Project Details
- Project Name
- Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community Justice Center
- Location
- AZ
- Architect
- Multistudio
- Client/Owner
- Daniel Angulo, Senior Manager of Construction
- Project Types
- Cultural
- Project Scope
- New Construction
- Size
- 93,000 sq. feet
- Awards
- 2021 AIA Architecture Award
- Shared by
- Madeleine D'Angelo
- Project Status
- Built
- Cost
- $38,600,000
An abridged version of the below paragraph appeared in the May/June 2021 issue of ARCHITECT as part of expanded coverage of the 2021 AIA Architecture Awards.
To create the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community Justice Center, the Phoenix office of Gould Evans had to walk a very fine line. On the one hand, the design team had to fashion a building that could fulfill the practical legal and administrative needs of the Native American community local to Scottsdale, Ariz., and provide the technologies of a 21st-century courthouse. On the other hand, the architects had to respond to the particular sensitivities of Arizona's modern-day tribes and their long history in the region. The solution the designers came up with threads the needle with admirable dexterity: Alongside a full complement of courtrooms, offices, and support spaces, the building also incorporates subtle references to Indigenous traditions and culture, with organic materials in the façade and interior, a leafy central courtyard, and carefully framed views of the landscape connecting the building with its place and people.
Project Credits
Project: Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community Justice Center, Scottsdale, Ariz.
Client/Owner: Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community
Architect: Gould Evans. Krista Shepherd, AIA (principal-in-charge), Trudi Hummel, AIA (principal), Jim Miller, AIA (project manager), Aaron Herring (project architect + project designer), Steve Valev (project architect + project designer), John Dimmel (project architect + project designer), Joey Gamblin (project designer), Henry Sipos (project designer) Melissa Alexander (senior interior designer), Alyssa Hitt (interior designer),
Interior Designer: Gould Evans. Melissa Alexander (senior interior designer), Alyssa Hitt (interior designer)
Mechanical Engineer: Henderson Engineers, Inc.
Structural Engineer: PK Associates
Electrical Engineer: Henderson Engineers, Inc.
Civil Engineer: Wood Patel & Associates
Acoustical System: McKay Conant Hoover, Inc.
Construction Manager: Au Authum Ki-Kitchell, LLC
General Contractor: Au Authum Ki-Kitchell, LLC
Landscape Architect: GBtwo Landscape Architecture
Lighting Designer: Gould Evans + Henderson Engineers
Energy Modeling: Oculus Studio
Acoustics: McKay Conant Hoover, Inc.
Size: 93,000 square feet
Cost: $38,600,000
Materials and Products
Adhesives, Coatings and Sealants: Hilti, 3M, Tremco, BASF, Sherwin Williams, Kirker Automotive Finishes, Tnemec Co., Dow Corning
Bathroom Fixtures: Elkay Drinking Fountains, American Standard Toilets, Sloan Faucets
Carpet: Shaw Contract
Cabinets: Abet Laminati, Formica plastic laminate
Ceilings: Armstrong, Architectural Components Group, Inc., Fabricmate, Owens Corning Eurospan, Clark Dietrich, Tectum
Concrete: Soloman Colors, Inc., Grace, Hanson, Arizona Materials, Salt River Materials Group, The Euclid Chemical Company, Spectrum, BASF
Countertops: Formica, Caesarstone, Dupont Corian
Exterior Wall Systems: Custom
Fabrics and Finishes: Momentum, Knoll Textiles, Designtex, Kvadrat Maharam
Flooring: Ground Concrete, Shaw Contract carpet
Furniture: Knoll private office, Steelcase systems, Keilhauer jury chairs, Geiger lounge chairs
Glass: PPG Starphire, Goldray Glass, Guardian Glass, TGP Pilkington Pyrostop
Gypsum: Certainteed, National Gypsum, Georgia-Pacific
HVAC: Modine Ceiling Cassettes, Trane Air Handling Units
Insulation: International Celluslose Corporation K-13, Roxul, Certainteed, R Max
Lighting Control Systems: Lutron
