Downtown Rebirth and Development
Downtown Spokane had undergone a major rebirth in the years before the recession, after the completion the River Park Square Mall. The historic Davenport Hotel underwent a major renovation in 2002 after being vacant for over 20 years. The project was funded by local entrepreneur Walt Worthy, who also added a Safari-themed 20 story tower to the hotel in 2007. Other major projects include the Holley Mason Building - seen as the catalyst to downtown Spokane's rebirth, the building of the Big Easy concert house (now renamed the Knitting Factory), the remodeling of the historic Montvale Hotel and Fox Theater (now home to the Spokane Symphony), numerous new condo buildings, and renovations of historic, older brick buildings that will soon house both condos and business. Also, the Spokane Convention Center just finished a major expansion which helped host the 2007 US Figure Skating Championships. All new skyscrapers built in Spokane are subject to city height restrictions, and therefore, any new efforts to build major buildings are hampered. Recently, a local developer (Rob Brewster) has proposed building the new VOX Tower which, if approved, will become the tallest building in Spokane.
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Famous quotes containing the words rebirth and/or development:
“We are constantly thinking of the great war ... which saved the Union ... but it was a war that did a great deal more than that. It created in this country what had never existed before—a national consciousness. It was not the salvation of the Union, it was the rebirth of the Union.”
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“Dissonance between family and school, therefore, is not only inevitable in a changing society; it also helps to make children more malleable and responsive to a changing world. By the same token, one could say that absolute homogeneity between family and school would reflect a static, authoritarian society and discourage creative, adaptive development in children.”
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