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Helios Education Foundation
Helios Education Foundation
Phoenix, AZ, United States
Finalist, 2025 A+Awards, Built - Sustainable Landscape/Planning Project
Project Featured on Oct 28, 2025
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Other Projects by Colwell Shelor Landscape Architecture
Helios Education Foundation
Phoenix, AZ, United States
Finalist, 2025 A+Awards, Built - Sustainable Landscape/Planning Project
Project Featured on Oct 28, 2025
STATUS
Built
YEAR
2021
SIZE
100,000 sqft - 300,000 sqft
BUDGET
Undisclosed
The 3.14-acre project in Phoenix, Arizona is sited contiguous to a major arterial street and a secluded, established neighborhood – adjacencies that required protection from traffic noise, defense against flooding in the street during even mild storm events, and a robust landscape buffer between the campus and residences. The Foundation desired a building and landscape that would bring people in education together and designed to last 100 years. The site and building work in partnership to blur the lines between landscape architecture and architecture, to drastically reduce potable water and energy use, and provide opportunities for enhanced educational rethinking and improved mental health and wellbeing.
Evoking natural patterns of Arizona’s unique geology, the hardscape is sculpted in response to climate, orientation, and urban influences. The design of the courtyard as the primary pedestrian corridor and social space of the campus reduces conditioned space in the building. The elevated sidewalk allows free movement of surface run-off throughout the deck, increasing stormwater capacity, humidity, and evapotranspiration, and providing additional soil mass to support mature tree growth in over-structure conditions. Porches and event spaces were enhanced with designed custom pre-cast furniture.
Water in the Sonoran Desert is precious – every drop counts. Precipitation is infrequent, yet intense often overwhelming the storm drain. No potable water is used for irrigation or the water feature, contributing a 58% reduction over baseline Site Energy Use Intensity (EUI). A 32,000g retention tank stores stormwater, sink, shower, and canal water for reuse on site. This project realizes the first ROW bioswale and case study for Phoenix. A three-story water feature, inspired by shifting sands off canyon ledges, is fed by reclaimed water and reduces the courtyard temperature by an estimated 15°F. Large openings in the structure convey shafts of daylight to lower levels.
Evoking natural patterns of Arizona’s unique geology, the hardscape is sculpted in response to climate, orientation, and urban influences. The design of the courtyard as the primary pedestrian corridor and social space of the campus reduces conditioned space in the building. The elevated sidewalk allows free movement of surface run-off throughout the deck, increasing stormwater capacity, humidity, and evapotranspiration, and providing additional soil mass to support mature tree growth in over-structure conditions. Porches and event spaces were enhanced with designed custom pre-cast furniture.
Water in the Sonoran Desert is precious – every drop counts. Precipitation is infrequent, yet intense often overwhelming the storm drain. No potable water is used for irrigation or the water feature, contributing a 58% reduction over baseline Site Energy Use Intensity (EUI). A 32,000g retention tank stores stormwater, sink, shower, and canal water for reuse on site. This project realizes the first ROW bioswale and case study for Phoenix. A three-story water feature, inspired by shifting sands off canyon ledges, is fed by reclaimed water and reduces the courtyard temperature by an estimated 15°F. Large openings in the structure convey shafts of daylight to lower levels.
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