BOORA Architects and DWL Architects + Planner
The firms of BOORA Architects of Portland and DWL Architects + Planners of Phoenix were selected to design the new facility. The architect team was chosen by the Mesa Arts Center Architectural Selection and Design Committee, which spent four months reviewing proposals, interviewing finalists and visiting projects designed by several architectural firms.

BOORA is the Design Architect, with DWL Architects serving as Executive Architect. BOORA Architects designed the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, California, and the Center for Fine and Performing Arts at Ohlone College, also in California. DWL was the architect for the School of Music expansion at Arizona State University and the new Mesa Community College campus at Red Mountain.

Martha Schwartz, Inc.
Martha Schwartz, design landscape architect for the project, is an artist with a major interest in urban-scale projects and exploration of new design expression in landscape. As principal of Martha Schwartz, Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she brings 22 years of experience as a landscape artist and designer to Mesa Arts Center.

Auberbach Pollock Friedlander, Theater Consultant
Auerbach Pollock Friedlander, has earned a reputation for advising clients on all aspects of theatre design, from public areas and audience environments, to stages, backstage facilities and theatrical systems. For more than 30 years, the firm has employed both conventional means and unusual applications of the latest technology to push the industry, developing what has become the next state of the art in both facilities and systems.

Additional design team members include:
CMX Group (Civil Engineer)
Design Workshop (Landscape Architect)
Thinking Caps (Graphic Design/Signage)
Paragon Structural Design (Structural Engineer)
LSW Engineers Arizona, Inc. (Mechanical, Electrical & Plumbing Engineer)
Fire Protection Engineering Services (Fire Sprinkler Design)
Plesher Design Group (Kitchen Consultant)
Auerbach Pollock Friedlander (Theater Consultant)
Auerbach Glasow (Lighting Consultant)
D. L. Adamson (Cost Estimator)
Foree & Vann (Geotechnical Engineer)
McKay, Conant, Brook, Inc. (Acoustical Consultant)
Schirmer Engineering Corporation (Code Consultant)
Dunlap & Associates, Inc. (Security Consultant)
EASI (Security Consultant)
FTL Happold (Fabric Structures)
Lerch, Bates & Associates (Elevator Consultants)
Dan Euser Water architecture (Water Feature Consultant)

Kitchell CEM
The firm of Kitchell CEM served as Construction Manager for the project. Founded in 1978, Kitchell has a successful history of assisting public sector agencies with all phases and disciplines of the construction process, including planning, design, bid, and construction. Since that time, Kitchell has managed over $6.7 billion in public construction projects, and is consistently ranked among the top 40 construction managers in the country.

Kitchell specializes in managing the complexities of cultural facilities: performing arts, museums, libraries and civic plazas. In addition to Mesa Arts Center, projects include the Tempe Center for the Arts, Tempe, AZ; the Phoenix Art Museum Expansion, Phoenix, AZ; the Muhammed Ali Center, Louisville, KY; the Visual and Performing Arts Center for Cabrillo Community College, Aptos, CA; and the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for Performing Arts at U. C. Davis, CA. Other previous City of Mesa projects include Hohokam Stadium, the Fitch Park Sports and Training Facility, and the Mesa City Court building.

Layton Construction of Arizona
The firm of Layton Construction of Arizona served as General Contractor for Mesa Arts Center. They were awarded a construction bid in the amount of $76,092,476.90 by the Mesa City Council on May 6, 2002 and have a corporate office in Phoenix. Performing arts venues previously constructed by the Layton Companies include the Sandy City Amphitheater, Sandy, Utah; the Tuacahn Center for Performing Arts, Ivins, Utah; and the expansion of Rice-Eccles Stadium at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Other recent projects include the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Conference Center, the South Towne Exposition Center, and the Gateway Project, all in Salt Lake City.

