Community

Oper­a­tion Fix-​It

PHX Archi­tec­ture took a day out of the office to vol­un­teer with the City of Scottsdale’s Oper­a­tion Fix-​It. Michelle Holmes, Pro­gram Man­ager, started Oper­a­tion Fix-​It to help lower-income res­i­dents main­tain their prop­er­ties with tasks such as land­scap­ing, paint­ing, minor repairs, and gen­eral spruc­ing up.

The PHX Team was excited to help Wayne, a Navy veteran who has lived in his home since 1973. Wayne lives with his son in South Scotts­dale. The Team pulled weeds from the front yard and dug out a short trench to level the lawn with the side­walk. We then spread rock through­out the yard, and poured rock to cre­ate extra dri­ve­way space. In the backyard, we dismantled a greenhouse and did some gen­eral clean up. The rose bushes and front yard tree were trimmed, and we planted new flow­ers and plants. Wayne men­tioned his flag had been torn in a recent storm, so we raised a new Amer­i­can flag and gifted Wayne with a Navy flag for his flag­pole. The team cre­ated a paver walk­way from the front porch to the side­walk and we replaced his porch sun­screen so he could sit out­side and enjoy the weather.

Scottsdale’s Mayor Lane visited during our volunteer day to check in on a program he supports, and he got to learn more about Wayne. Despite the heat, it was a fun and ful­fill­ing afternoon!

You can help make Oper­a­tion Fix-​It a con­tin­ued suc­cess! To vol­un­teer mate­ri­als and/​or your time, please visit www​.scotts​daleaz​.gov/​n​e​i​g​h​b​o​r​h​o​o​d​s​/​o​p​e​r​a​t​i​o​n​-​f​i​x​-​i​t

Phoenix Children’s Hos­pi­tal — Fes­ti­val of Trees

Start­ing with nine-​foot tall trees as blank can­vases, gen­er­ously donated by Ace Hard­ware, the best of the Valley’s inte­rior design­ers spend weeks imag­in­ing com­pletely unique and fes­tive works of art for the pub­lic to bid on for dis­play in their home or busi­ness, or as the bid­der wishes, to be donated to a deserv­ing fam­ily. Trees this year will fea­ture pop­u­lar themes from the past year, includ­ing an inter­pre­ta­tion of Disney’s Frozen, which is sure to spark a bid­ding war among the biggest fans.

“We’ve had three solid, suc­cess­ful years with this event and we’re look­ing for­ward to pro­pelling it for­ward in a big way by part­ner­ing with Scotts­dale Fash­ion Square as our new venue host,” said Steve Schnall, Senior Vice Pres­i­dent and Chief Devel­op­ment Offi­cer for Phoenix Children’s Hos­pi­tal Foun­da­tion. “The Fes­ti­val of Trees is an impor­tant part of our fundrais­ing cam­paign as we fin­ish out the year. We invite every­one in the Val­ley to visit the dis­play and see the incred­i­ble work that has been done by these phe­nom­e­nal inte­rior designers.”

All pro­ceeds ben­e­fit Phoenix Children’s Hospital.

For more infor­ma­tion please visit www​.pch​fes​ti​val​oftrees​.com

CAN-​Struction

PHX Archi­tec­ture actively par­tic­i­pates in CAN-​Struction, an inter­na­tional design com­pe­ti­tion that brings com­pa­nies from the AEC Indus­try together by cre­at­ing struc­tures and designs entirely out of canned foods. Teams are respon­si­ble for acquir­ing their cans and com­ing up with a design that will be able to stand on it’s own for a week at the Phoenix Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. All cans used in the con­struc­tion of the design is donated to St. Mary’s Food Bank in Phoenix.

To find out more infor­ma­tion on CAN-​Struction click here.

St. Mary’s Food Drive

St. Mary’s has pos­i­tively impacted the lives of many here in Ari­zona – and across the globe – and PHX Archi­tec­ture wants to help them con­tinue to do so. St. Mary’s became the world’s first food bank back in 1967, since then it has encour­aged the devel­op­ment of sev­eral other food banks across the coun­try. One of the largest food banks in the world, St. Mary’s has sev­eral out­reach pro­grams includ­ing the Com­mu­nity Kitchen, Mobile Pantry, Hunger Heroes, Kids Café, and more. Their Kid’s Café pro­gram alone serves over 5,000 meals to hun­gry chil­dren each day!

