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In the fall of 2021, ASU opened the 16-story Fusion on First building in downtown Phoenix.

The first three floors house Herberger Institute programs, including the Popular Music program in the School of Music, Dance and Theatre and Fashion program in the School of Art, with the remaining 13 floors dedicated for student residential living. The high-tech innovation hub features a suite of industry-standard studio spaces and recording studios, digital media labs, performances spaces and an interdisciplinary maker’s space with laser cutters, 3D printers, felting and industrial knitting machines, and more. 

Students are able to extend their collaboration and creative conversations into their residential living quarters for a seamless live-work space that optimizes the creativity and enterprise of ASU students in the heart of a revitalized downtown.

Power Play

The students who live and study at Fusion on First are encouraged to collaborate with each other and with the Phoenix community. This year, when the fashion students in the School of Art once again partnered with Phoenix Children’s Hospital for Power Play, a program where they create superhero costumes for patients, they added a new element – theme songs composed by students in the popular music program. The event culminated with a fashion show held at Fusion on First where the children walked the runway to their theme songs wearing their costumes. See more photos. 

Pop-up shop

In addition to the fashion and pop music spaces, the Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute hosts a 3,900 square foot space on the ground floor of Fusion on First for co-working, pop-up retail, events and exhibitions. This spring, students in Professor Danielle Testa’s Fashion Retail Management class used the principles learned throughout the course to cultivate a pop-up retail experience in the space. Read more about the project. 

Piano donation

Jeanne Blanchet, who earned a master’s degree in art education from ASU, donated a 9-foot, limited-edition John Lennon “Imagine” grand piano to the popular music program in the School of Music, Dance and Theatre. In 2010, the Steinway company produced 175 pianos in its limited-edition “Imagine” series to mark what would have been the 70th birthday of John Lennon. The Imagine pianos were modeled after the white Steinway grand piano that Lennon presented to his wife, Yoko Ono, on her birthday in 1971. The ASU piano is signed by Ono. Thanks to the donation, one of those limited-edition pianos now lives in the Fusion on First building. Learn more about the donation. 

Power Play photo by Jill Richards, courtesy of Phoenix Children’s Hospital.
Pop-up shop photo courtesy of Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute.
Piano donation photo by Charlie Leight.
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