At its core, this project required a complete renovation to the original City of Mesa Courts building that had been vacated after the city court functions were relocated. Mesa had implemented a new initiative to bring higher education to Mesa’s downtown, and this facility was slated to serve that purpose. So Adaptive Architects, in conjunction with Architekton and the City of Mesa, was asked to develop programming criteria for three potential college tenants that were to move into the building’s three floors totaling 55,000 square feet that would be implemented over a span of three years.

A key challenge for our team was to integrate three different colleges that offered a diverse variety of programs – ranging from undergraduate pre-medical and pre-dental, applied engineering, interactive mixed media, business, education and graduate degree programs – into one cohesive building environment. The building itself required substantial infrastructure improvements to modernize the facility and prepare it for its new intended use.  And the incoming college tenants required development of new classroom and laboratory space, administrative areas, offices and student interaction space all within the constraints of existing building components. In addition, the building exterior was updated to express the dynamic new energy of the tenants and student population that would be served at this facility for years to come.