Central Avenue meets Monroe Street at the Professional Building, the Art Deco skyscraper in front of you. Built in 1932, it rises 171 feet (52 m), its streamlined design playing up angles and setbacks. A central tower climbs out of a two‑story base, and a wing leans off the western side; above the doors at the Central Avenue and Monroe Street entrances you can see the decorative grills that punctuate the façade.
The building began as an answer to two needs. In 1930 members of the Maricopa County Medical Society met to discuss the need for a major facility for medical, dental and laboratory offices just as the Valley Bank and Trust Company, later known as Valley National Bank of Arizona, was preparing plans to build their headquarters. The Professional Building is the result.
Upon completion in February 1932 the Valley Bank moved into the bottom three floors while medical offices occupied the top seven. In 1958 a large rotating Valley National Bank sign was added to the top of the tower; it measured 49 feet. It served as an office building from 1932 until it lost its last tenants in the 1990s, sat empty for two decades, and then reopened as a hotel in 2015.
Notice the central tower, the western wing, and the decorative grills above the Central and Monroe entrances.