landwrites reduced by 22 percent. Ultimately, these efforts brought the project in at $20 million and $365 per square foot ($3,927 per sq m). The Design Concept An early design meeting with the county attorney provided the design vision that the project should be a " lighthouse of justice, " a beacon to the community that accommodates the needs of 144 attorneys and staff members. This was imagined as a lantern on a plinth, with a glowing facade set on a heavy base. The western face of the building was the obvious choice for a display face due to its high visibility. The offices would sit adjacent to the new courthouse expansion, giving the attorneys secure access to the court building. The design and amenities of this building needed to offer a modern space with abundant natural daylight and ample transparency into all offices within the tight budget. And the facility needed to bring an element of enticement to recruit the next generation of county attorneys. The resulting design creates an environment that emphasizes employee wellness while making a statement as a forwardthinking sustainable building through a concept uniquely connected to the desert. Biomimicry Design Biomimicry is not the same as bio-inspired design that makes a building look like an element of nature. It is not adding a green roof or a plant wall. Biomimicry studies and then replicates nature's forms, processes, and ecosystems to create designs that affect the way a building functions. The design mimics nature to create conditions conducive to the resilience of a building. Sit in front of a saguaro cactus for an hour and you will see the way it protects itself and thrives in the intense desert heat. Its vertical fins provide continuous self-shading and redistribution of heat. This ability to self-shade breaks sunlight up into smaller areas that shift continually, preventing any one area of the cactus skin from overheating. This adaptation not only makes the saguaro viable, but also gives it a beautiful and distinct character. Creating a 3-D computer-generated model of a saguaro cactus and using a daylighting simulation model confirmed that no part of the plant received more than 15 to 20 minNature's design translated the shifting shadows across the saguaro cactus into the building's rigid self-shading fins accented by a pop of desert color for drivers to enjoy as they pass by. 86 URBAN LAND SUMMER 2022 PHOTOGRAPHY BY WINSGATE