Let's All Go To The Bank!

There is a special place in my heart for the original Valley National Bank headquarters (built in 1931, pictured in 1944) -- which, thankfully, was not torn down in the craze to raze and replace that reshaped the Phoenix downtown skyline in the 1970s and 1980s.

Just a few doors down from this bank, when I was very young, my mother worked for a dentist (in the historic Luhrs Tower, no less). Often I would go with my father to pick her up after work, and we would all make a quick bank run.

I remember the huge doors rimmed with metal (brass?), the giant lobby, the marble floors and walls -- a grand Art Deco palace that, very sadly, has sat empty for the last couple decades, destruction eminent.

Well, it has finally been bought and will be turned into a luxury hotel. Whew! I can guarantee you that I will be there once it opens. I might even just sidle up to one of the walls and plant a subtle kiss, welcoming back this great piece of architecture.

More about its future will be found here.