Arizona State University
128,000 SF
Design-Build
Prime Architect
2024
$88M
Project Manager
Interior Designer
By combining thoughtful design with innovative problem-solving, ASU’s five-story, 128,000-square-foot University Gateway Building delivers specialized academic spaces on its upper four floors, while its dynamic retail streetscape serves as ASU’s campus gateway on Mill Avenue.
At the heart of the building lies a central street-level student lobby connecting to its upper four academic floors. The four academic floors are dedicated to specialized programs primarily serving ASU’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. These spaces feature architectural design studios, music rehearsal and recording studios, digital and film photography labs, art media rooms, and an e-sports theater.
Advanced facilities support clinical music therapy, motion capture, stop-motion animation, sound research, and acoustically refined studios, including private practice and ensemble rehearsal rooms. Together, they cater to the institute’s diverse artistic and educational programs.
The building’s narrow, elongated form—70 feet deep and nearly 400 feet long—posed unique challenges for managing solar heat due to its orientation. The solution is a strategically engineered outer envelope, designed with a deeply faceted wall panel system to shade windows and control glare and heat gain.
Achieving this highly effective solution required ASU’s ongoing ambition to innovate, DFDG Architecture’s creativity in developing such a unique and effective solution, and the McCarthy construction team’s willingness to go the extra mile to execute it flawlessly.
The University Gateway Building represents a harmonious blend of learning, creativity, and community—an enduring cornerstone of a thriving campus and city.
ASU University Gateway Building is a 128,000 SF project in Tempe, AZ designed by DFDG Architecture. It serves a dual purpose: its upper four floors house specialized academic spaces for ASU’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, while its ground level features a dynamic retail streetscape that functions as ASU’s primary campus gateway from Mill Avenue.
The building houses a range of specialized facilities including architectural design studios, music rehearsal and recording studios, digital and film photography labs, art media rooms, and an e-sports theater. It also features advanced spaces for clinical music therapy, motion capture, stop-motion animation, sound research, and acoustically refined private practice and ensemble rehearsal rooms.
The building’s narrow, elongated form — 70 feet deep and nearly 400 feet long — created significant solar heat management challenges based on its orientation. The design team engineered a strategic solution to control heat gain while still meeting the building’s aesthetic and programmatic goals. The street-level lobby also had to function as both a welcoming student entry and a connector between the retail experience and the academic floors above.
The Gateway Building is more than a classroom facility, it is designed to signal ASU’s identity and creative energy to anyone approaching campus from Mill Avenue. By combining a vibrant, street-level commercial presence with specialized academic environments above, it creates a connection between the university and the surrounding community that few campus buildings achieve.
DFDG Architecture served as the design architect for the Gateway Building. The project required close coordination between the design team and contractor to navigate the building’s constrained site along Mill Avenue while delivering a facility that meets ASU’s diverse and evolving academic program needs. The project was delivered using the Design-Build delivery method.