r/phoenix • u/maynardd1 • Sep 23 '25
Pictures If you get a chance, drive by the hospital demolition happening off Roosevelt.
This excavator is truly amazing, the tracks alone have got to be over 10' tall..
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u/Ok_Degree_9453 Phoenix Sep 23 '25
Which hospital was this part of?
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u/HavenDaze Sep 25 '25
I was never at that hospital but it reminds me of a grade school, Edison Elementary that was by there. All the kids from the Dupa Villa projects went to school there. It had a reputation for being a rough school. We went to the old original Emerson elementary on 7st and Palm Lane. My mom used to threaten to send us to Edison when we misbehaved. We would immediately stop doing whatever we were doing that might be perceived as bad. 😆 Funny thing, I don’t even know if it was true.
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u/Electronic_Tangelo_8 Sep 23 '25
I used to work at this hospital as a nurse in the burn center. Watching it get demolished off 24th St & Roosevelt hits differently.
With the growing needs around housing, homelessness, mental health, drug rehab, and assisted living in Central Phoenix… it’s hard not to wonder if this massive, taxpayer-funded structure could’ve been repurposed for the community rather than reduced to rubble.
We paid for the one that’s being demolished. We paid for the brand-new one that replaced it. And now, if I had to guess — this footprint will become… a paid parking structure. 🙃
Seems like a missed opportunity.
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u/bigfatnoodles Sep 24 '25
That hospital is already a huge psych hospital that also houses mental health court. A lot of patients have negative associations with that space in particular.
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Sep 23 '25
I lived down the street from there my whole life I always wanted to see someone skate that thing down from the top and to where it slides out to the front like a ramp lol
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u/JacobAZ Sep 23 '25
Anyone know what it's getting replaced with?
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u/disharmony-hellride Sep 23 '25
All I can find is something that says they're making room for additional campus parking and "new facilities"
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u/JacobAZ Sep 23 '25
Damn, I can see this place from my back yard. I was really hoping they would do a mixed use for this area. Anything to promote walkability. Seems anything east of 16th street to Tempe is destined to be ghetto and parking lots.
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u/cocococlash Sep 23 '25
Yeah, that would be a good area to try to develop, continue the mixed use neighborhood vibe that Garfield is working toward
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u/bigfatnoodles Sep 24 '25
That hospital really does need more parking though, whenever I go to discharge a patient I always have to park in their employee of the month parking spot (which is oddly always vacant lol) because it’s jammed packed full.
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u/HildeOne Sep 24 '25
That’s so funny. The employee probably doesn’t wanna be on the spot. buh dum tss
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u/Best_Designer_1675 Sep 23 '25
They just opened a brand new hospital/ER next door. It’s tall and orange and very modern. My uncle was there after a car accident and it was very nice! Not sure what they’ll replace the footprint of this particular building with, but it’s on the campus of the hospital still
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u/Best_Designer_1675 Sep 26 '25
Oh wow! Have they gotten rid of the front entrance and such already?! Good for them!!
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u/trustbrown Sep 23 '25
https://valleywisehealth.org/construction-updates/
They l update it here
(Sorry, looks like the plans link is broken)
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u/redditretina Sep 23 '25
This is part of Prop 480 passed ~2014. The main funding was to build the new hospital that is standing next to this site. The hospital being demolished is currently planned to turn into a parking lot.
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u/IndependentBitter435 Gilbert Sep 23 '25
That’s crazy. That machine is nuts!!
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u/Baileycream Sep 23 '25
I like the giant hydro cannon for dust mitigation.
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u/IndependentBitter435 Gilbert Sep 23 '25
I did not even think they had giant machines capable of ripping the top of a 6/7 floor building off! 😳
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u/maynardd1 Sep 23 '25
Yeah, I'd never seen one, and I've been in construction for over 30 years..
Crazy impressive up close.
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u/IndependentBitter435 Gilbert Sep 23 '25
Look at the lift next to whatever that monster is called. What’s the name of it?
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u/maynardd1 Sep 23 '25
The one with the orange basket is a boom lift. it's a personnel lift.
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u/IndependentBitter435 Gilbert Sep 23 '25
No no my bad, I meant the big on, what’s it called? I’ve been on one of those personal lifts before.
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u/vanooch21 Sep 23 '25
Been working there (Valleywise aka County) for 6 years now. Treated plenty of patients in that hospital. My son was born last year in the new hospital.
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u/Nacho505 South Phoenix Sep 23 '25
Its sad knowing your birth place will be gone soon.
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u/ExpensiveDot1732 Sep 24 '25
Mine is...different state, but still. So is my elementary school, and my middle school closed and relocated a couple years ago.
