Mesa Arts Center
Location Mesa, AZ, USA | Client City of Mesa | Architect Boora Architects | Size 12 acres | Awards ULI Award for Excellence 2006, ASLA Honor Award 2007 | Status Completed 2005 | Photographs: Alan Ward | Tags Parks and Civic Spaces, Culture and Art, Climate Change
MSP worked closely with Boora Architects to create a beautifully coherent indoor-outdoor space for the Mesa Arts Center.
The ‘Shadow Walk is a grand promenade which runs boldly through the building complex, using the region’s intense sunlight and the sharp shadows cast by trees and architectural canopies to create rich overlapping shadows, colored by the colored glass of the canopies and raised screens. The screens, back-lit by the afternoon sun, show cacti and other textured plants in silhouette, and the canopies contain cooling mist jets which spray down on the walkway from above.
The colored glass forms also create color shadows which form symbolic tables and chairs. These forms create a poetic statement about people coming together in celebration, an appropriate image for the center at the heart of the community.
A boulder-filled 300-foot arroyo, lined with gold travertine tile and slices of lava rock runs along the whole of the western side of the Shadow Walk. From time to time, a strong pulse of water rushes through the riverbed from north to south, recalling the flash floods characteristic of the region. Between these water pulses, the water evaporating from the wet boulders cools and humidifies the air.
The Shadow Walk route is curved, so pedestrians are drawn in to see the rest of the site; once inside, they discover that the entire block is a giant urban stage, where every tree, building and visitor is part of the show.
Mesa, established in 1874, started to grow in the 1940s, sprawling out into the surrounding desert. By the mid-1990s it lacked an identity or destination in the historic city center. So the city council built a visual and performing arts center complex, and MSP created a rich public space in, around and on top of its five galleries and three theaters.
Since the Arts Center was built, it has become a busy destination and Mesa’s calling card, shown on every website that references the city.
“Just terrific! It sustains so much color and culture in one place and has transformed the area.”
ASLA 2007 award jurors
