Loop 303 carves new identity for the West
Workers construct Loop 303 freeway. Mark Henle/azcentral.com
You can drive for miles on the northern span of Loop 303 and not see another vehicle.
Even as the freeway runs through congested areas, green farmland dominates, the view broken only by the White Tank Mountains, a growing bevy of industrial parks and the tile roofs of the occasional master-planned community.
But soon, officials hope Loop 303 will give the West Valley the chance at a more-sophisticated identity…READ THE COMPLETE STORY
The doll fixer
Doll restorer Ann Marie Carlson discovered her talent for art in her early 20s, when she studied painting, sculpting, colors, history. That led her to antiques and then to antique dolls. Nick Oza/The Republic
The head was shattered.
Ann Marie Carlson shifted half a dozen pieces of the thin porcelain in her hands and dry-fitted them together.
A piece of the forehead matched a cheek, a tiny nose fit into place and a skull piece matched the eye. As she moved, the antique doll’s painted blue eyes, rouged cheeks and rosebud mouth formed an old-fashioned visage. Carlson placed the pieces on her workbench…READ COMPLETE STORY
RESEARCH SCIENTISTS GO SOCIAL TO RAISE FUNDS
Research professors are turning to social media for grant funding. Pat Shannahan/The Republic.
Chris Diehnelt had three minutes to look into the camera, describe the frightening spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, showcase his molecules and make his pitch.
Diehnelt spends most of his time holed up in laboratories and classrooms, so potentially appearing in front of millions of people on video made him nervous.
But if the assistant research professor at the Arizona State University Biodesign Institute Center for Innovations in Medicine wanted to raise $5,000 to help fund his work, he had to tell his story….READ THE COMPLETE STORY
HOPE AND DESPAIR ON GRAND AVENUE
Artists are helping to create vital neighborhoods along the 53 miles of Grand Avenue. Nick Oza/The Republic.
Michael Denson paced his small square of a studio in the Oasis on Grand. He arranged his paintings, turned up some jazz and carefully arranged thin-stemmed glasses and a bottle of red wine on his kitchen counter. It was Denson’s debut in Phoenix’s First Friday art walk.
A clutch of Intel engineers soon crowded the studio, one of 60 live-and-work spaces carved out of a historic downtown motel. Denson demonstrated how he wove ribbons and other material into his paintings. The engineers, who had caravaned in from suburban Chandler, drank it up.
“A lot of people told me this is the art scene, so I came to check it out,” said Danielle Goodman, one of the engineers…READ THE COMPLETE STORY
IT’S CURTAINS FOR SUNDOME
Performers from Bob Hope to Bob Dylan worked the Sundome stage for decades.
Don Tuffs will never forget the first performer who ever took the stage at the Sundome Center for the Performing Arts.
Lawrence Welk, along with his full entourage of dancers and musicians, played for more than 7,000 people on a September night in 1980. Each fan had paid up to $7 to sit in what was then the newest and largest single-story performing-arts center in the United States, tucked in the brand-new retirement community of Sun City West.
“It was terrific,” said Tuffs, the first manager of the Sundome, who had worked for Del E. Webb Development Co. since 1971. “The exciting thing is that people were getting to see the entire Lawrence Welk show. All the acts had their costumes. They had everything you would see on the television show. There were many standing ovations.”…READ THE COMPLETE STORY
Lesley Wright's Portfolio 