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Cooling Phoenix's Urban Heat Island — By Hanging Strands Of Rope

There are a lot of ideas for ways to deal with the urban heat island in Phoenix. But here’s one you probably haven’t thought of: a series of pieces of rope hanging over streets or green spaces.

That’s the idea behind a proposal called Jacaranda Avenue from a Phoenix architectural firm. It was a competition entry from a couple of years ago, and envisions the structures covering 1st Avenue in downtown Phoenix roughly between Washington and Roosevelt.

The Show met with the two guys behind the idea on that street just north of Monroe. Matthew Trzebiatowski is an architect with Blank Studio Design and Architecture and Samuel Martin is a Project Manager there. We started our conversation by asking about their vision for what the area could look like.

The two acknowledged the project might be expensive to build, but argued not doing anything could be more expensive. They could also see trying something similar in other parts of the Valley, like on Scottsdale Road — connecting Old Town to North Scottsdale — or on Mill Avenue in Tempe.

More About This

Mark Brodie is a co-host of The Show, KJZZ’s locally produced news magazine. Since starting at KJZZ in 2002, Brodie has been a host, reporter and producer, including several years covering the Arizona Legislature, based at the Capitol.