Designed in 1954 by Jewish-American architect Bernard "Bernie" Friedman for entrepreneur Rose Hirsh, the open plan storefront is an iconic retail standard.

As an important suburban corridor, modern structures were built along Broadway's edge to support new neighborhoods with their curved streets and rambling ranch houses.

Bernard Friedman, Fred Jobusch, William Wilde, Anne Rysdale, Nicholas Sakellar, Charles Cox, Cain, Nelson and Ware, Howard Peck, and Ronald Bergquist all contributed regional modernist designs to the unique character of this commercial shopping district.

Through structural expressions, elegant proportions, and chic design, his commercial, educational and religious buildings mirror national and international trends, adapted to our desert climate.

Born to immigrant parents and raised in Chicago, Friedman graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Architecture from the University of Illinois in 1938 and moved to Tucson in 1940.

Between 1946 and 1948 he had partnered with architect William Green designing a number of residential and commercial projects including Los Patio at 3318 – 40 East 1st Street, the El Presidio Hotel at Broadway, multiple Fourth Avenue buildings, and the new Temple Emanu‐el auditorium at 225 North Country Club Road.

Friedman's commercial architecture of this period embraced the mid-century modernist movement emphasizing the progressive use of glass, new materials, structural systems, and sculptural forms.

During the 1951 to 1953 Korean War, Lieutenant Commander Friedman was called back to Washington, D.C. to serve as Coordinator for the Engineering & Technical Services Division, Bureau of Yards and Docks.

In September he had been commissioned to design the new Jewish Community Center on Plummer Avenue, north of Broadway, replacing the existing building at 134 S. Tucson Boulevard.

That same year he designed the Rillito Park steel and concrete grandstand, and a subdivision model house called The Arizona Contemporary built by J. R. Schibley at 7210 North Oracle Road.

In 1954 Friedman designed two iconic modernist storefronts that expressed the post WWII era American commercial architecture; Daniel's Jewelers at 21 E. Congress, built by M. M. Sundt Construction, and Hirsh's Shoes at 2934 East Broadway Boulevard.

This is building as billboard with expansive glass curtain walls, integrated panel monument signage and interior illumination to showcase the merchandise after dark.

Friedman's projects covered a broad range of commercial, civic and municipal buildings including the Tucson Community Center; Tucson Music Hall; Astrophysics, Environmental, Electronic, Instrumentation, Computer and Optical Laboratory facilities for Kitt Peak National Observatory, the Chris-Town Mall in Phoenix, and the Plaza International Hotel and Aztec Inn.

The sculptural 1971 Valley National Bank Branch on the northwest corner of Country Club Road and Broadway Boulevard is perhaps Friedman's most recognized and iconic building.

Cantilevered showcase boxes project from both the east furrowed redwood pailings and west exposed red brick walls frame the open air lobby.

After numerous discussions regarding threats to the long-term preservation of the building, THPF entered into a purchase contract to save this outstanding example of modernist architecture in the spring of 2016.