In 2000, The Layton Companies was organized as a holding company for the separate operating companies. The reorganization created a diversified company of engineering and construction related firms, all owned and operated under The Layton Companies name. The companies include Layton Construction Company, CEntry Constructors & Engineers, Interior Construction Specialists, Inc. and Layton Construction Company of Arizona.

Vision and Ideas behind the Design

Design Concept
Mesa Arts Center is a new landmark for Mesa - the jewel of downtown -- a unique and inviting oasis during the day, and a transparent and luminous beacon at night, with an image both classic and forward thinking.

Mesa Arts Center's design concept, the Shadow Walk, captures these elements. This plan organizes the ensemble of individual buildings around a shady walkway, defined by rows of trees and a waterway, and punctuated by high canopies extending from the theater lobbies. The design will create patterns of shade and sun that will result in a pleasant outdoor public space year-round.

The new facility will be a comfortable community gathering place. During the day, it is a place to meet friends, eat lunch, and watch informal outdoor performances. In the evenings, the glass walls and waterways are lighted, to display lively colors and highlight the glass theater lobbies.

The buildings are arranged in counterpoint to the Shadow Walk. The transparent qualities of the theater lobbies, placed along the walk, provide beacons of light at night, and draw on the lush quality of the site for visual interest from the inside. The Studios, located along Center Street, are connected to the Shadow Walk through a series of outdoor terraces.

Mesa Contemporary Arts, located on the northwest corner of the site, opens out to a sunken courtyard that provides additional space for exhibits, informal performances and social events. The gallery is located below grade, capturing natural light through carefully designed skylights.

Three artists created public artworks for the new Center: Ned Kahn of Sebastopol, California, who has created two shade screens for the west-facing wall of the theater building; Beth Galston of Somerville, Massachusetts, who will be responsible for enlivening the west wall of the educational building; and Catherine Widgery of Truro, Massachusetts, who will design an art project that links the theater lobbies with the exterior plaza terraces.

Architectural Design
The exterior materials for the buildings at Mesa Arts Center are comprised of five primary materials: cast-in-place concrete, masonry, metal, glass, and stucco. The materials were selected for their regional significance. The colors proposed for the buildings are representative of Arizona's rich desert and canyon environment, and are judiciously used as a dramatic accent to the neutrals of the concrete and masonry.

The Theaters complex interiors are defined by colors from Arizona's natural palette in concert with the exterior colors: purples, blues and coppers in the Ikeda Theater complement a rich, light-colored wood, as well as wood-backed theater seats and copper railings. Greens are predominant in the "garden room" Piper Repertory Theater. Shades of ochre in the Nesbitt/Elliott Playhouse are punctuated with reds and purples in a playful atmosphere. A palette of dark reds sustains the Farnsworth Studio Theater. Mesa Contemporary Arts features bamboo flooring, skylights in each of the galleries, and wood and natural materials in the Lecture Hall. Each of the Mesa Arts Center Studios is tailored to the needs of the respective visual or performing arts discipline, with colors primarily in blue and violet tones.

Other architectural features include the use of jagged angles, canted walls, sloping roofs and glass curtain walls throughout the campus. The Shadow Walk is graced with abundant shade from giant canopies that sail in the sky, and glass pergolas that cast colorful shadows on the walkways.

Landscape Design
Landscape design detail includes the refinement of plant materials and water features. The Shadow Walk interior "garden oasis" is defined by a graceful arc of trees running north to south, punctuated with an arroyo, gardens, water tables, public gathering places and informal performance areas.

The arc of trees running north to south throughout the project is a combination of a variety of trees, including citrus trees, Italian Cypress, Canary Island Pine, Acacia trees and palm trees. Ground materials in the Shadow Walk include several types of stone.

The main pedestrian walk that runs north to south through the site will be paved in a quartzite, with a similar sparkle in the stone used at the building entries. The running arroyo is constructed of lava rock and travertine stone. Other paving materials include colored concrete and stabilized decomposed granite.