Phoenix CELE Master Plan

Center for Environmental Learning & Enterprise
Phoenix, Arizona

During an ongoing collaboration with the City of Phoenix, Michael Singer was hired to provide a conceptual master plan for a one square mile area of city land adjacent to the 27th Avenue Solid Waste Transfer and Recycling Center project. The Singer Team developed an initial site analysis, an evaluation of opportunities and constraints and conceptual guidelines for redevelopment. The Team then further developed a master plan proposing the site as a demonstration project for the reclamation of environmentally devastated land as well as providing an opportunity for an eco-industrial park. The plan defines the site as the Center for Environmental Learning and Enterprise (CELE) in which the eco-industrial park function is interwoven with public access and educational programming informing the public about recycling, water conservation, land reclamation and protection, and solid waste handling and reduction. The core systems of the eco-industrial park were based off of the resources from nearby infrastructure including the recycling facility, methane from the nearby closed landfill and effluent from a nearby water treatment facility. The plan identifies three zones within the site: the capped landfill, a building zone for an eco-industrial loop, and an ecological regeneration zone along the adjacent Salt River. The processes within the eco-industrial loop are based primary on four systems: 1. material reprocessing from recyclables to new products, 2. biological processing from organic waste to compost, soil, plants and plant products 3. reclaimed water based systems for hydroponics and aquaponics and 4. biological processing for biofuels and biogas. The second of these systems had direct ties to the regeneration plan and habitat restoration efforts for the heavily degraded Salt River.

Phoenix adopted the plan and later commissioned Michael Singer Studio to develop design guidelines for the building zone and eco-industrial loop. Aspects of the CELE plan have been implemented to-date, most notably a woody-waste processing area that produces mulch and soil. The ongoing recycling and mulching operations at the CELE site and the surrounding areas are a part of the City’s Climate Action Plan.

Artist / Designer: Michael Singer
Michael Singer Studio Project Team: Linnea Glatt, Laurel McSherry and
Frederic Steiner of the Arizona State University Department of Urban
Planning and Landscape Architecture, Trevor Lee, Blackbird Architects
Singer Studio Public Policy Advisor: Nancy Rutledge Connery, Public Policy Advisor