The American Institute of Architects confers its 25-Year Award annually on a work of architecture “that has set a precedent for the past 25-35 years and continues to set standards of excellence.” A tall order, magnificently fulfilled this year by the Burton Barr Phoenix Central Library, designed in the early 1990s by Will Bruder Architect in a joint venture with another Phoenix firm, DWL Architects and Planners.
Architecture evolves over the decades, and so do the criteria by which the design professions evaluate their accomplishments. It’s apparent from this year’s winners of a variety of awards for architecture that there is a current emphasis on how a work serves its community and how it deals with environmental concerns. Last year’s 25-year Award addressed these issues through the creative conversion of outmoded industrial structures to office use (officeinsight, October 5, 2020). This year’s winner was newly built in 1995 to meet a city-wide need with an innovative configuration and a judicious response to material and energy concerns.
The exceptional library owes its origin – as does just about any fine work of architecture – to an enlightened client. In 1988 Phoenix mayor Terry Godard initiated a bond issue to fund it and set about creating a design landmark. The architect-selection process attracted some internationally known firms, but the interviewing committee chose a joint venture of two Phoenix firms that had demonstrated exceptional design skills, though at much smaller scale.
The way Bruder approached this selection process offers some lessons on how to win a sought-after commission. Joining forces with another firm sensitive to local needs was one strategic step – for both offices. Then, being aware of the exceptional demands of the city’s hot desert climate and the need – clearly recognized in the late 1980s — to save power, he enlisted the support of the internationally recognized engineering firm Arup as consultants to work exclusively with his team. The value of that collaboration in producing a resource-conserving structure is still apparent. Once the commission was won, the architects worked with the city to conduct meetings with local citizens, gaining valuable public input for the building’s program and layout.
During the design phase, the library took on its highly distinctive overall form. Its five floors of public spaces are flanked by massive wall planes to the east and west and enclosed with continuous glass to the north and south. Floor-to-floor heights are just adequate to their functions up to the fifth level. There, at the top of the vertical access systems, the space extends upward 32 feet to a gently arched, skylight-pierced roof, creating the modern-day version of the revered reading rooms in historic libraries.
On the outer faces of the walls bounding these spaces are “saddlebag” extensions, subtly curving in plan and section, that house mechanical systems, restrooms, exit stairs, and other auxiliary functions. Some facilities with exceptional space or access demands, including an auditorium, are housed in a first-floor extension.
From some viewpoints the saddlebag volumes, clad in perforated ribbed copper, make the building resemble the mesas that crop up abruptly in the Arizona deserts. From other angles, however, the library is perceived not as a closed mesa-like form, but as an assemblage of its distinct solid and transparent components.
A notable departure from precedent in this library is its process of public entry. While wisely located at the center of Phoenix, the site is not in a pedestrian-friendly area (of which the city has hardly any) but along a major artery — with public transportation — to its west, and an area accommodating a well-planted “parking garden” to its east. The architect responded by giving the building two public entrances, from east and west, announced identically with vertical crevices clad in stainless steel that split the copper-clad surfaces of the saddlebags. Inside, both entries lead not to grand lobbies, but to softly lighted passages – welcoming respites from the desert sun – that slope gently down to a central vertical-circulation node with glass-enclosed stairs and elevator shafts.
The materials and details of the building show a sensitive response to a frankly limited budget (about $98 per square foot in 1990s dollars). There is considerable use of exposed concrete, carefully cast. In several areas, at different scales, rigid framing gives way to lighter construction, using tension members for necessary stability. This is most apparent in the top-level reading room, where structural columns stop short of the roof canopy, their crowns carrying networks of cables and struts that support the roof. Above each of these columns is a small circular skylight, so placed that at solar noon on each summer solstice they dramatically focus sunlight on the tips of those columns. In “normal” years, crowds have gathered to celebrate that occasion.
Other notable design details of the building are the solar control systems for the extensive glass surfaces. On the building’s south face, sunlight is automatically modulated with an array of horizontal louvers. To the north, where low-angle sun and sky glare are the problems, there is an array of cable-supported sails that present an appealing sculptural composition with minimal obstruction of the view.
After 25 years of intense use and necessary shifts in functions, the building fully retains its bold identity. Will Bruder Architects has served as the library’s on-call architect all along, for repurposing of spaces and the addition of departments, such as the insertion of college and vocational resources and meeting places to nurture startups, where outdated print and microfiche collections were once housed. The modular divisions of the interior have made such adaptations work smoothly. From an environmental viewpoint, the wisdom of the building’s design has been proven by its achievement of LEED Silver Certification in 2010.
While this award does reflect evolving criteria for 25-year recognition, the 2021 winner maintains the stature of this honor as consistently recognizing the highest standards of design innovation and design integrity. Most of the architects who have won this award since its inception in 1969 would applaud this year’s choice.
Disclosure: the author is a member of an AIA national committee that identifies promising nominees for this award. As such, he volunteered to advise Will Bruder on the content and format of this nomination. The award decision was made by a jury of design professionals, with which he had no connection. It was a welcome surprise.
