What's the DFD 6?

In the three City of Phoenix Historic Preservation Certificate of Appropriateness hearings, Historic Preservation Commission meeting, and City Council "quasi-judicial" hearing on December 14, 2005, the local architect for the Sun Mercantile Building project (first "flexible use space," then condominiums) kept referring to other projects around the country that were examples of sensitive adaptive reuse. Yes, they are "projects." But that's about it. Like most things in life, there's a story behind the story. Those stories are told below.

The current proposal for the Sun Mercantile Building does not comply with the City of Phoenix’s historic design guidelines or the U.S. Secretary of the Interior's rehabilitation standards. If the current proposal goes through, the property will undoubtedly be delisted from the National Register of Historic Places. It should also be delisted from the Phoenix Historic Property Register because of the terrible precedent set, “lowering the bar” and allowing substantially altered and demolished buildings to be added to the Phoenix Historic Property Register in the future.