Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community - Data Center

Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community Data Center exterior architecture Science and technology SmithGroup Scottsdale Phoenix Arizona
Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community Data Center exterior architecture Science and technology SmithGroup Scottsdale Phoenix Arizona
Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community Data Center exterior architecture Science and technology SmithGroup Scottsdale Phoenix Arizona
Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community Data Center Interior architecture Science and technology SmithGroup Scottsdale Phoenix Arizona
Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community Data Center Interior architecture Science and technology SmithGroup Scottsdale Phoenix Arizona

Along with the customary role of a data center to preserve informational assets, the Pima-Maricopa Indian Community also uses its data center to preserve cultural assets, in a building that respects and reflects the cultural identity of this sovereign tribe.

Client

Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community

Location

Scottsdale, Arizona

Markets/Services

Architecture, Data Centers, MEP Engineering, Mission Critical, Science & Technology, Workplace

Size

5,500 SF

The Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, comprising Native American tribes of the Phoenix valley, needed a safe and secure repository to store digital content of cultural value. The modern concept of data storage generally comprises financial or technical data, however the community sought a repository for audio and video recordings of tribal traditions for historical preservation and future education.

 

Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community Data Center Interior architecture Science and technology SmithGroup Scottsdale Phoenix Arizona

The single-story masonry and concrete building provides 2,500 square feet of reliable, redundant data storage in a 6,900 square-foot facility and adjacent 2,500-square-foot electrical/mechanical yard.

To reflect this legacy role, the team merged the components of a conventional enterprise data repository with elements of a cultural facility responsive to the community’s heritage.

Because it will occasionally host members of the community, the data center includes a welcoming lobby and meeting space. The exterior exhibits the importance of the Pima-Maricopa community government campus and the greater campus master plan. Notably, it retains views to the east and north of Red Mountain, a landmark of cultural significance.

The data center’s exterior also expresses the tribal aesthetic with subtle and appropriate treatments. A basket-weave pattern on the masonry walls provides texture to a building that desires few windows. Screen walls and gates are evocative of the ocotillo, a native plant that, like the Pima-Maricopa people, flourishes in Arizona’s desert environment.

Indigenous data is a collection, much like the historical physical artifacts of the tribes.  With this framework for storage of digital assets, the learned structure of the community can be preserved for generations to come.