DETAILS
Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Client: University of Arizona
Completion Date: 2017
Collaborators
CO Architects
Ayers Saint Gross
Role
hardscape and Landscape Design
UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES PARTNERSHIP BUILDING
The landscape and hardscape design for the Biomedical Sciences Partnership Building, a 10-story, urban biomedical and clinical research building for University of Arizona on the Phoenix Biomedical Campus in downtown Phoenix is formed metaphorically from Arizona’s diverse and dramatic canyons.
The new building supports ongoing UA research initiatives including cancer biology, neuroscience, traumatic brain injury, bioengineering, and the science of public health information. The main courtyard located between two buildings provides faculty and students opportunities for respite from the lab or classroom work, but also serves larger events, holding up to 500 people, and includes a stage cleverly integrated into the landscape. The courtyard takes advantage of the shade network formed by the buildings, with clusters of large native trees providing shade in the more exposed areas. Native medicinal plants provide both a lush feel and serve as a teaching tool for students. Bermed planting areas combined with areas of level grade form more informal and intimate landscape spaces around a larger gathering space.
The landscape design contiguous to the LEED Certified Silver building implements practical strategies in water-use and drought-tolerant vegetation that is expressive of the extremes of our desert climate. The courtyard design is formed both by the patterns evident in canyons during drought and monsoon seasons as well as geologic and native plant forms. The 13’ high intricately detailed ‘pleated’ wall is emblematic of Saguaro ribs, only found in the Sonoran Desert. The wall is constructed from ½” thick raw plate steel, perforated with a rectilinear openings for an interplay of light. The sandblasted pattern on the canyon floor is derived from DNA patterning.
Bio-swales, designed to hold rainwater run-off from the roof, flank the building to the north for on-site water collection. Steel bridges allow pedestrians to cross the bio-swale from the parking to the main entrance.