The Biodesign Institute strives to develop “bio-inspired” solutions that improve human health, sustain the environment, and secure a safer world. This mission energized the design of the Institute’s promenades, plazas, and gardens that together form a green gateway to Arizona State University’s Tempe campus. With an emphasis on biodiversity, permeability, and the judicious use of hardscape, the design transforms once lifeless, disjointed spaces–a sterile retention basin and parking lot–into a restorative, cohesive pedestrian environment. As a desert oasis within the urban fabric, researchers, students and visitors are immersed in the dappled shade of native trees, vivid swaths of medicinal plants, and lush native gardens that integrate riparian and upper Sonoran Desert ecosystems with water reclamation systems. Here the building and landscape do more than coexist, but also enable the other to thrive: the Institute’s LEED Gold (Phase 1) and LEED Platinum (Phase 2) buildings supply gardens and urban wildlife habitat with collected rainwater and HVAC condensate, while the landscape provides comfortable outdoor gathering spaces that bring the work of the Biodesign Institute outdoors.

Complementing the experience of the Sonoran Desert at ground level, the primary garden hosts the James Turrell Skyspace ‘Air Apparent,’ an architectural public art installation that highlights and dramatizes the unique beauty of the desert sky.