The University of Arizona Women’s Plaza of Honor

The University of Arizona Women’s Plaza of Honor.  Construction completed 2005.

Client Program / Project Description. The Plaza was conceived by the Director of the University’s Department of Women’s Studies and championed by its Advisory Council as a means to celebrate and honor women and build an endowment for the Department.  The intent was to recognize relatives, teachers, friends as well as more public figures; any woman who has made a difference in someone’s life.

The Plaza transformed an underused corridor into a popular meeting-lunch-study place, and a destination for receptions and performances so popular that it must be scheduled months in advance.  The site inspired a concept of three, sequential plazas organized on the idea of “the stages of a woman’s life:” Youth, Maturity and Seniority.  Each plaza has a theme: the playful exuberance and welcoming of young women to the University in the Youth Plaza, the demands of family, career and community in the Maturity Plaza, and creativity, reflection and perspective in the Seniority Plaza.  The project’s success relies on:

• Expressing meaning through metaphor, such as the flow of water indicating passage through time and space
• The idea of garden as a place of renewal, comfort and reflection
• Donations that focus on the honorees, not the donors
• The use of compelling quotations
• Demonstrating sustainability: economically by increasing visibility and donations for the Department, socially by activating the area and focusing on the honorees, and environmentally through respect for context, response to climate, and conservation of cultural and natural resources
• Dual lighting system for good color rendition at evening events and that responds to Tucson’s Dark Skies ordinance and UA astronomers’ research

WSA scope and role.  WSA coordinated the Design Development, Construction Documents and Construction Administration efforts for a concept plan prepared by four UA design alumnae.  This included work by the other three concept design firms, and consulting structural and electrical engineers, and architects.  WSA participated in the selection of the construction contractor through the CMR process.

Project Team.

• Client: The Department of Facilities, Design and Construction, Department of Women’s Studies (user group)
• Design Team:
  • Wheat Scharf Associates (prime)
  • Burns, Wald-Hopkins Shambach, architecture
  • Structural Grace, structural engineering
  • R.A. Alcalá, Inc., electrical engineering
• Construction Manager at Risk: Sletten Construction Company
• Concept Design:
  • MWest Design
  • Novak Environmental, Inc.
  • RECON
  • Wheat Scharf Associates

Objective data.  ¾-acre site, $650,000 construction cost, CMR delivery method