Posts Tagged ‘giant coffee’

October 19, 2010

Vantage Point: Fair Trade at the Civic Space Park

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet This afternoon I’m sitting at the Fair Trade Café at the Civic Space Park getting some work done before a meeting with Tony Arranaga, The Light Rail Blogger, Valerie Porter, and Suzanne Day of Valley Metro to help plan the next Valley Bike Month. If you’re a regular here at Blooming Rock, you know that if I’m not working at Lux Coffeebar, I’m working or meeting with someone at Giant Coffee. Rarely have I ventured south to this fair place, Fair Trade Cafe at Civic Space Park. As I sit here facing the courtyard, I’m struck by how darn…

September 14, 2010

Cancer Survivor’s Park – Activated!

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet This morning I’m working at Giant Coffee and enjoying the view of the green-gray Phoenix Art Museum in the background, the CVS sign which is thankfully draped over by a beautiful Palo Brea tree, and of course integral to the Phoenix landscape, the cars zipping by, silently. I noticed a little while ago a coffee drinker stepped outside and sat on a bench at the Cancer Survivor’s Park. And it occured to me, well, isn’t that wonderful? Having the lovely Cancer Survivor’s Park right out there to be enjoyed by us coffee drinkers when we need to make a…

August 23, 2010

City Traffic Engineers Agree Phoenix is Not a Bike-Friendly Community

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet I had the pleasure of speaking with Kerry Wilcoxon, the Traffic Engineer in charge of Safety in Neighborhood Traffic and Joe Perez, the Bicycle Coordinator at the City of Phoenix a week and a half ago at Giant Coffee. I asked them why we don’t have the necessary bike infrastructure in place to make biking a viable mode of transportation in Phoenix and what the City is doing about it. In today’s post Kerry and Joe talk about how Phoenix was originally planned around the car and why although this is a very hard thing to change, there is…

July 19, 2010

Stitching Together an Urban Experience around the Phoenix Art Museum

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Last week I went to the Cezanne exhibit at the Phoenix Art Museum with my friend Sue Weil. We planned to eat dinner at Cheuvront’s beforehand, stop at Giant for coffee and dessert, then head over to the museum, all without a car. This is a perfect example of a walkable node in our city. We were able to make a nice evening out of this little spot in Phoenix without having to drive to every destination. This walkable node was hand-stitched by me and Sue because we’re in the know that both Cheuvront’s and Giant are within walking…

July 07, 2010

A Conversation with Chris Nieto about his Young Firm, merzproject

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet I sat down with Chris Nieto, the founding principal of merzproject along with Joe Herzog, last week at one of their projects, Giant Coffee. merzproject is a premier up and coming architecture firm in the Valley. They’ve done some excellent projects such as the After Hours Gallery, The Galleries at Turney and the Show Low Public Library. Many of the people who work at merzproject went to school with me, Joe Herzog, Jonah Busick and Alison Rainey to name a few. This firm is one of a handful in town that’s producing exciting, cutting edge work. I very much…

June 22, 2010

The Delightful Design of Giant Coffee

by: Taz Loomans

Tweet Giant Coffee is finally open! It opened in May in fact and it’s a big hit with this coffee shop-loving architectural writer. I first went to Giant last Sunday to meet friends Aaron Kimberlin and John Jacquemart. I was absolutely delighted with it at first glance from my car. First, I give Matt Pool, owner of Giant (along with Matt’s Big Breakfast and The Roosevelt) a big thumbs up for locating his coffee shop near McDowell and Central. This corner, significant because of the Phoenix Art Museum, needed a serious injection of the coolness factor. And Giant, along with…