CO Architects

Health Sciences Education Building

Health Sciences Education Building
© Bill Timmerman

HEALTH SCIENCES EDUCATION BUILDING

CO Architects

ARCHITECTS
CO Architects

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
JJR

OWNER CLIENT
Arizona Board of Regents

MANUFACTURER
Tecu®, Hunter Douglas Brasil

FIRE PROTECTION/CODE CONSULTANT
Rolf Jensen & Associates

STRUCTURAL ENGINEER
John A. Martin & Associates

MEP ENGINEER
AEI Engineers

CIVIL ENGINEER
Dibble Engineering

LIGHTING DESIGNER
Kaplan Gehring McCarroll Lighting

LOADING/VERTICAL TRANSPORTATION CONSULTANT
Lerch Bates

GEOTECHNICAL ENGINEER
Professional Service Industries

CLIMATE ENGINEER
Transsolar Energietechnik

CONTRACTOR, PRECONSTRUCTION, CONSTRUCTION MANAGER AT RISK
DPR Construction

COST ESTIMATOR
Davis Langdon

USERS
University of Arizona; Northern Arizona University

AUDIOVISUAL TECHNOLOGY
The Sextant Group

DESIGN AND EXECUTIVE ARCHITECT
CO Architects

ASSOCIATE ARCHITECT, MASTER PLANNER
Ayers Saint Gross

FIRE PROTECTION
Rolf Jensen & Associates

CODE CONSULTANT
Rolf Jensen & Associates

CO ARCHITECTS TEAM
Paul Zajfen, Scott Kelsey, Jonathan Kanda, Andy Labov, Jenna Knudsen, Arnold Swanborn, Tony Moretti, Jatin Kayastha, Luciana Tagliaferri, Lilit Ustayan, Shiyi Zhang, Joqua Jordan, Jesse Carrillo, Kevin Kavanaugh, Marie Malone

AYERS SAINT GROSS TEAM
Jack Black, Sean R. Rosebrugh, Eric Zobrist, Michelle Kollmann, Kristina Abrams, Justin Dahl-James, Eliseo Ramirez, William Whitfield

PHOTOGRAPHS
Bill Timmerman

BUDGET
$187 million (includes $99 million construction cost)

AREA
268000.0 ft²

YEAR
2012

LOCATION
Phoenix, United States

TYPE
University

PROGRAM

The University of Arizona (UA) College of Medicine-Phoenix, in partnership with and Northern Arizona University (NAU), is creating a new model for an integrated and interdisciplinary approach to health sciences education and research.

Health Sciences Education Building
© Bill Timmerman
Health Sciences Education Building
© Bill Timmerman

Innovative in this endeavor is the collaboration and merging of these programs from two universities with distinct institutional cultures on one campus—Phoenix Biomedical Campus in downtown Phoenix.

The Health Sciences Education Building (HSEB) is part of the inter-institutional campus for health science education and research, and supports the colleges of medicine, allied health, and biomedical informatics.

Health Sciences Education Building
© Bill Timmerman

The new 268,000-square-foot, six-story facility consists of administration and faculty offices, lecture halls, learning studios, flexible classrooms, student and faculty services, clinical skills suite, simulation suite, gross anatomy facilities, class laboratories, learning resource center, cafeteria, student lockers, group study rooms, conference rooms and miscellaneous building support.

HSEB and future research buildings are connected by a north- south structure that houses public functions and spaces for the occupants of these facilities as part of an effort to ensure that educators, researchers, students, and teachers meet and encourage an interdisciplinary approach to pedagogy and research.

Health Sciences Education Building
© Bill Timmerman

A key characteristic of the program is a model of collective resources shared by the UA College of Medicine-Phoenix, the UA College of Pharmacy, and the UA Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, as well as by Northern Arizona University’s College of Health and Human Services programs.

An interactive planning process, which involved educators from the cross-section of health sciences disciplines, has worked collaboratively to create an educational vision of a team- based continuity of care model.

Health Sciences Education Building
© Bill Timmerman

DESIGN

The program and building design were developed by CO Architects to support an independent and collaborative health sciences education and research campus on a 28-acre urban setting in downtown Phoenix. 

The design for the Health Sciences Education Building (HSEB) draws inspiration from Arizona’s mountains and canyons and responds to the desert climate, characterized by intense sunlight and extreme temperatures.

The siting of the building originates from the master plan by Ayers Saint Gross that establishes a north-south central campus green connecting the historic buildings to the south with future research facilities to the north.

Health Sciences Education Building
© Bill Timmerman

The Arizona desert climate and need for reduced energy consumption informs much of the design for HSEB, from the siting to the fenestration. The facility is organized into east-west wings connected to a north-south axis establishing the eastern boundary of the campus. The building’s form and its orientation result from efforts to minimize the intense effects of the Arizona sun.

South-facing façades combine overhangs with perforated screens that function as sunshades; extensive studies of the window locations and the program requirements for the internal spaces informed the fenestration pattern as well as the shading devices. Vertical fins control sun penetration on the north.

Health Sciences Education Building
© Bill Timmerman
Health Sciences Education Building
© Bill Timmerman

The wings are inflected to self-shade the walls and to create east-west “canyons.” Space between the two wings is tall and intentionally narrow. Windowless east and west façades are incised to create north and south fenestration. In the canyon, there are more glazed openings at the lower level with fewer windows near the top.

Natural light is harnessed to flood the lower portions of the canyon with light. The canyon is clad in light-colored, burnished concrete block to provide cool thermal mass and reflectivity.

At the top of the canyon is a PTFE (Polytetrafluoroethylene) scrim roof that helps regulates sunlight penetration.

Health Sciences Education Building
© Bill Timmerman
Health Sciences Education Building
© Bill Timmerman

Exhaust air from the buildings heating, and cooling systems flow into the canyon because the exhaust air temperature is lower than the ambient outside air and therefore helps to cool the outdoor space. The project is targeting LEED®-NC Gold certification.

The canyon metaphor also applies to the materiality of the building. To connect the built environment to the surrounding landscape and bring nature into the heart of downtown Phoenix, the color and patina of the building skin draw from the peaks and mountains prevalent in Arizona.

The striations of the surrounding mountains are abstracted by folding the building’s copper skin creating a visual connection to the surroundings. HESB provides a range of established-to-vanguard skills-based and simulation settings that sustain the gamut of health sciences inter-professional training programs. This complex provides learning environments to train 1,200 medical professionals. It will also serve as a learning and teaching resource for the research community.

Health Sciences Education Building
Site Plan


Health Sciences Education Building
1st Floor Plan
Health Sciences Education Building
2nd Floor Plan
Health Sciences Education Building
3rd Floor Plan
Health Sciences Education Building
4th Floor Plan
Health Sciences Education Building
5th Floor Plan
Health Sciences Education Building
6th Floor Plan

CO Architects
T +1 323 5250500 F +1 323 5250955
CO Architects
5750 Wilshire Blvd Suite 550, Los Angeles, CA 90036, United States