This classic example of Phoenix's midcentury modern architecture is a popular bowling alley

When you think about architecturally significant buildings, you might think about big skyscrapers, art museums or opera houses. But, Mike Hardesty is here to highlight the architectural significance of one Valley bowling alley.

300 Bowl, now known as Bowlero Christown, is a classic example of midcentury modern architecture in central Phoenix. It's a “Googie” building, with its soaring peaks, space-age angles and clean lines. The 300 Bowl building was constructed as Phoenix — and bowling — were taking off.

Hardesty is a local real estate agent and preservationist as well as a bowling fanatic. Well, not just a fanatic — he grew up in a bowling alley. And, as a member of Preserve PHX’s board, he’s written about the important architecture at 300 Bowl.

So, The Show spoke to him there on a recent weekday afternoon to find out more.

Lauren Gilger

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KJZZ

Full conversation

LAUREN GILGER: All right, so we're here in the Bowlero building near Christown Mall, which, I think a lot of people have probably been here for a birthday party or to bowl a little bit, but I don't think a lot of people view it the same way you do.

MIKE HARDESTY: To me, this building is a lot about the architecture. Obviously, like people drive by the building and think like, oh, that's like a cool building, but the story behind it is pretty profound because it was built in 1958 when Phoenix was booming.

They hired really unique architects to design this Googie architecture, this architecture of optimism to really embrace like the community and the growth of it. So to me, this building represents not just like the history of Phoenix, but the optimism of the time period and Phoenix was really growing up as a city.

GILGER: Let's go look at that because it's kind of out front. But you walk in and it looks like a bowling alley inside, but it's the outside that'll really get you.

HARDESTY: Yeah, so inside, obviously, it's been updated over the years. It's passed through several owners and it's now in the hand of a big corporation. But at one time, there was fountains inside and out. There was a restaurant called the Ripple Room where you could eat prime rib on a Friday.

GILGER: So if you come out to the front of the building, though, I mean, right away, super striking.

Lauren Gilger

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KJZZ

HARDESTY: The ceilings really soar. It has three points of this building, almost like a crown. And there's actually a longtime rumor that Brunswick that was behind kind of the development of this bowling center. Their logo is a crown. So there was a rumor for a while that maybe they had some sort of motive behind the design, but I don't think so. I think the architecture speaks for itself.

GILGER: Right. So he's got these super sloping pointed ceilings along the front of the building here. And you see a couple of buildings like this around town. You said this is Googie architecture. It's a phrase I've heard, but I don't know a lot about. Tell us what that means.

HARDESTY: So Googie architecture is, you know, big soaring angles, big ceilings. very dramatic. They called it like the architecture of optimism. So if you're familiar with the Melrose district, there used to be like a drive-in liquor store that's still there, that's vacant. That's probably another architecturally significant Googie building that's still here.

But a lot of this history has been torn down. So we really need to preserve this. But this was very dramatic, you know, really exciting for the time. And it still is, right?

GILGER: So the Bowlero building in particular, yes, is architecturally significant, but it also is a bowling alley, which I understand means a lot to you in a different kind of way, too.

HARDESTY: Yeah, it does. I grew up in a bowling center, so my dad ran bowling alleys my entire life. I grew up in a small town in Steubenville, Ohio, outside of Pittsburgh on the Ohio River. And I was, raised by bowlers. Like our, babysitter was a bartender. My dad's boss were lawyers. Like, you know, bowling is like, it's so inclusive. And any given league night you can walk in and there's all different walks of life.

But really bowling brings everybody together. It's like the ultimate accessible community sport. I went on to bowling through college. I was an All-American in college at West Texas A&M. And I moved here in 2006 and I was always blown away by the design of the bowling centers here because of the times that they were built, the '50s and '60s, that exciting time, not only for bowling, but for architecture.

GILGER: OK, well, let's go see some of the bowling alley inside, too. It's the senior leagues that are in here right now. The building's not even technically open yet, right?