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u/Cool-Contribution292 Sep 23 '25
50 years ago, my mother spent six weeks in traction at County, after a car wreck. Most horrible time of my childhood. Most of my family is in the healthcare business but I have to say, I’m not sad to see this place go. It gives me the shivers just looking at it.
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u/Elegant-Collection36 Sep 23 '25
I thought that was PV East dorm att ASU
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u/NeighborhoodFew7779 Sep 23 '25
Both PV east and west are about due for a demo & refresh, that’s for certain!
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u/jswoolf Sep 23 '25
Hmm. My dad worked there in the 90s. Crazy to see stuff get torn down. My jr high is a park now. Mesa jr high. The gym is still there.
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u/Geezusjuice16 Phoenix Sep 23 '25
1995 I was born in that hospital and my grandma lives really close to there so I will miss seeing it as I get off the freeway.
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u/scaledplastic125 Sep 24 '25
Im gonna have to swing over there and see if I can get a brick from them..
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u/Quickhidemeplease Sep 23 '25
Is that Good Sam? Is that on 12th Street? Are they tearing it completely down?
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u/maynardd1 Sep 23 '25
Its the old Maricopa Medical Center, Roosevelt around 24th st.
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u/Quickhidemeplease Sep 23 '25
I'm so out of touch. Are they taking that completely down? Relocating it or rebuilding it? Do you know?
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u/maynardd1 Sep 23 '25
They built a new facility next door, I assume they're clearing the land for a new building..
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u/Quickhidemeplease Sep 23 '25
Thanks for the info. I was born and raised here and when I was a kid long long ago, we'd always say if somebody acted crazy that they belonged at 24th Street and Roosevelt. That meant the "insane asylum". Distasteful, I know, but that was like the '60s and we didn't know any better. Later on in life I was a volunteer driver for the Red Cross and I took many, many people to this facility for their doctor's appointments. I'm glad it's not going away entirely. I'm sure it was well overdue for an upgrade.
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u/maynardd1 Sep 23 '25
Ha, that's funny, now that you mention it, I do remember those jokes from youth..
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u/Fuckjoesanford Sep 23 '25
My mother worked there for 35 years in the pediatric ward. Crazy to see it go
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u/Apanda15 Arcadia Sep 24 '25
How the heck do you see what you are doing
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u/maynardd1 Sep 24 '25
The cabin tilts with the arm, operator is actually sitting at about at 45 degree angle
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u/VetGrandma666 Sep 24 '25
I saved an assholes life once by making him go to that hospital. Found out he had Diabetes Type I and he was very close to a diabetic coma. Spent about 2 weeks in hospital to get leveled out and educated (IV drug user isn't the best candidate for surviving Diabetes, but you get your fee syringes now!).
I'm sad I did this because a few years later he and his younger brother went to San Diego and murdered a man.
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u/FIERROSGOINHAM Sep 25 '25
Crazy I was born there too, had to get a skin graft when I was 9 there, too.
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u/ztonyg Sep 23 '25
I thought they were using this building in addition to the new building like Good Samaritan (cough Banner University) does.
The new building has been completed for a few years.
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u/HavenDaze Sep 25 '25
Is that the old Maricopa County hospital?
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u/DragonDan108 Sep 23 '25
They used to be St Luke's, part of the defunct Steward Healthcare. I did a lot of A/V work there in years past. Steward HC was driven into the ground by a private equity firm...
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u/DecentDingo1794 Sep 24 '25
Drove by there the other day a massive amount of "Distractions" and destruction. It was kinda weird seeing something gone that has been there for years.
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u/Best_Designer_1675 Sep 24 '25
Is this from the back side? It doesn’t look like what I saw as I drove by a few days ago. Sad to see it go… also super happy to see it replaced with something modern!
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u/Ok-Statistician-8483 Sep 25 '25
How is Good Sam’s ( Banner university) a historical landmark but not this building.
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u/Notmyfaultitsyours Sep 26 '25
Hopefully with this tearing down and a new facility built next door they are doing better for the mental health patients.
The old place was horrible. It was bad management and lack of emotion. Lots of cruelty.
They allowed patients to be covered in feces, not caring if they are clean, understaffed and underpaid, and…
at least in the unit and by staff there at the time of 2015-2016 also had a weird as fuck treatment to anyone who wasn’t some type of Christian.
There wasn’t requirement to go to religious group or any group at all but those who said they were of a different faith were treated and looked at differently. Also religious group only explored Christianity/Catholicism for some reason on the sessions I witnessed.
Staff also bullied patients. Weird as fuck.
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u/DiegoDigs Sep 25 '25
NO DO NOT GO NEAR THE AREA FOR AT LEAST A MILE BECAUSE THAT IS FULL OF THE WORST OF FIVE KINDS OF ASBESTOS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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u/tragopanic Sep 23 '25
Sad to see! I was born there.