The tallest thing Paradise Valley ever built that wasn't a mountain has spent more than two years in storage at Town Hall. Its steel frame topped Ascension Lutheran Church on Mockingbird Lane for six decades. On August 28, 2024, it came down and was moved to Town property for safekeeping, and the church itself was razed that year to make way for custom homes.
It is now set to stand again, in a new spot and in a shorter form, under an arrangement unusual for Paradise Valley. The Town owns the spire. Neighbors are being asked to pay for putting it back up. How tall it ends up, and when it goes up, depends on that arrangement.
Taller Than Everything but the Mountains
The Paradise Valley Independent wrote that apart from the mountains, the spire was the highest structure in Paradise Valley for decades. It came from Frank Lloyd Wright's circle. In an oral history the Town recorded in March 2024, the church's history names William Wesley Peters as architect of record, working with John Rattenbury and fellow Taliesin architects through the Wright practice at Taliesin West. The worship center was built as a pentagon. Ground was broken on March 3, 1963, and the church was dedicated in April 1964.
Longtime congregant Dick Faser told the interviewer that the land itself came from a church member, bandleader Saxie Dowell, who sold the congregation a ten-acre parcel on Mockingbird Lane between Hummingbird Lane and Meadowlark Lane. Faser remembered that Peters wasn't asked to design the stained glass. His job, in Faser's words in the Town's oral history, was to:
"make sure it would survive the desert intense heat, cold, earth shifts and wind that would sway the spire"
That engineering problem, a tall steel frame swaying over a glass skylight, is part of why the spire could be saved at all. It was a separate structure sitting on the building, so it could come off before demolition.
Why It Came Down
The congregation had been selling land for years. ABC15 reported that a corner one-acre parcel had already gone for a single luxury home. In July 2023 the remaining 5.3-acre campus at 7100 N. Mockingbird Lane sold for $11 million in cash, practically across the street from the Ritz-Carlton project then under construction. In the oral history, Faser described a congregation whose membership had been falling since 2010 and whose buildings needed major renovation. It chose to sell rather than pull money away from its ministry.
The land use changed in October 2024. Council unanimously moved the site from public/quasi-public to low-density residential, rezoned it from a religious-facility special use permit to single-family residential, and approved a plat creating four lots of 1.059 to 1.534 acres, the Independent reported.
The spire had a different path. In June 2024, Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2024-13, accepting ownership of the spire and allowing it to be stored on Town property while a display site was found and money was raised. Under an Assignment and Bill of Sale dated August 22, 2024, the property owner delivered it to Town Hall.
Four Heights for One Spire
The spire's height has changed at every stage, partly because several Council members raised concerns about how tall it should stand at Town Hall. Here is how the figures have moved:
| Stage | Height as described | Source |
|---|---|---|
| On the church | 92-foot spire | Paradise Valley Independent |
| Save the Spire website | "78-foot steel spire" | savethespire.org |
| August 2026 proposal | About 78 feet, plus a 6-foot base | Paradise Valley Independent |
| September 2026, 30% design | About 74 feet of spire; 85 feet overall from lowest grade, with the plinth recessed | Citizen Portal meeting summary |
These numbers don't all measure the same thing. The 78-foot figure on the Save the Spire site most likely refers to the steel structure alone, while 92 feet describes it as it stood on the church. The September figures come from the 30% design presentation at the September 10 Council meeting. The Town's official meeting record lists that presentation as "Received and Filed." The design details come from a Citizen Portal summary of the meeting video, which the site says is AI-generated. By that account, the main change was lowering the concrete plinth. Council members asked about structure, lighting, materials, donor recognition and maintenance, and broadly supported the project.
The location is also new. The approved site is the center of the Town Hall campus, in the area known as the reflection garden. According to the September summary, the committee picked that spot to limit infrastructure impacts and to make the spire more visible to the public. For about sixty years it marked a church on Mockingbird Lane. It will now mark the Town's own civic center at 6401 E. Lincoln Drive.
The Town Owns It. Neighbors Are Paying for It.
On May 14, 2026, Council approved Resolution 2026-05 by a 6–1 vote, with Council Member Scott Moore dissenting, the Independent reported. The resolution text approves a permanent display "in substantially the manner envisioned" in the group's concept design. It limits the Town's part to staff time and minor spending within the Town Manager's authority, and it states that "design and construction costs are intended to be funded privately." It also required the group to come back to Council once the design reached 30%, which is what the September 10 presentation was.
So the spire is a public landmark that will be built entirely with private money. The September summary laid out what that means in dollars:
- Fundraising goal: $750,000
- Construction bids: two competitive bids, both near $650,000
- Already committed: more than $100,000 in in-kind donations
- Next milestone: a fundraising kickoff event on November 13
The goal is about $100,000 above the bids. The Save the Spire site says all donations go toward building and maintaining the monument, so the goal covers upkeep after the spire is standing as well as construction. Donor recognition comes in three tiers. A $30,000 Benefactor gift earns a name on a shared bronze plaque, a $60,000 Cornerstone gift a personalized bronze plaque, and a $100,000 Visionary gift a personalized bronze medallion.
Most of the people behind the campaign are residents. In August the Independent pictured committee members Ariana Urban, John Anderson, Scott Jarson, Doug Jorden, Vice Mayor Christine Labelle, Rod Cullum, Catherine Kauffman and Erik Peterson. The paper described the group as residents, architects, engineers, preservationists and other volunteers.
What Hasn't Been Announced
As of mid-October, several details don't appear in the Town records, local coverage or Save the Spire material reviewed for this post:
- The kickoff details. The November 13 date comes from the September presentation. We found no venue, time, ticket price or RSVP process.
- Cash raised. The only reported figure is the more than $100,000 in in-kind donations. The website homepage doesn't show a running total.
- A construction schedule. We found no groundbreaking or dedication date.
- Lighting and final finishes. Council asked about both in September. We found no specifications.
Until there is a construction date, the reflection garden spot is an approved location for a spire that is still in storage.
The Campus Around It, This Fall
The spire's new site is already getting busier. Paradise Valley resident Martin Galbut's Artist in Residence exhibit opens tonight, October 13, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall. The free opening features six Phoenix Symphony members, with appearances by the Japanese Friendship Garden and Scottsdale Artists' School, the Independent reported. His work will stay up for a year.
The day after the spire kickoff, the Town Hall lot hosts the Veterans' Appreciation Vintage Car Show on November 14 from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. Registration is $50 per vehicle, and proceeds benefit Military Assistance Mission and Sentinels of Freedom. The Arts Board is also lining up host artists for Spring 2027 studio tours. The first tour, on April 6, 2025, visited the studios of Susan Silver Brown, Jana Peterson and Beth Ames Swartz.
If you own a Paradise Valley home with its own design history, whether that's a Taliesin connection, a noted architect or a story that has never made it into a listing, Clayton Wolfe can help you document it and present it with the care this spire is getting. Request a Private Consultation to talk through how your home's story should be told.
