Mesa, Arizona, has a new, eye-catching City Hall Council Chambers located in the heart of downtown. This colorful, two-story building on a 1.25-acre site replaces the former Mesa City Council Chambers at another location on the city hall campus. The project introduced modern architectural elements designed to create a vibrant, publicly accessible space that better reflects the evolving downtown area. The facility includes state-of-the-art chambers and municipal offices, providing a dedicated and highly functional space for city leadership and community engagement. This revitalization effort marks a significant step forward in enhancing the civic core of Mesa.

City staff presented plans for the new council chambers in mid-August 2022 and demolition, which included the existing annex building, commenced in January 2023. EPS Group was designated as the project's Landscape Architect, collaborating with Adaptive Architects as well as electrical engineers at Wright Engineering and irrigation planners at Hines Inc. to provide landscape architecture, civil engineering, and surveying for this one-of-a-kind project.

Setting the Design Intent
The design and materials for the two-story terracotta-and-steel building - as conceived by Adaptive Architects - were intended to convey consistency with recently constructed and existing buildings in downtown Mesa. The prominent use of glass and multiple angles of visibility were part of an effort to provide a sense of transparency. The building's external lighting is meant to evoke "a jewel in the desert," according to the project narrative from the architecture firm, and the system's LED color scheme fluctuates depending on various holidays, events, and special occasions.

 
Besides establishing a sense of government transparency and visibility, the project's other main priorities included creating a welcoming and accessible civic hub and achieving a modern aesthetic that reflects the evolving downtown. The new design strongly supports both active and passive recreation by transforming the surrounding area into a revitalized plaza with walkable spaces and a sensory landscape experience. The project's course of action included public infrastructure work to seamlessly integrate the new facility with existing building grades and surrounding transit links.

Design inspiration came from the landscape of the Southwest and the desire to create a cohesive civic identity, incorporating desert tones and materials that recall the brick tones of historical Mesa buildings while providing modern thermal isolation. To enhance the visual appeal, the landscape architecture team's design also included integrated lighting, blue glass stones, and accent rope lighting to mimic the natural flow of water through the desert.

Organic Form with Digital Evolution
Located in the center of the main outdoor plaza is a monumental new media sculpture and art installation called Strata. Designed and fabricated by Digital Ambiance in collaboration with video artist Adrian Yu, Strata fuses nature and technology, serving as an ever-changing visual experience and statement on sustainability that merges parametric design with simultaneous environmental storytelling. Inspired by the geologic time scale that represents time based on the rock record of Earth, the artwork reinterprets the passage of time through coiling steel arches embedded with LED panels. The installation functions as a living data visualization, with its system built on gaming engines that tap into live climate data to generate real-time simulations of wind and water. As a result, the visuals evolve continuously as weather updates directly influence the lighting, trajectory, and speed of fluid and particle patterns. Persistent data, such as the number of trees planted in Mesa, also introduces new flora into the digital environment.

Based on the geologic layers of Arizona's mountains, Strata is a large-scale sculpture that takes the form of an abstract mountain range. It is crafted from traditional materials - painted steel and stainless steel - combined with futuristic elements like curved LED panels and cutting-edge software. At the center of the 40'x8.5'x10' sculpture, a mirrored sphere symbolizes humanity's role in nature. As the climate evolves, so will Strata, offering a perpetual reflection of our interconnectedness with the environment. Viewed today versus years later, the art will be completely different, operating as a "deep time capsule."

The integration of public art and lighting was a central component of the project's planned civic experience. This signature installation transforms the plaza into a living canvas where carefully coordinated architectural and site lighting interacts with Strata - casting shadows, amplifying reflections, and blending with dynamic color shifts to create a visual rhythm that changes throughout the day and night.

The Flow of the Desert
The landscape architecture design - led by Valeria Bravo, PLA - focused on seamlessly integrating the built environment with the native Sonoran Desert landscape while fostering a sensory experience for users. The collaborative team prioritized the use of natural materials, notably the building's terracotta exterior, which echoes historic Mesa architecture.

The project transformed the surrounding area into an engaging civic space by creating easily navigable, walkable spaces and incorporating native plantings and distinctive paving patterns. The color scheme complements nearby structures such as the Performing Arts Center. Motion and flow are visually enhanced by the lighting within the Strata installation. The surrounding platform reinforces this theme by utilizing blue accents to represent water and its journey through the desert and city, and to reflect the city logo's colors. This design approach is visible in the carefully chosen building materials, planters, and landscape plants including Shoestring Acacia (Acacia stenophylla), Chinese Evergreen Elm (Ulmus parvifolia), Canary Island Pine (Pinus canariensis), and Desert Fan Palm (Washingtonia filifera), and the successful preservation of existing foliage such as Live Oak (Quercus virginiana), Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera), and Willow Acacia (Acacia salicina).

The effort successfully connected the inside and outside, transforming a formerly closed-off city hall into a modern, engaging civic hub. The interplay of light, art, and architecture extends into the plaza, with strategic lighting accenting landscape features, organic planter forms, and the plantings within to reinforce the connection between interior and exterior spaces. This cohesive integration grounds the city's civic identity in both the natural landscape and cultural vibrancy of Mesa.

As seen in LASN magazine, February 2026.