Architects are thrilled with Arizona State University’s new $192 million sciences building, located at the intersection of Rural and University Roads.

The Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building 7 opened in April for ASU programs such as humanities and history. Designers proudly incorporated local inspiration to bring symbolism to the building.

“I had some sketches about this idea of mimicking nature and biomimicry which is what we’ve done here. And he was obviously fascinated by that idea. In fact, [ASU President Michael Crow] calls this building a medical center for the Earth,” said Edmundo Soltero, ASU’s chief architect. 

Soltero also serves as assistant vice president for facilities development and management at ASU. He said the team worked on these plans for about five years and the building process took three years.

“There’s probably 1,500 sheets of drawings for this building,” Soltero said.

The team experienced difficulties with COVID-19, and it still affects the bridge development to the Packard Parking structure. The cocoon-like structure may not be completely installed until this summer.

Much like State Farm Stadium’s iconic snake shape, ISTB7 architects drew from Arizona’s natural designs when they chose to mimic a cactus. The inside is shaded as water passes in a canal and the outside walls shingle in layers to allow maximum cooling capacity as the sun moves across the horizon.

Architekton and Grimshaw worked with Soltero as a team to create a building exclusively identifiable to Arizona, and traces of human history are evident all throughout their work.

Rachel Green Rasmussen, a principal architect on the project from Architekton called it the “deep past.”

“On the second level we have Lucy, if you know who Lucy is. She is going to be on display and permanently housed for everyone to walk by and learn about the evolution of humankind,” said Green Rasmussen.

Lucy is an early hominid found in Ethiopia in 1974. She represents 40 percent of a humanoid skeleton from 3.18 million years ago. The campus has a recreated collection of her remains on display.

“The interior is reminiscent of Havasupai Falls,” Green Rasmussen said regarding the blue windows surrounding the open courtyard.

“Every day I drive by there and I look at it and think these are things as a graduate student that matter,” said Barzin Mobasher, an ASU professor at the School of Sustainable Engineering.

Mobasher said he feels connected to the ISTB7 building. In the 1980s he studied the innovatively thin concrete used on the outside of the building for insulation for his doctoral thesis.

In 2019, he spoke at an architecture conference in Scottsdale. This was the year Soltero approached  President Michael Crow with his ideas for the new building. They worked with Mobasher to prove the stability of this relatively new material that now coats ISTB7.

“It is both the human and engineering side that inspires me…thirty years later you dust off your work,” he said.

McCarthy Building Companies, Inc., built 281,000 square feet across five stories dedicated to innovative sustainability. The team included impressive functional aspects like robotic labs and a 389-seat lecture hall.

McCarthy started building in 1864 and worked with ASU for several other projects, including the Packard Drive parking structure.

Soltero said he is grateful that Crow saw his vision and supported it with others to make this building possible.

“Having strong patrons of the arts and architecture is what provides the ability to produce architecture that is enviable and that will put us on the map,” Soltero said.

Editor's Note: Christyann Hanzuk is a student at the Walter Cronkite School of  Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.