PHX Archi­tec­ture Sum­mer Camp

PHX Archi­tec­ture holds our annual Sum­mer Camp every June. The camp is open to junior and senior high stu­dents with an inter­est in pur­su­ing Archi­tec­ture in col­lege. Stu­dents who want to learn more about what an archi­tect does and what is involved in the day-​to-​day activ­i­ties of an archi­tect are encour­aged to enroll in this fun, edu­ca­tional program.

During the two-week camp, campers will be intro­duced to all the aspects of an archi­tec­tural career. Campers will expe­ri­ence the day-​to-​day activ­i­ties of a work­ing archi­tec­ture office for two weeks, while learn­ing from the archi­tects on staff the dif­fer­ent skills needed for this career. From com­puter pro­grams to actual con­struc­tion site vis­its, this com­pre­hen­sive, hands-​on learn­ing expe­ri­ence is exactly what stu­dents need to decide whether a career in architecture is right for them.

The pro­gram includes:

• Career His­tory
• Local Archi­tec­ture Tours
• Space Plan­ning
• Green Archi­tec­ture
• Hand Ren­der­ing
• 3D Mod­el­ing
• Auto­Cad Drafting
• Photoshop/​InDesign
• Project Man­age­ment
• Busi­ness Strategies

Sum­mer camp atten­dees will observe the team of diversely tal­ented pro­fes­sion­als at PHX Archi­tec­ture as they work on local and regional projects. The two week pro­gram runs for two weeks every June and includes lunches and a tour of Tal­iesin West, ASU, and a con­struc­tion site visit.

O’Connor House Art Benefit

PHX Archi­tec­ture trans­formed their office space into an art gallery to host an art sale to ben­e­fit O’Connor House, a non-​profit orga­ni­za­tion.

“O’Connor House wishes to thank Nikal Conti, Erik Peter­son and PHX Archi­tec­ture for a remark­able evening of art, hos­pi­tal­ity and gen­eros­ity,” stated Sarah Suggs, O’Connor House Pres­i­dent and CEO. Jus­tice San­dra Day O’Connor was so pleased with the St. Patrick’s Day coin­ci­den­tal date, it was delight­ful! We also wish to thank Beth Ames Swartz and John Roth­schild for their impec­ca­ble art col­lec­tion and gra­cious support.”

To see more pic­tures, visit our Face­book page.

Habi­tat for Humanity

PHX Archi­tec­ture put on their hard­hats and ham­mered away to build a home for a deserv­ing fam­ily in Tempe with Habi­tat for Human­ity of Cen­tral Arizona.

“We are very excited to sup­port our com­mu­nity, while hav­ing a great team bond­ing expe­ri­ence,” Nikal Conti, Prin­ci­pal of PHX Archi­tec­ture said. As designers, the PHX architects enjoyed the opportunity to leave the office, hit the field, and bring a build­ing to life.

Habi­tat for Human­ity of Cen­tral Ari­zona builds in cities across the Val­ley from Apache Junc­tion to Sur­prise. They pri­mar­ily build sin­gle-fam­ily, detached homes, both on in-​fill prop­er­ties and in com­mu­nity settings.

All Habi­tat for Human­ity homes are between three and five bed­rooms with a min­i­mum of two bath­rooms, and they reflect the style of the neigh­bor­hood in which they are built.

“We are proud to help Habi­tat for Human­ity accom­plish its goal of elim­i­nat­ing over­crowded, sub­stan­dard hous­ing through­out the Val­ley.” Erik Peter­son, Prin­ci­pal of PHX Archi­tec­ture said.

1% Program

99% of our time at PHX Arch is ded­i­cated to design­ing the dreams of our clients.

The remain­ing 1% is ded­i­cated to “The 1% Pro­gram”- a pro­gram that con­nects non– prof­its with archi­tec­ture and design firms will­ing to give 1% of their bill­able time to pro-​bono services.

Cur­rently, PHX Archi­tec­ture is work­ing with the Cys­tic Fibro­sis Foun­da­tion to design the look and feel for the office lobby in their new loca­tion. We are also design­ing a donor wall to show­case the won­der­ful men and women who donate their time and money in the effort to find a cure for cys­tic fibrosis.

We are hon­ored to be help­ing the foun­da­tion, and to be doing our part to help the community. To find out more about this pro­gram please visit www​.theoneper​cent​.org