Located at the intersection of Center and Main streets in the heart of downtown Mesa, Ariz., the $75-million Mesa Arts Center (MAC) is nearing completion under the auspices of the Arizona branch of Utah's largest general contractor, Layton Construction Co. Kitchell Corp. of Phoenix is serving as construction manager, with Darcy Gray the senior project manager.

Ground was broken for the new performing and visual arts center on May 20, 2002, and completion is scheduled for January 2005. MAC occupies nearly an entire downtown city block and includes five public buildings designed to meet the expanding needs of the arts in Mesa.

BOORA Architects of Portland, Ore., working with local architect DWL Architects, Phoenix, designed the five separate structures, which are connected by a series of visual and structural elements. Some buildings share suspended walkways; fabric structures span from building to building, and building exterior finishes create a coherent whole, while the landscaping and hardscape of the open areas further integrate the complex. The architectural style of the buildings is unique, with battered walls, radiused shapes and varied use of raw/natural finishes.

Three principal buildings on the seven-acre site constitute the 205,600-square-foot complex and house four theaters (a 1,600-seat lyric theater, a 500-seat repertory theater, a 200-seat playhouse theater, and a 99-seat signature theater), five galleries, meeting spaces, a lecture hall, 14 visual and performing arts studios and classrooms, informal performance spaces, and administrative offices. Linking the structures outside is a shadow walk, with outdoor gardens, sunken courtyards, private gathering places, and informal performance areas.

Concrete is the primary construction material of MAC, with some 28,000 cubic yards employed in the various structures. The complex project includes innovative poured-in-place, tilt-up and decorative concrete construction elements, serving the purposes of both form and function. Coordinating and scheduling the construction of multiple facilities on a compact job site has presented special challenges. The three largest theaters are a complex design combining canted, curved and conventional cast-in-place concrete walls with sloping flat roofs and stringent finishing requirements.

The largest facility is the Ikeda Theater, a 1,600-seat lyric theater that will host full stage productions. The Ikeda's back-of-stage scenery flytower is 115 feet tall, constructed of architectural concrete. Formed with Doka Top 50 gang forms, an elastomeric form liner molded onto the plywood facings mimics a board form finish with the look of concrete seeping through between lifts. The two-level balcony seating for this theater is 85 feet high. The horseshoe-shaped balconies themselves are a suspended concrete structure that will remain exposed in some floor and seating riser areas.

The Virginia G. Piper Repertory Theater with 550 seats and the 199-seat Nesbitt/Elliott Playhouse are adjacent to the Ikeda but smaller in scale. Between these two smaller theaters is the 99-seat Anita Cox Farnsworth Studio Theater.

The structures range from 112 feet to 178 feet tall, and each incorporates one wall sloped inward at 4 degrees, 5 degrees or 6 degrees. For the curved, battered wall at the end opposite the flytower in each theater, Layton utilized Top 50 forms with articulated steel walers to create outer radiuses of 71 feet, 97 feet and 104 feet.

All four theaters are fronted by glass-enclosed lobby areas with cast-in-place suspended walkways. A cantilevered concrete roof "eyebrow" serves to shade the walkways from above.

Excellent acoustics are essential to a performing arts facility. The Ikeda Theater house walls are articulated to improve the acoustics for performances and are designed to create the impression of a southwest canyon. The articulated, painted plaster panels have an integral LED lighting system that allows the "canyon wall" to be lit with a widely varied color range.

Stage lifts in both the Ikeda and Piper theaters are movable, using a link-lift system. This provides the option of adjusting the lift for added performance area, floor seating or orchestra space.

One portion of the project is already in use. Completed in December 2003, the central plant building has been turned over to the city of Mesa for operation. It will not only meet the needs of the Mesa Arts Center but was build with excess capacity to provide chilled water to other businesses in the downtown area.

On the west side of MAC are two three-story studio buildings that will house visual and performing arts instruction. Included are studios for ceramics, glassmaking, jewelry, lapidary, painting/drawing, sculpture, photography, dancing, acting, music, and multipurpose. The third floor of these two buildings will house the administration offices of the MAC instruction staff, the Arts & Cultural Division and theater operations personnel.

Dividing the east and west sides of the complex is the "Shadow Walk." This open plaza serves as a unifying element for circulation between the different buildings. It will have a stone-covered, flowing arroyo water feature, fabric shade structures, stainless steel pergola shade structures, and a variety of stone and architectural concrete walk surfaces.

Many of the floors in the different buildings will be of exposed concrete with various finishes. Some will be ground to expose the concrete aggregate, while others will have stained concrete.

People will be able to look up at the suspended walkways and see exposed concrete. The cantilevered roof "eyebrow" over the suspended walkways is tapered on top with an architectural finish. Concrete placement for these elements was particularly difficult due to the shoring heights and the radius shape of many of them.

The studio buildings also have a precast concrete stairway called Mesa Stairs, with colored glass block fillers in the risers to allow natural light into the workspaces below the stairs.

At the northwest corner of the site is the below-grade Museum of Contemporary Arts (MCA). A completely cast-in-place structure, the roof of this building is topped by an exterior terrace with form liner-finished architectural concrete plants featuring unique indigenous planting and varied water feature elements. Adjacent to the MCA is a sunken plaza area known as the Sculpture Garden. This area will allow for exterior exhibition of sculpture and is itself very sculptural, with exposed concrete stepped planters, suspended concrete stairways and battered, rough-finished perimeter walls.

The total Mesa Arts Center project utilizes approximately 28,000 cubic yards of concrete. At the peak of concrete construction, Layton employed some 120 carpenters and finishers, working in different areas of the project. Layton did all its own concrete work, utilizing subcontractors for other aspects, including steel, Schuff Steel; masonry, Sun Valley Masonry; electrical, Cannon & Wendt; mechanical, IMCOR; and plumbing, W.J. Maloney.

Based on 2003 revenues, the Sandy, Utah-based Layton Companies was ranked as the top commercial builder in Utah for the seventh time in the past eight years. Because Utah's economy has slowed the last several years, the company has diversified and expanded its geographic territory. Much of the company's growth has come in Arizona. Layton established itself as a small contractor in the Phoenix market over 15 years ago, but growth in that market has been meteoric over the past five years.

"We determined that we could apply the same business model in Phoenix that made us successful in Utah," said David S. Layton, senior vice president of the Utah parent company and president of Layton Construction of Arizona. "We built a team of great construction professionals, who have proven to private and public sector construction decision makers in Phoenix that we can compete with the major construction companies in their market."

On the basis of high-profile projects such as the Mesa Arts Center and the $18-million Marriott Canyon Villas resort, as well as less spectacular work such as the $160-million Sky Harbor Airport Rental Car Facility and the $20-million city of Phoenix North Waste Transfer Station, Layton was named the second-largest contractor in Phoenix for 2003 by the Phoenix Business Journal, based on new projects started in 2003 in the Valley of the Sun.

When it opens to patrons in early 2005, the magnificent design and quality construction of the Mesa Arts Center will add a new dimension to the cultural vitality of Mesa.