It’s big, it’s really big.
Critics and proponents of the student-housing tower rising near the University of Arizona campus agree on that one thing.
To become the sixth-tallest building in Tucson, The Level, at 14 stories high, will house 585 students when it opens in August for the 2013-2014 school year.
Campus Acquisitions, a Chicago-based development firm, plans a slightly smaller (13 stories) tower to the east.
A third tower is planned just west of the site by another development group.
The first building alone is too big and way out of proportion, said architect Bob Vint, who said Tucson is missing opportunities to build at a more reasonable scale along the modern streetcar line.
Campus Acquisitions boasts on its website that the rapidly rising skeleton of its high-rise dorm is “already redefining the Tucson skyline.”
Any big new building is a shock, said Arlan Colton, head of planning for Pima County.
Architect Bob Lanning says he still thinks the city needs to encourage density near campus and the streetcar line, with the goal of creating a less car-dependent culture.
Chris Gans, president of the West University Neighborhood District, said his group will definitely be involved. It lost a lobbying and legal fight to challenge the zoning change that allowed The Level to be built and it wants to make sure neighborhoods are protected along the rest of the streetcar route.
