ASU at Mesa City Center and The Plaza at Mesa City Center reached a milestone as the Mesa City Council approved the selection of DPR Construction as the Construction Manager at Risk for both projects on January 28.
This follows the selection and approval of Holly Street Studio and Bohlin Cywinski Jackson as the design team of architects and planners.
Arizona State University’s new location in downtown Mesa will train students in the transdisciplinary digital expertise that technology companies are now demanding, according to ASU President Michael Crow.
“This will be the place with everything digital you can possibly imagine, every level of creativity, every level of new company idea and spinout in science and technology and the arts,” Crow said Tuesday at the Mesa “State of the City” breakfast, sponsored by the Mesa Chamber of Commerce.
“If you travel around the world, there are a few significant digital innovation centers that exist — in Sydney, Hong Kong, Singapore, London, New York City. We’re building one for the Western United States here in Mesa.”
ASU @ Mesa City Center is a five-story, approximately 118,000 square-foot academic building, located at the northwest corner of Pepper Street and Centennial Way, that will house programs offered by the Herberger Institute for Design and the Artsrelated to digital and sensory technology, experiential design, gaming, media arts, film production and entrepreneurial development and support. These programs will utilize augmented reality, virtual reality and 3D modeling and visualization to develop technology with the potential to impact industries as diverse as health care, aerospace, manufacturing and entertainment.
The new building is expected to be open to more than 750 students and faculty for the Fall 2021 semester. The ground floor will contain a large exhibition gallery, screening theaters and a social café. The upper floors will include a mix of production studios, fabrication labs, flexible classrooms and innovative spaces for collaborations with community and industry. Unique to this building will be a 3,000 square foot enhanced immersion studio where users can create augmented realities and map virtual spaces onto physical environments.
In addition to the primary academic programs, a number of co-curricular programs are planned to amplify the student experience and connect the facility’s programs to the larger innovation district. So far, those programs include Entrepreneurship + Innovation and FilmSpark.
The Plaza @ Mesa City Center is a two to three acre gathering place, located just south of the ASU building, with a large open community space, water features and seasonal ice rink.
