PHOENIX — Phoenix has almost everything: award-winning food, hundreds of desert trails, a vibrant arts scene, and major league sports.
But look up, and you’ll notice something missing. Unlike other major U.S. cities, Phoenix’s skyline has no true skyscraper. In fact, as the 5th biggest city in the country by population, it’s the largest without one.
The tallest building in the city and in Arizona, the Chase Tower, tops out at 483 feet. While impressive, it’s just shy of the 492-foot threshold the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat uses to define a skyscraper. And no, you could not go put a basketball hoop on top of the tower to meet the requirement, as buildings are measured to their “architectural top”.
So why did the Valley spread outward instead of upward? Josh Bednarek, the City of Phoenix’s Planning and Development Director, says it goes back to agriculture shaping the region for decades, allowing development to stretch across wide swaths of open land. Then, as the freeway system expanded, the city sprawled even farther.
“In the 1980s, the city started thinking about this polycentric plan for a city, an idea you would have small hubs throughout the city not just downtown,” Bednarek said. “It’s why you see some height around 24th and Camelback, the idea was never to concentrate that height in downtown or in one spot.”
That’s why you see taller clusters of buildings near 24th Street and Camelback Road, rather than a concentrated downtown skyline.
But a city like Dallas has plenty of Urban sprawl and plenty of skyscrapers. Despite being the 9th most populated U.S. city, they have 18 of them. So, lots of available land can’t be the only reason Phoenix doesn’t have a skyscraper.
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“It was outside the city when they first built it, but then urban sprawl encroached upon that,” Captain Ron Nielsen, a former commercial pilot, said.
The other major reason we don’t have a skyscraper is Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Located just minutes from downtown, Sky Harbor comes with strict FAA building height limits around it to keep flight paths safe.
“That’s one of the most rock-solid parts of aviation, making sure that it’s safe to approach an airport, to climb out of it, and clearance to maneuver if you had an engine failure,” Nielsen said.
Despite those challenges, Phoenix’s skyline may soon get taller. The Astra Tower, now planned to break ground downtown in 2026, is designed to reach 541 feet, officially making it the city’s first skyscraper.
Still, Bednarek says Phoenix’s identity has never been about mimicking Manhattan or Chicago. For him, the desert views and mountain silhouettes are just as iconic as any glass-and-steel tower.
“Phoenix just has its own unique story,” he said. “I’m really proud of what we’ve done, and excited for what’s next as a city.”
