Tempe Transportation Center, Tempe, United States

The architectural aesthetic is an expressive self-evident mitigation of the extreme Sonoran Desert climate
The project brief began as a multimodal transportation center with supportive retail and evolved into a 40,000 sq ft mixed use project that added city offices, leasable office space and public community room. The relatively small 2.7 acre site at the base of Hayden Butte reconciled over 10 feet of fall between the light rail station and street level, incorporating eight onsite bus stops and the positioning of the building to maintain views of the butte.

The architectural aesthetic is an expressive self-evident mitigation of the extreme Sonoran Desert climate. The hyper-rational bar building is sited to frame views of the adjacent landmark butte, resulting in a less than optimal solar orientation. The building core elements (toilets, mechanical, storage, etc.) are used as a thermal buffer from the extreme west sun. The expressive west-facing building skin is constructed of an off-the-shelf concrete masonry unit turned 90 degrees in the wall, yielding a unique shelf shading skin.

The second and third level office space is primarily transparent with moveable shades on the east and deep overhangs to the south and north. The building’s unique desert vegetative roof was treated as a fifth elevation acknowledging the hiker’s views from the adjacent butte while also creating an effective thermal buffer. The public community room was expressed as a sculptural counter point and lifted above the ground to create a shaded respite on the plaza. The faceted pearlescent green metal panel shell wraps and protects the community room while operable sliding glass walls transform the room into an open air pavilion when weather permits.
source: www.worldarchitecturenews.com
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