With positive reception to the proposition, city officials begin to plan the out the facility that would become the Tempe Center for the Arts.

While originally slated to open in spring 2006, the design and construction of the roof proved a larger under taking than planned.

[11][12] For the entrance, environmental designer Ned Kahn used 8,000 embedded marbles and tiny mirrors to create a shimmering, sunlit effect at the Center’s marquee.

It echoes the shimmering effect on the west wall of the Lakeside room, where an array of mirrors captures and digitizes the available light reflecting off the Center’s negative edge pool.

[13] The roof is visible from the surrounding freeways and the man-made Tempe Town Lake, which occupies the natural watercourse of the Salt River, immediately adjacent to the site.