The firm selected to take on this project was HOK (Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum, Inc.) of San Francisco, CA, in association with DMJM Architects of Phoenix, AZ. "We competed for the selection by the city," said Clifford Ham of HOK. "We love to do courthouses like this, that will enrich people's lives and have a big effect on the community in which they are built."
The Phoenix Courthouse is a very busy municipal city court that consistently has between 4,000 and 5,000 people go through the front door everyday. Therefore, the people who would use the building had to be taken into consideration early in the design process. "There was a series of goals in the planning stages of this facility," Ham said. "One of them was to address the climate and use it as a starting point for the design. The sun is unforgiving in Phoenix, and it is dreadful to be out walking around, so the building itself was oriented to allow people to go from the parking structure to the public entrance in a short distance. We also took the main front wall of the building and turned it about 45 degrees away from due south. This allows the building to turn its shoulder to the hottest sun of the day. The main entrance, which looks a little like an interpretation of a cave dwelling, is deep set so it doesn't see direct sun."