A compact cluster of highrises over wide surface lots, and the corner where Psycho's 1960 opening finds the Jefferson Hotel.
What Downtown Phoenix looks like
More than 25 highrises reach up to 40 storeys in downtown Phoenix, glass curtain wall towers standing over one and two storey civic buildings and older masonry storefronts at street level. runs 40 storeys and is the tallest building in Arizona. U.S. Bank Center follows at 31 storeys. , a residential tower with projecting balconies, runs 34 storeys.
The numbered street grid runs wide. Washington, Jefferson, Central Avenue and First Avenue carry more traffic lanes than their volume needs. More than 80 percent of the city's parking supply is surface lots, and downtown holds open gaps of asphalt between the towers rather than a continuous wall of buildings. A light rail line runs down the middle of Central Avenue, catenary wires strung overhead along the block fronts.
Several architectural styles stand within a few blocks of each other. The is Art Deco, built in 1929. The 1928 on Washington Street is Renaissance Revival, in pale stone with arched openings. The , a Spanish Colonial Revival house from the late 1920s, has an illuminated marquee over the sidewalk on Adams Street.
At the southeast corner of , a six storey brick building with a decorative cornice and ground floor storefronts has stood since 1915. It opened as the Jefferson Hotel and is now known as Barrister Place, vacant and owned by the city since 2010.
Shot in Downtown Phoenix
Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho opens with a series of panning shots across the 1960 Phoenix skyline. The camera settles on a window of the Jefferson Hotel, at Central Avenue and Jefferson Street, for the lunch break scene between Marion Crane and Sam Loomis.
Psycho, 1960
The Jefferson Hotel
The film's opening panning shots move across the 1960 Phoenix skyline. The camera settles on a window of this building, once the tallest in Arizona, for the lunch break scene between Marion Crane and Sam Loomis. Street View
What Downtown Phoenix can double for
Downtown Tucson in Tucson, Arizona
Tucson's downtown mixes a handful of modern office towers with early twentieth century masonry buildings over broad surface parking lots, the same scale as Phoenix's own cluster. One South Church, its tallest building at 23 storeys, is barely half the height of Chase Tower. Keep a wide skyline shot tight on the cluster itself, since Tucson's towers top out lower and a wider frame would reveal the shorter skyline. Try searching downtown office tower now.
Albuquerque's downtown runs on a numbered grid off its own Central Avenue, with a handful of office towers rising over one and two storey buildings and surface lots between them. The scale reads close to Phoenix's own cluster around Chase Tower. Central Avenue still shows old Route 66 signage in places, which would need avoiding or dressing out of a generic frame. Try searching downtown grid central avenue now.
Downtown Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada
The blocks around Fremont Street mix modern glass towers with early twentieth century masonry buildings and open surface lots in the same dry desert light as Phoenix. It is a looser match, since Downtown Las Vegas has far more signage and pedestrian traffic at street level. Neon and the Fremont Street canopy would need to stay out of frame entirely, since both are specific to Las Vegas. Try searching desert downtown surface lots now.
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