Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community - Justice Center

The Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community (SRP-MIC) Justice Center is a 93,000 sq. ft. tribal court and practitioners building located on 4.3 acres of SRP-MIC land. It sits at the conceptual border mediating sovereign tribal land and the metropolitan area of Phoenix, Arizona.

The design of this project sought to enhance two uniquely SRPMIC goals:

• To uphold the deeply-rooted tradition and respect for the land
• To embrace the Community’s sense of identity, beauty, and humanity, told through the voice of humility

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Working across the border involved establishing cross-cultural relationships, employing a variety of communications, and the empathetic work of understanding history, place, and justice in an evolving tribal community. 

Stakeholder Engagement

The design team conducted more than 30 stakeholder meetings with judges and staff to understand user needs, which included increased efficiency, an improved court environment, reduced stress for visitors and staff, and service of future community growth.

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Our customized programming process engaged a broad constituent group in the question “What is the just use of your land?” With the community, we explored a spectrum of ideas to merge western court design goals with indigenous sustainable systems. This approach transformed the "court" typology, resulting in a building with landscape at its center, connected to its context in lieu of the typical “fortress” court structure. 

The organization of the Justice Center is orchestrated around exterior space. The building is conceived as a backdrop to a variety of outdoor rooms and "desert scapes" to represent tribal intimacy with native lands. The primary materials–glass, weathered steel and concrete–retain the vernacular of austere objects that are often all that remain after prolonged exposure in the desert.

Dematerialized and textured, the building is an homage to the woven objects of tribal tradition and a visual thinning of building mass.

The craft of the concrete work and custom rebar scrim demonstrate a deep care for the handmade and provide a glimpse into unique tribal sensibilities toward artistry, significance of place, and community.

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