Western Savings MetroCenter (Souper Salad)

I-17 and Peoria, Phoenix

Wenceslas Sarmiento, architect

 

 

 

As a sentimental favorite here's the Souper Salad building perched on the vast parking lot of MetroCenter at Peoria and I-17, originally a Western Savings from 1974.

It's really trying to get your attention. With the foliage, there's a volcanic-tiki-Polynesian thing going on.

According to Donna Reiner, this is the design of the almost-famous Wenceslas Sarmiento, mentioned elsewhere here as one of the driving forces behind bank modernization in 1950s America, who was also responsible for the Phoenix Financial Center. Sarmiento's challenge here was making the building visible, on a sunken lot next to the highway. In an interview with Donna he said he thought it would have made a good house design (!), and at one time considered buying it and moving it to California. It bears quite a resemblance to Oscar Niemeyer's Brasilia Cathedral.

The building as originally designed was all white, so I've modified one of these photos to help you envision that oddity. Adds a lot to its modernist cred.

This is also one of the City of Phoenix "Mid-Century Marvels".

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright 2008 Walt Lockley. All rights reserved.