Palo Verde Library / Maryvale Community Center

View from 51st avenue with corner of Maryvale Park preserved.

Project details

• Project Name: Palo Verde Library / Maryvale Community Center
• Client: City of Phoenix
• Project Type: Library / Institutional
• Principal Designer/s: Wendell Burnette, Jay Silverberg
• Design Team: Project Manager - Ron Garen / Project Architect - Patrick Magness / Design Team - Janell Bass, Shawn Croissant, Jennifer Little, Jose Pombo, Scott Roeder, Matthew Trzebiatowski
• Contractor/s: Smith Construction
• Date of commencement of project: 2001
• Date of completion of project: January 2006
• Location of site: Phoenix, Arizona
• Built-up Area: 45,000 sq. ft
• Cost of Construction/Execution: $5.05 Million

Words from the architect

The City of Phoenix proposed to re-invigorate the "heart of Maryvale" with an innovative mixed-use building program that required a single building complex; a larger Library / Community Center, 16,000 & 27,000 square feet respectively; that incorporated the existing public pool.

Maintaining the recreational park guided the site design and building layout. A parking variance and an intergovernmental agreement with the schools to the south, saved the large ball field.

The explicit intent of the design was to be environmentally responsible, and for the Public Park and its environs to remain the "green" heart of Maryvale.

Cross pollination between mind/body programs.

Mind/body relationship between gymnasium and library volumes.

Through proximity to the street and transparency of program, the library reads as the exercise of the mind; and the community center, park and pool as the exercise of the body.

This mind/body dialogue resonates between two equally scaled volumes that incorporate the library collection and gymnasium respectively. Each of these volumes is a clear span, column-free space, top-lit and bottom-lit for balanced daylight.

An 8' band of externally shaded glass reinforces the visual connection between the buildings and the community. This allows the activities within each program to be an integral part of the neighborhood, both day and night, while keeping direct sun and heat gain from being a burden on the cooling system.

A grid of economical 'solatube' skylights balances the abundance of light, reducing energy costs while providing pleasing glare-free day lit spaces that are serving record numbers of patrons.

Open collections with liner of recycled aspen OSB as 'open paper books'.

Taking advantage of the acoustic requirement for the library program, the interior wrapper is detailed using recycled aspen OSB panels inspired by handmade paper books.

Acoustic attention extends throughout the building complex including the volume of the gym.

This allows many of the spaces to serve their primary goal but also means they could be used for larger venues such as performance recitals or public meeting places. It also helps staff maintain a friendly yet controlled environment within a high physically energized use group.

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