomson paradox , Braess's paradox ). By contrast, light rail vehicles can travel in multi-car trains carrying a theoretical ridership up to 20,000 passengers per hour in much narrower rights-of-way , not much more than two car lanes wide for a double track system. They can often be run through existing city streets and parks , or placed in

7220-401: The roads. Typically roadways have 1,900 passenger cars per lane per hour (pcplph). If only cars are allowed, the capacity will be less and will not increase when the traffic volume increases. When there is a bus driving on this route, the capacity of the lane will be higher and will increase when the traffic level increases. And because the capacity of a light rail system is higher than that of

7315-473: The room count to 171. The ballroom was converted into the LaMancha Athletic Club, featuring racquetball courts, a basketball court, Nautilus Conditioning room and an indoor swimming pool. With the opening of the LaMancha, the overall building was renamed Kent Tower. It ceased using the name Kent Tower in late 1986 and was renamed 4000 tower in 1987. The exterior of the structure was redesigned in 1987, along with

7410-618: The same as the German term for the mode, Straßenbahn (meaning "street railway"). A further difference arose because, while Britain abandoned all of its trams after World War II except in Blackpool , eight major North American cities ( Toronto , Boston , Philadelphia , San Francisco , Pittsburgh , Newark , Cleveland , and New Orleans ) continued to operate large streetcar systems. When these cities upgraded to new technology, they called it light rail to differentiate it from their existing streetcars since some continued to operate both

7505-408: The standard gauge is that standard railway maintenance equipment can be used on it, rather than custom-built machinery. Using standard gauges also allows light rail vehicles to be conveniently moved around using the same tracks as freight railways. Additionally, wider gauges (e.g. standard gauge) provide more floor clearance on low-floor trams that have constricted pedestrian areas at the wheels, which

7600-564: The state, and the tallest outside of Downtown Albuquerque. The building was developed by the Del Webb Corporation and designed by the architectural firm of Flatow, Moore, Bryan, and Fairburn . For most of its history, the tower housed a succession of bank branches . The tower was built by the Del Webb Corporation and originally housed the East Central branch of the First National Bank of New Mexico. The original name of

7695-551: The system was a success with the public, gaining up to 190,000 passengers per day. Automatic train operation is employed on light rail networks, tracking the position and speed of a train and hence adjusting its movement for safety and efficiency. One line of light rail (requires 7.6 m, 25' right of way) has a theoretical capacity of up to 8 times more than one 3.7 m (12 foot) lane on a freeway, excluding busses, during peak times. Roads have ultimate capacity limits that can be determined by traffic engineering , and usually experience

7790-484: The total property (consisting of this tower and a shorter tower nearby) was leased and in use. As of September 2023, the building is vacant and up for auction. The Bank of the West Tower was designed by the Albuquerque firm of Flatow, Moore, Bryan, and Fairburn , which was also responsible for the nearly identical Del Webb Building in Phoenix (later extensively remodeled). The building has 17 above-ground floors and

7885-503: The trams, making it safe on city streets. Several systems in Europe and a few recently opened systems in North America use diesel -powered trains. When electric streetcars were introduced in the late 19th century, conduit current collection was one of the first ways of supplying power, but it proved to be much more expensive, complicated, and trouble-prone than overhead wires . When electric street railways became ubiquitous, conduit power

7980-460: The vast majority of light rail systems. This avoids the danger potentially presented by an electrified third rail . The Docklands Light Railway uses an inverted third rail for its electrical power, which allows the electrified rail to be covered and the power drawn from the underside. Trams in Bordeaux , France, use a special third-rail configuration where the power is only switched on beneath

8075-434: The widest range of latitude of any rail system in the design, engineering, and operating practices. The challenge in designing light rail systems is to realize the potential of LRT to provide fast, comfortable service while avoiding the tendency to overdesign that results in excessive capital costs beyond what is necessary to meet the public's needs. The BART railcar in the following chart is not generally considered to be

8170-498: Was announced by the Webb Corporation on June 10, 1961. The complex was built as the Rosenzweig Center and was originally owned by North Central Development Co., a partnership of Newton and Harry Rosenzweig, prominent jewelers in the Phoenix area, and the Del Webb Corporation in Phoenix. In 1983, the property was sold to Canadian entrepreneur Jack Kent Cooke , and was subsequently renamed Kent Plaza. In 1985, Kent Plaza

8265-520: Was broken on the tower on June 20, 1961 and it was completed by June 1962. The building featured a 54 by 20-foot spray fountain and marble facing on the first 2 floors. The building was renamed the 3800 Tower on October 28, 1987 following the Webb Corporation’s decision to move their headquarters from the building in 1988. The 3800 tower was radically redesigned in 1987, with the stone and mosaic tiles panels and aluminum trim removed and replaced with

8360-484: Was built, an adjacent 10-story office building that once housed the headquarters of Microsoft . With urban renewal efforts underway downtown, the new highrise lost its title as the city's tallest building to the National Building just three years after opening, though it remains the tallest building in the city outside of Downtown. The First National Bank branch originally occupied the first two floors of

8455-543: Was coined in 1972 by the U.S. Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA; the precursor to the Federal Transit Administration ) to describe new streetcar transformations that were taking place in Europe and the United States. In Germany, the term Stadtbahn (to be distinguished from S-Bahn , which stands for Stadtschnellbahn ) was used to describe the concept, and many in UMTA wanted to adopt

8550-475: Was eventually converted into two residential penthouses, which remained in place as of 2015 along with a rooftop racquetball court. First National Bank was purchased by First Security Bank in 1993, and the building's name and signage changed accordingly. The tower was renamed again in 2001 when Bank of the West bought the branch. Bank of the West moved out of the tower in 2012. As of February 2021, only 30% of

8645-677: Was introduced in North America in 1972 to describe this new concept of rail transportation. Prior to that time the abbreviation "LRT" was used for " Light Rapid Transit " and " Light Rail Rapid Transit ". The first of the new light rail systems in North America began operation in 1978 when the Canadian city of Edmonton, Alberta , adopted the German Siemens-Duewag U2 system, followed three years later by Calgary, Alberta , and San Diego, California . The concept proved popular, with there now being numerous light rail systems in

8740-435: Was provided for the new building. The building was white and gold and similar in appearance to the Del Webb Building. The bottom two floors of the tower incorporated a drug store, gift shop, men’s store, beauty salon, barber shop, the Aztec Room restaurant seating 250 persons, coffee shop for 150 and Aztec lounge, with entertainment stage, to accommodate 140 patrons. The entire hotel was comprehensively renovated in 1978. During

8835-409: Was sold to Merrill Lynch Hubbard, a real-estate subsidiary of Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith . Merrill Lynch subsequently renamed the complex Phoenix City Square. In 1987 Merrill Lynch invested heavily in refreshing the property, heavily renovating the exteriors of all three towers, the plaza, and the landscaping. The redesign was designed by Cornoyer-Hendrick Architects and Planners, Inc. and

8930-632: Was the Gross-Lichterfelde tramway in Lichterfelde near Berlin in Germany, which opened in 1881. It was built by Werner von Siemens who contacted Pirotsky. It initially drew current from the rails, with overhead wire being installed in 1883. The first interurban to emerge in the United States was the Newark and Granville Street Railway in Ohio, which opened in 1889. An early example of

9025-527: Was used in those cities that did not permit overhead wires. In Europe, it was used in London, Paris, Berlin, Marseille, Budapest, and Prague. In the United States, it was used in parts of New York City and Washington, D.C. Third rail technology was investigated for use on the Gold Coast of Australia for the G:link light rail, though power from overhead lines was ultimately utilized for that system. In

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