This is the Security Building, here in downtown Phoenix. Completed in 1928, this building was designed by Curlett & Beelman and constructed by regional contractors Edwards, Wildey and Dixon as an example of Second Renaissance architecture. It was built for the Security Improvement Company, whose president was the prominent Phoenix realtor Dwight B. Heard.
From 1897 until his 1929 death, Heard was one of the most powerful men in the state, owning an investment company, a cattle company, and the Arizona Republican newspaper. Over the years the building served as a headquarters for produce growers and for law firms. In 1958 a ninth-floor penthouse apartment was added and served as the home of Walter R. Bimson, chairman of the successful Valley National Bank of Arizona.
The Security Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. Maricopa County acquired the property in 2001, and historical renovations began in 2005 to restore the building; it currently houses county offices. The Arizona State University Phoenix Urban Research Laboratory occupied the former penthouse until May 2012.
Notice the ninth-floor penthouse added in 1958, and the downtown Phoenix streets and buildings that meet at its base.