PURL is both sponsor and host of design studios. In spring 2007, we funded an upper-level architecture and landscape studio on Papago Park, the large desert park in the heart of metropolitan Phoenix. Our impetus was the newly reinvigorated effort on the part of the cities of Phoenix, Tempe, and Scottsdale, which own and/or border the park, to embark upon a major restoration of Papago. Through studio sponsorship and related efforts, including the publication of design research and a lecture series on contemporary urban parks, we hope to spur a lively civic discussion about the future of this extraordinary desert park.
Also in spring 2007, PURL was the setting for two School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture studios, each focused on sites near downtown Phoenix. Compact Urbanism, taught by professor of architecture John Meunier, explored transit-oriented infill development north of downtown on a large site between two major civic buildings: the Central Library, designed by Will Bruder, and the Phoenix Art Museum, recently expanded by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien. Evans Churchill, taught by professor of architecture Dan Hoffman, focused on a neighborhood northeast of downtown. The studio examined the effects of what Hoffman calls “catalytic programming,” in particular, district parking lots wrapped with housing, that would enable local retail and commercial development.
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