According to a story written by Yvonne Zusel of the Phoenix Business Journal, Cronkite Dean Christopher Callahan led Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, city officials and university officials on a tour of the new building today.

Here's Yvonne's article:

Phoenix Business Journal

July 17, 2008

The smell of sawdust permeates the air and plastic still covers the chairs, but officials maintain the new Walter Cronkite School of Journalism building will be fully functional by Aug. 25, Arizona State University's first day of classes at the new facility.

Cronkite Dean Christopher Callahan led Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, city officials and university officials on a tour of the new building Thursday.

"This is the premiere journalism complex," Callahan said.

Construction on the six-floor, 223,0000-square-foot building started 17 months ago and was financed with $71 million in bonds approved by Phoenix voters.

The structure will accommodate more than 1,400 Cronkite students and feature 280 digital work stations.

What Callahan described as a "newsroom of the future" has windows facing onto the city and is equipped with about 20 new Apple computers. There also will be a News Museum with assorted journalism memorabilia, two multipurpose television studios, and several lab classrooms for online, print and broadcast journalism students.

The design of the building takes into account sustainability, including windows that provide lots of natural light.

Callahan said the openness also gives the students a physical connection with the city they will be reporting on, and enables the city to look in on what Cronkite students are doing.

In addition to offering a state-of-the-art training facility for journalism students, Gordon said, the school will provide Phoenix with a new sales tax base in the form of added students, faculty and staff working, studying and living downtown.

"It's going to be a major economic engine," Gordon said.

Callahan said that while construction materials still pepper the area, everything will be ready by the time classes start.

"There's still lots to do, but if you saw the progress that's been made over the past 17 months, you'd know the rest is fairly minimal," he said. "We'll be ready to go."