SPECIALIZED FACILITIES For its new Integrated Education & Research Building (IERB), Mayo Clinic requested a street-facing façade that is inviting and conveyed transparency. Photo Credit (all): Bill Timmerman Photo/Courtesy of CO Architects
New Mayo Clinic Building Is a Phoenix Oasis
Integrated Education & Research Building artfully blends training and academics By Arnold Swanborn, AIA
Breaking From Tradition
Mayo Clinic — renowned for its world-class, ground-breaking care — attracts industry-leading academics, clinical caregivers and researchers. Organized around “three shields” of medical care (practice, research, education), Mayo believes that all three tenets must be integrated to create an environment that culminates in superior bedside delivery. At Mayo Clinic’s Phoenix campus, however, medical-education programs were spread among several locations and lacked appropriate research space. Thus, Mayo upgraded its campus with the new $90-million Integrated Education & Research Building (IERB), which centralizes its six education programs with much-needed research space into one high-tech, interdisciplinary 150,000-square-foot facility.
Mayo Clinic has an established design language that includes regionally sensitive materials as well as simple and bold volumes punctuated by windows. Given the IERB’s siting and prominence, Mayo challenged the design team to push the boundaries, creating a structure that is striking from the street, regionally appropriate and sympathetic to the Phoenix campus architecture. The arrival experience was a high priority. As many of the campus buildings have limited glazing, Mayo’s administration wanted the IERB to be open and welcoming. Using solar orientation as a primary driver, the massing resulted in breaking the project into two wings, positioned with long elevations facing north-south to simplify solar mitigation. Further, since the wings have different mechanical-use profiles, the academic wing was positioned as the north wing with a generous north-facing glass façade that creates an inviting presence along the main street.
A Space for Learning, Discovery and Sharing The IERB serves as the new hub for Mayo’s Alix School of Medicine and provides space for up to 30 full-time researchers, clinicians and investigators. To support all these programs, the building provides technology-enabled classrooms of various sizes, simulation and exam rooms, and a virtual-reality room. Research spaces include flexible wet labs, the Center for Procedural Innovation lab, and a core lab equipped for flow cytometry, two-photon microscopy for deep tissue visualization and genomic analysis. The IERB project’s mission is to connect education and research programs through myriad collaboration spaces. One IERB highlight is a 220-person event center accessed by two combinable 60-person classrooms, a café and a student lounge. Vertically, the programs connect through the lobby’s central staircase and a second-floor lounge and library that are integrated into public circulation. This design blends tradition with innovation, offering individual and group study rooms, a Sectra anatomy table (a digital 3D dissection and visualization system), anatomical models and hardcopy books. The second floor “necklace” of collaborative/public spaces defines the building’s core mission of integration.
A Vision Rooted in Mayo’s ‘Three Shields’ The IERB draws its inspiration from Mayo Clinic’s “three shields” mission. While clinical-care services are located elsewhere on the campus, the IERB embodies the synergy of education and research. The facility consists of two distinct wings, one for education and one for research, each staggered to embrace and optimize sunlight. The wings are connected by a bridge that serves as the entry point and the collaborative hub between the programs.
The Oasis: A Desert Gem A woven fabric infiltrates the two wings. This functional and metaphorical element laces the disparate programs together, fostering interaction among students, faculty, researchers, and clinicians for the shared pursuit of knowledge and innovation. Known as the “oasis,” this self-shaded central courtyard brings in the desert landscape, grounds the building to place — and provides for respite from stress-laden academic programs. Finding ways to connect to the environment are paramount to creating lasting and impactful spatial and sustainable architecture. The edge-of-campus site is bounded by a natural flood channel. Thus, the desert beauty, especially in the spring, comes with inherent risks that require mitigation. The design team of CO Architects and DFDG Architecture addressed the issue and harnessed the innate desert beauty, raising the building on an earthen base. The land flows between the masses, allowing the natural desertscape into the IERB, defining the spirit of the oasis while mitigating flood risk. This courtyard space provides respite and contemplation between the two wings. The oasis also hosts events. Durable, weather-resilient polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) sails soar overhead, stretched between the building’s wings. This canopy provides shade from the intense Phoenix sun, emits light, and allows for natural ventilation — resulting in a peaceful, thriving and native desert oasis. The canopy extends to cover a terrace atop the bridge between the wings and entry at the west. A destination, the oasis is immediately visible upon entry from, and accessed through, a glass-encased lobby. This double-height foyer welcomes visitors with a sense of transparency and physically embodies the intersection of the IERB’s dual purposes: education and research.
For solar control, the IERB’s south-facing research wing’s façade is primarily EIFS stucco. Angular lines and slit windows animate this wing, with Corten panels functioning as a unifying design cue.
In contrast, the research wing’s south-facing wall is largely solid for solar control, with narrow slit windows. East and west elevations are minimally articulated with windows, depending on shadow, shade and subtle geometric faceting to create an intriguing profile. From inside, these windows poetically frame the desert landscape, encouraging occupants to pause and engage with the environment. A two-story glassencased main entry doubles as a bridge that unifies the wings. The design approach was to create a legible, understated, program-responsive architecture that is symbiotic with place and heritage. The two wings, gently angled away from each other, embrace the desert landscape to the east. Light-colored to reflect heat, the masses are subtly shaped using light to obviate the rectilinear masses and create a dynamic profile that changes in the light. The wings are cohesive in size and shape, using exterior accents to further relax their rectilinear forms. Southwestern pottery inspired the porcelain-tile accents that define the base of the education wing while Corten metal exterior panels evoke the temporal desert landscape. The latter is used to delineate the collaborative network of interior spaces that laces through the building, the glue that bonds Mayo’s disparate shields into a unified whole. The stone and metal surfaces combine to define the west-facing entry court and anticipate the rich warm interior. The result is a facility that feels alive and responsive to its surroundings. The IERB encapsulates the essence of architectural problem-solving. It’s a space where education and research converge and where the desert inspires design. As Mayo Clinic’s Phoenix campus continues to grow, this building will remain a hub of innovation, reflecting the organization’s commitment to education and biomedical innovation. Arnold Swanborn, AIA, is a Principal at CO Architects. www.schoolconstructionnews.com | november - december 2025 | 15