HARDESTY: They just opened, but yeah, and honestly, isn't that cool? Like if you go on the high end of the bowling center right now, like the last 15 lanes, are all the senior league bowling and probably the busiest bowling center in the Valley is in Sun City West.

GILGER: That makes sense. That makes sense.

HARDESTY: Yeah, they're literally packed 24-7 with leagues and people hanging out there bowling. So yeah, it's the ultimate sport that's accessible to everyone.

GILGER: So do you still bowl?

HARDESTY: I do actually bowl on Thursday nights in a league in Sun City. It's a league where they allow guests, but you have to have someone over the age of 50 on your team. So I'm there every Thursday night. I go have dinner with my dad in the cafe, and then he watches me bowl afterwards.

But it's really one of the things I look forward to the most. Like, it's kind of a time where you can go and unwind, have a beer, have an honest meal, not get stuck in political conversations or anything crazy, and just like enjoy one another.

GILGER: Yeah, bowling runs deep for you. And this building kind of brings the architectural side of your interests all together in one.

I'm surprised it's still here, I guess. Should I be?

HARDESTY: I hope not. Like, I hope it's here forever. I think we've grown to be heartbroken a lot here in Phoenix and we've just kind of got used to it. But I hope this building is here forever.

It's currently not protected. And maybe if Bowlero is listening, they would give us a call to try to initiate that because it's absolutely 100% architecturally and historically significant. So, it's on a huge lot. Would it be in danger of development? Absolutely. But I hope it stays this way forever.

GILGER: So tell me about some of the details of this, because we were talking about the architecture, and I know that it went through some changes over the years that were pretty interesting. You said that there are certain lanes here people think actually are faster because they were in addition or something like that.

HARDESTY: Yeah, so it's actually been confirmed, but the original bowling center is actually lane 17 through 48. So it was originally just 32 lanes. Things were going really well. They decided to expand. which is why even on the low end, the architecture outside is a little bit different. It's more of like that beetle rectangle box, right? Because they're adding on.

So one through 16 is the addition and technology had caught up in those four years and they actually got brand new machines. And those machines are faster than the machines on 17 through 48. So if you did like a ball return test, they would actually come back quicker. And that's also why the mechanics room is on lane 17, which if you were designing a bowling center, you would never put that in the middle of the structure. But since that was originally lane one, that was on the end. So yeah, it's kind of funny how that worked out.

GILGER: There you go. You know where to go if you want a faster return for your ball the next time you go bowling.

And when this was built, it sounds like it was one of many. Like there were a lot of, and it may be architecturally significant in particular bowling alleys around the Valley. Why was that?

HARDESTY: I think it goes back to the post-war growth, right? Things were exciting. The population was expanding. You even see it in Valley National Bank on the banking side. They really cared about the design. They cared about how people felt. And they thought it would draw people in, which it 100% did. They wanted it to be a real, authentic experience.

So Powers, Daily and DeRosa, the architects behind this masterpiece, also designed Covina Bowl in California and Bowlium and other bowling centers that are very significant, very prominent architecture features. Unfortunately, most of them have been lost because, with bowling, most of it is on big real estate, right? This is a huge property. So as time went on, especially in California, as real estate became expensive, owners sold off, you know, to kind of cash in.

GILGER: So that hasn't happened here yet. And I wonder, just why do you think that matters, I guess? Like, as you said, in Phoenix, we've lost a lot of historic properties. There's a lot of barriers to getting them to be protected.

But why do you think it matters to the fabric of the city, to the kind of identity of the place, to have some places like this that still exist?

HARDESTY: It matters because it's all about our community. It's about the intent of this. The intent of this was to build, this is architecture for the people. This was built for everyone. It's not for the elite. It was for working class, blue-collar people. There's tons of things, like I met my wife there. My son had his 5th birthday party there. I shot my first 300 on Lane 42.

I mean, there's 65 years worth of memories here that you just can't manufacture. And if they tore this down to build apartments or whatever, you would lose all that. You can replace a building, but you can't replace the memories behind it. And I think this place, like most of Phoenix, was built with intent and built with community in mind.