Executive Profile

Building Success

Architect Mike Davis celebrates 30 years of great design

By ELINOR TUTORA and

REBECCA L. RHOADES

Mike Davis remembers seeing his first floor plan. He was 5 years old, and his parents showed the him the drawings for a house they were considering building. “I was mesmerized by it,” he recalls, “and I said to myself, ‘I will be an architect,’ and that pretty much stuck.”

Today, Davis is the founder and CEO of DAVIS, an architecture, interiors and urban design firm that is responsible for some of the most talked-about projects in the Valley in recent years. And he has our turbulent economy to thank for it.

In 1991, Davis was working for a firm in Newport Beach, California, when the savings and loan industry collapsed, stunting commercial real estate development across the country. “California really got rocked, and everything just shut down. So my boss at the time asked me to take over the Phoenix office,” he says. “The beautiful thing was that I had spent the six years prior learning how to run a company.”

The firm began to hit its stride in 1994 when the market picked back up. Over the years, it has grown and shrank, acquiring competitors and increasing staff to as many as 150 in 2008. “We found that 40 is a good size for us. It’s pretty robust,” Davis says.

The team specializes in designing office spaces, hotels and some multifamily residential projects. More than 35% of the Class A office space in the Valley — 35 million of roughly 110 million square feet — was designed by DAVIS. “Offices usually aren’t the statement projects that are front and center in the architecture magazines, but they’re important because they are the places people work in every day,” Davis explains.

One of the company’s most notable projects is Marina Heights, the single largest office development deal in Arizona history. Five buildings, ranging from six to 16 stories, span 20 acres on Tempe Town Lake. DAVIS had only 15 employees when it was approached by State Farm to design the structures.

“We were well into construction when one of their folks asked where our other office was. They were dumbstruck,” Davis recalls with a laugh.

A more recent project, the Class AA Grand2 at Papago Park Center, sold for more than $500 per square foot, making it the largest office sale in Arizona in 2020. Davis attributes the sale of the nine-story LEED Silver building not just to location but also to design. “We absolutely try to do the best looking buildings that we possibly can,” he points out. It’s an attribute that’s on display in the firm’s new headquarters.

After decades of renting, Davis decided it was time for a change. His wife, Lisa, a commercial interior designer to whom Davis attributes much of the firm’s success, found their current location, which the company purchased, renovated and moved into in July 2020.

Located on the top floor of the iconic Mayer Central Building, the space was home to the Playboy Club in the 1960s and ’70s. “The views and the location are great,” Davis says. “And the midcentury architecture just feels like Phoenix.”

These days, Davis has stepped back from the nitty-gritty aspects of the business and focuses more on initial conceptual design and closing deals. He looks to his oldest daughter, Taylor Sonoskey, to take the reins in the future. “I am really fascinated with having a daughter who’s way better at this than me. She’s a great architect,” Davis says. “She’s not as experienced as me yet, but I mentor her. I learn a lot from younger people; I think that’s a two-way street.”