Located at the intersection of Scottsdale and McDowell Road, ASU Scottsdale Center for New Technology and Innovation is a mixed-use project consisting of 1.2 million square feet of office, research and retail space, and a hotel & conference center at full build-out. Anchored by the iconic ‘SkySong’ shade structure, it is built around a densely landscaped grand boulevard lined by ground-floor shops and restaurants with offices above. SkySong serves the needs of businesses, research and technology industry and academia while building vital networks between university innovations, regional progress and the global technology industry.
The Development and Design team consisted of Higgins Development, Pei Cobb Freed & Partners with DMJM and FTL Design Engineering Studio. They were selected by the Arizona State University Foundation to design the ASU Scottsdale Center for New Technology and Innovation. The $250-$300 million, 42 acre project is expected to take over 10 years to design and build with construction of the first phase completed in 2009. FTL developed the iconic signature element called ‘SkySong’ which is a 50,000 square foot campus marker and shade structure straddling over two intersecting roads and four plazas. The shaded plazas will become the heart of the new Center with retail and restaurants located under the passively cooled structure. The PTFE glass fabric structure opened in April 2010.
The tensile structure uses a series of cable suspended ‘tensegrity’ steel trusses which create a shade cover to the campus courtyard. A-frame masts support these steel trusses with an array of cables in a rotational pattern of symmetry, suggesting movement of form and light across the plaza. FTL developed the lighting with the lighting designer Mathew Tanteri using a combination of programmable LED fixtures to illuminate the A- Frame masts and metal halide lighting for the fabric surfaces.
