96,407 SF | Industrial | Tempe, Arizona

Auto House is a Tempe-based auto sales company with a unique sales proposition for its customers. They provide an indoor, climate controlled environment for their customers to  purchase preowned vehicles as an enhanced, buying experience. The indoor 81,800 SF  showroom is temperature-controlled to benefit the customers and staff as well as the automobiles.  It is also impressive.

Attached to this fully enclosed, single-level garage-style showroom is a two-story office structure which is a key component to the success of the project. The attached offices allow the sales staff and customers to look out over the the entire inventory from the sales offices. The office portion of the facility is 14,500 SF, and provides executive and sales offices along with space for support staff, conference rooms, and a two-story entry lobby.

The exterior of the building was designed with vertical bands to diminish the scale of horizontal volumes of this very large building.  The office area is further reduced with a lower parapet height to moderate the bulk of the building to be in scale with the surrounding developments. A pedestrian-scaled façade and entry are articulated by ribbon windows punctuated by the larger expanse of glass for the front entry lobby.  The color scheme consists of a warm palette of grey tones highlighted by the introduction of an accent color, representing the Auto House branding.

The City of Tempe also requires developers of projects larger than 50,000 SF to contribute to their Art in Private Development Program.  Cawley commissioned David Brant from “Idea” to conceive of an art project that referenced the automobile industry for this project.  David designed an entry plaza sculpture that elicited an image of moving wheels and mechanical shafts.  He also added screens as decorative elements to the upper portion of the building to reduce the apparent volume of the showroom and bring it into harmony with the smaller front office volume.

Owner: Precision Fleet Services, LLC
Contractor: Ganem Construction
Interiors: Cawley Design Studio
Public Art: David Brandt, Idea