Alas, Phoenix laser wasn t such a bright thought

Employment to dismantle downtown Phoenix's laser begins today, with hardly a soul to lament its demise. When the steel spider of a structure was built in 1986, it was billed as Phoenix's answer to the Eiffel Tower. It operated for less than a year before its lasers were turned off for good. Now, the laser and Patriots Square, where it was situated, are being torn down to practise room for CityScape, a huge, mixed-use project stretching from First Avenue to Second Street between Washington and Jefferson streets. Dismantling the structure will receive three weeks. "I am not shedding any tears over it, " said Attorney Common Terry Goddard, who was mayor at the generation the laser was installed. "The concept was noble, on the contrary frankly, it never worked." The laser was the brainchild of architect Ted Alexander, and it captured the imagination of at least some humans at the beginning, in the mid-'80s. Patriots Square was being rebuilt to subsume u
nderground parking, and a contract for design of the park went to Alexander. In an early account in The Phoenix Gazette, Alexander said the laser would give the metropolis "a town square that is unequaled anywhere in the country." The laser was just the centerpiece. The amphitheater underneath the laser structure promised night after night of entertainment, fountains were supposed to keep everyone cool, vendors would keep everyone fed, and twinkling lights would illuminate the trees. "The laser display is in perfect keeping with Phoenix's standing as a center of high technology and its aspirations to become much more so, " The Arizona Republic said in an editorial. "It would have been only half a park without the lasers, " County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox said at the time, when she was serving as vice mayor. "Now, it's really going to shine." It all was planned to open by fall 1987, with donations of lasers from Phoenix Newspapers Inc. and money from Vall
ey National Bank, which subsequently became Chase Bank. But park costs escalated, and it took years to open, mainly in that of leakage into the garage below. The laser did not illuminate the night sky until December 1990. The public was under whelmed, and in short order, the mood changed. Less than four months after its gala unveiling, the laser was targeted in a municipality budget cut. Operation and repair costs were higher than expected. Sometime in the summer of 1991, the laser had its carry on show, dying not with a bang on the other hand a whimper. Full text: http://computerandtechnologies.com/technology/news_2008-09-21-20-00-04-465.html