City of Glendale - Office of the Mayor

Historic Thunderbird Tower Restoration

The Thunderbird School of Global Management is widely recognized as the number one school in the world for international business programs.  Thunderbird has been a valuable community partner and one of our cities’ most historically significant institutions.  The school is currently working on restoring a key piece of their history, the Historic Tower Building. 

Thunderbird Tower is one of Glendale’s most significant landmarks and served as the air control tower at Thunderbird Field, an airbase used by the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II. By the end of the war, more than 10,000 pilots from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and China had trained there.

Remnants of that earlier time — including the tower, barracks and two airplane hangars — can still be seen at the former airfield, which is now home to Thunderbird School of Global Management, the first graduate management school in the United States focused solely on international business.

 In 1945, the war was over and the field had been deactivated.  Thunderbird’s founders had the vision to establish a school that would focus on foreign affairs.  The tower building served as a central hub of activity for the campus for sixty years as the school emerged into the highly acclaimed institution that it is today.  In 2006, the tower needed to be closed due to structural damage. 

In 2007, students led an initiative to restore the tower.  The outside of the tower will be restored to resemble the historic charm and character of its glory days.  The interior will include environmentally friendly elements with the goal to become LEED certified.  The newly restored tower building will feature two common areas, a pub with an attached game room, the Thundershop, the Veterans/Alumni Gallery and a student kitchen. 

Mayor Elaine Scruggs attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the tower restoration in November of 2009.  At this time she was moved by the history and tradition of both the school and the tower building.  She felt that the school’s extraordinary story was one that the community needed to hear and she made a commitment to develop a community outreach and fundraising campaign to raise awareness of the prestige, history and tradition of Thunderbird and also let Glendale residents know of the opportunity to contribute to this project. 

:  In November, 2011, the Thunderbird School of Global Management held a grand opening celebration for the restored tower building at the heart of their campus.