Lighting: Columbia Lighting, Finelite, New Star, Pinnacle Architectural Lighting, Beacon, iGuzzini, Lumux Lighting, Tivoli, LitePro, OptoLum, Ghidini Light Ideas, Deco Lighting
Paints and Finishes: Sherwin Williams
Roofing: Salt River Materials Group, RMP Rollfab, Tremco built-up asphalt roof
Site and Landscape Products: Salt River Materials Group
Structural System: Steel and Composite Deck and Load Bearing Cast-in-Place Concrete
Wallcoverings: Carnegie Xorel
Walls: Clark Dietrich
Windows and Doors: Arcadia, TGP Fireframes, TGP Pilkington Pyrostop, Armortex, Guardian Glass, Marshfield Door Systems, Cornell, trussbilt
Project Description
This project won a 2021 AIA Architecture Award. From the firm's 2021 AIA Award Submission:
This tribal community-use facility in the heart of an ancestral home responds to an increased demand for space dedicated to the judicial process. Its accomplishment involved a non-tribal design team working with the Pima and Maricopa people to establish cross-cultural relationships and develop a deeper understanding of history, place, and justice in an evolving community.
The people of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian community have long called the Sonoran Desert and its Salt and Verde rivers home. Existing long before the state of Arizona and the sprawling Phoenix metropolis, this once solitary tribe is often regarded as an urban one. The border that now separates sovereign land from Phoenix is one of material and cultural divisions, providing the design team with an opportunity to forge new cross-cultural ties.
Given the context, it might be difficult to imagine that outsiders, especially ones of non-Native descent, would be entrusted with a vital project at the center of the tribe’s ancient city. But the team’s careful approach, focused on the community’s views of just use of its land, allowed it to explore the combination of Western court design goals and Indigenous sustainable systems. The result is a transformed court typology that connects directly to its context.
The program of the 93,000-square-foot building in the Sonoran Desert is distributed across two floors and organized around the landscape. It houses seven courtrooms that facilitate civil, criminal, juvenile, and appellate proceedings and the necessary office and administrative spaces to support the courtrooms.
The center’s entry is a gradual sequence of the enclosure, beginning with the adjacent landscape that morphs into a blend of architectural and tree canopy. Materials featured on the exterior continue inside, and concrete, echoing Pima and Maricopa construction methods, is used throughout. Reflecting on the tribes’ cultures, the team linked interior and adjacent exterior spaces, and the indigenous landscape surrounding the building seeps into the central courtyard. From the secure environment of the building, people can go outdoors for respite from the anxiety that often accompanies attending court.
Courtrooms are stacked and arranged for efficient circulation of all parties on the second level. Daylight and views of Red Mountain, a sacred landform from which the center’s skewed alignment takes its cues, provide additional relief from the stress of court proceedings.
At heart, the Pima and Maricopa are outdoor people, and the intentional permeability between the landscape and the building recalls that heritage. The landscape is integral in shaping the community’s perception of the center, and the intertwining of materials creates an array of imperfect but familiar and lasting spaces.
Project Credits
Mechanical Electrical Plumbing Engineer: Henderson Engineers, Phoenix
Structural Engineer: PK Associates, Scottsdale, Ariz.
Civil Engineer: Wood Patel & Associates, Phoenix
Landscape Architect: GBtwo Landscape Architecture, Scottsdale, Ariz.
Acoustical Consultant: McKay Conant Hoover Inc, Scottsdale, Ariz.
Envelope and Energy Consultant: Oculus Solar Design, Phoenix
General Contractor: Au’ Authum Ki - Kitchell, LLC, Phoenix
Photographer: Matthew Winquist, Winquist Photography, Phoenix; Hélène Binet, London, U.K.; Caleb Alvarado, Phoenix
