MESA — A roughly 70-year-old downtown Mesa building designed by noted Arizona architect Martin Ray Young is expected to be torn down within weeks to make way for an apartment complex, ABC15 reported.
East Valley historians know the building as Gurtler Corner. Work on the apartment project has already started around it, and the building is the last thing standing in the way of heavy equipment, according to the station.
The city of Mesa says it cannot stop the demolition. A city spokesperson said in a statement that the building is not a registered historic site and is not in a protected neighborhood, so the owner is free to build.
Vic Linoff of the Mesa Preservation Foundation wants the building saved and said Young designed scores of buildings across Mesa.
“There’s a reluctance to say, ‘Maybe that’s a good idea. Maybe we should save that, and that could be a feature of this property,'” Linoff told ABC15.
Linoff said the fight is about preserving Young’s legacy as more of his work disappears. “Then, nothing will be left and he’ll be a footnote in a history book somewhere,” he said.
A construction worker at the site told the station crews are removing asbestos from the building and expect demolition to begin in the next few weeks.
Sources: ABC15. Thee Arizona Times uses AI-assisted reporting reviewed against the sources listed.
Photo: Syced / CC0 via Wikimedia Commons.
