A Rotunda Reborn

While some might worry about working with such a historical gem like the Phoenix Financial Center, the Boston and Phoenix-based firm has quite a history of its own. Tracing its origins back to Henry Hobson Richardson, one of the most acclaimed architects in America, Shepley Bulfinch has designed buildings for over 150 years. Founded in Boston, it was a family-run business that designed many Romanesque buildings in “Beantown” including Trinity Church, and other globally recognized structures such as the Art Institute of Chicago. While it has gone through various name changes over the years, Shepley Bulfinch can count itself as one of the longest continually practicing architectural firms in the United States. 

Outgrowing their Arizona offices in the early 2010s, principals found that the south rotunda of the Phoenix Financial Center would be the perfect place for a new home. Designed by W.A. Sarmiento, a Peruvian-born architect who apprenticed under the world-famous Oscar Niemeyer (the mastermind behind the capital of Brasília). The building was originally meant to have two towers that accompanied its spaceship-like rotundas, but only one was ever built. Planned to house a community bank, the complex’s south rotunda included a blue stained-glass star in its ceiling, smooth wood paneling, and a glamorous curved staircase leading up to a second-floor balcony.

Coming from their offices high in the Phoenix sky, landing in the Financial Center’s rotunda was a perfect new beginning for the Shepley Bulfinch team. As principal Joe Herzog states, “We looked all over the city, including the top floors of a high-rise. It started feeling weird looking down at the city. You have to be in it.” Renovating the rotunda back to its original form as much as possible (the bank vault is now used as an art gallery), the wide open space of the Shepley Bulfinch offices is a perfect spot to dream big and look up to a sky full of opportunities.