Plaza

A plaza /ˈplɑːzə/ is an open urban public space, such as a city square.

Throughout Spanish America and the Spanish East Indies, the plaza mayor of each center of administration held three closely related institutions: the cathedral, the cabildo or administrative center, which might be incorporated in a wing of a governor's palace, and the audiencia or law court. The plaza might be large enough to serve as a military parade ground. At times of crisis or fiesta, it was the space where a large crowd might gather. Like the Italian piazza, the plaza remains a center of community life that is only equaled by the market-place.

Most colonial cities in Spanish America and the Philippines were planned around a square plaza de armas, where troops could be mustered, as the name implies, surrounded by the governor's palace and the main church. A plaza de toros is a bullring.

In modern usage, a plaza can be any gathering place on a street or between buildings, a street intersection with a statue, etc. Today's metropolitan landscapes often incorporate the "plaza" as a design element, or as an outcome of zoning regulations, building budgetary constraints, and the like. Sociologist William H. Whyte conducted an extensive study of plazas in New York City: his study humanized the way modern urban plazas are conceptualized, and helped usher in significant design changes in the making of plazas.

Plaza (surname)

Plaza is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:

Plaza (disambiguation)

Plaza is a Spanish word for a city square; it may more specifically refer to:

People

Places

See also

Plaza (Riley Hospital for Children)

Untitled (Faces) is located in the Riley Hospital for Children plaza on the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis campus, which is near downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. There are a total of three different areas in the plaza where these faces are located, including an archway, a brick wall, and a carved tree stump.

Description

Archway

The archway is located on the east side of the plaza and is composed of wood, metal, and cast stone lion faces. The wood is painted red and the woodwork is in a grid-like pattern. The outer perimeter is a square with an arch in the middle. There are three tiers that taper to the wavy wooden decoration at the top. Three lion faces are located on the front of the archway, one on both the left and right side and the third centered above the arch. It is located on a concrete and red brick base. Dimensions of the proper right base of the archway are 4’ in length, 2’ in width, and 3’ tall. The proper left base of the archway extends out longer to 15’ in length, 2’ in width, and 3’ tall. The archway itself has the dimensions of 2.5’ in length, 1’ in width, and 11’ tall (to the top of the final tier). All three lion faces are circular and the same size, measuring about 6” in diameter.

110 Plaza

110 Plaza, also known as the Commonwealth Building or the 110 Tower Building, is a 266 feet (81 m) modernist office building in downtown San Diego, Civic / Core Neighborhood. The address of the building is 110 West A Street, San Diego, CA 92101 and is bordered by Front Street, A Street, 1st Avenue, and Ash Street.

When the building opened in 1971, it was the first all-glass high rise in San Diego. The 18-story building has a bronze plate-glass exterior and can be identified by the Commonwealth Financial Network sign located on the top of the north- and west-facing sides.

The building is currently owned by Forester Properties, Inc. It was acquired for $80 million, or about $245 per square foot, in September 2011. Cushman & Wakefield handle the leasing for the property.

History

110 Plaza opened on September 14, 1971. Construction was completed in less than a year at a cost of $14 million. Built originally by the Bank of California, the building gained fame as a landmark consisting of 142,000 square feet of bronze plate glass. News articles of the day suggested the all-glass building might be an inviting target for “social dissidents”, but the concern was unfounded. One of the outstanding features of the building, and still remarkable today, is the 32 tons of granite in the building header. Quarried in Quebec, Canada, the granite was shipped to Querceto, Italy where it was cut and polished. A longshoreman’s strike stranded the granite in Central America, and it had to be flown to Los Angeles and trucked to San Diego in order to complete the building.

Plaza 440

Plaza 440 is a 49-story residential condominium building located in downtown Chicago, Illinois.

Originally built in 1992, it underwent a condominium conversion in 2005. The building contains 457 residential units and shares a 2,000,000-square-foot (190,000 m²) mixed-use development with a 336-room Marriott hotel and a 400-space parking garage. It rises from the northwest corner of Wabash and Hubbard streets in the River North district of Chicago's Near North Side.

Plaza 440 was designed by Solomon, Cordwell, Buenz and Associates, built by the John Buck Company and originally managed by its subsidiary, the John Buck Management Group. The building opened to residents in October 1991, but construction was not fully completed until 1992. 90% of the building's units were leased by August 1992. Plaza 440 was the last residential high-rise built in Chicago for years to come.

The building was sold to American Invsco in September 2004 at a price of US$107 million. The previous owners, Archstone-Smith, had purchased the building two years previously for US$24 million. This is the current equivalent of US$134 million and US$32 million, respectively.