Palo Verde Library / Maryvale Community Center

Masonry and stainless steel volumes with circulation spine at west entry.

In-between the masonry forms on the ball field side of the complex, a light seam of "palo-verde" green color, the building's namesake, stitches the pool and building programs together in a north-south circulation spine.

Dedicated parking lots are easily accessed along street frontage and are a welcoming garden of dappled shade. This shade is provided by a uniform grove of palo-verde trees, reducing the heat island effect, caused by superheating exposed asphalt.

A pedestrian promenade of Arizona Ash threads the park, building programs, and associated parking lots in the east-west direction.

Promenade at breezeway looking east.

The southeast corner of the park is preserved with its' old Phoenix landscape of Alleppo Pines & grass and is thus transformed into a contemplative park for the library, as well as, an unobstructed window into the site.

The solid, upper portions of the street volumes are clad in mill finish stainless steel. This finish requires 40% less energy to fabricate than 'finished' stainless steel and has a unique quality that absorbs light and colors more than it reflects them. This quality allows the park to appear as if it figuratively moves through the mass of the building.

The building simultaneously reads as bold and quiet, there and not there, while recording the range of light, that so epitomizes this place we call the "valley".

Credits

• Text by Gould Evans LC + Wendell Burnette Architects
• Photographs by Bill Timmerman, Courtesy of Wendell Burnette Architects
• Compiled and Edited by Varun M Ajani

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