Dunlap Venue Phoenix, Arizona building

Dunlap Venue Phoenix pavilion photos, Arizona marketplace architecture, AZ structure

Dunlap Venue in Phoenix

post updated April 19, 2026

Design: coLAB studio, llc

Location: Phoenix, Arizona, USA

Photos: Bill Timmerman, Aaron Rothman and Matthew Salenger, coLAB studio

November 17, 2023

Dunlap Venue, Arizona

Working with the community, the creation of the Dunlap Venue is taking shape in a city with very little public space.

Hired to create artwork at a new light rail station, it is decided to add a public shaded venue adjacent to the station. The design incorporates infrastructure at the station to enable the local community to sell goods and produce.

The venue will also function when a market is not taking place by providing landscape, shade, and seating in order to make the option of public transportation more inviting.

At the canopy, artwork created out of interactions with students from six adjacent schools is displayed in nine art “cones” casting light and shadow onto the plaza below. We asked students to “reimagine” their schools through drawings that we transformed into imagery for each cone. Associated placards set in the plaza’s paving will be illuminated by the art “cones” on specific days of the year.

On the station platform, three pink panels contain images of three architectural projects designed over the past 100 years for Greater Metro Phoenix that did not get realized; Frank Lloyd Wright’s State Capitol, Barton Myers Phoenix City Hall, and Will Bruder / Norman Foster’s Gateway Center in Tempe.

All the project’s imagery is meant to act as a series of alternative aesthetic worlds that question our existing city’s appearance.

How is the project unique?
This project was initially meant to be an art installation. coLAB Studio recognized the lack of shaded public spaces in the area, and also wanted the adjacent neighborhoods to feel a sense of ownership over this new light-rail and transit hub location. We worked with the neighborhoods, several area schools, and the City of Phoenix to create a space that could be used as a farmer’s market, music venue, meeting space, and a more shady place to wait for a train.

During this process, the city and Valley Metro decided to give us a much larger site to work with and doubled our budget.

We then were able to work with the architects and landscape architects to collaboratively design a 10,000 square foot plaza. We located all the trees, walls, paving, and seating. We designed the walls and seating.