Located in Phoenix’s Roosevelt Row Arts District, Ray Phoenix is a new 26-storey residential tower designed by Johnston Marklee in collaboration with Lamar Johnson Collaborative. Developed by Ray and VeLa, the mixed-use project combines housing, retail, cultural spaces, and shared amenities within a single high-rise structure. The building includes 401 rental apartments across studio, one-bedroom, and two-bedroom layouts, spread across more than 530,000 square feet.
Ray Phoenix’s architecture is shaped around a unified podium-and-tower composition. A gridded façade wraps the entire structure, gradually reducing in scale as the tower rises upward. This approach improves outward views while also giving the tower a consistent visual identity across different elevations. The façade combines tinted glass, matte powder-coated metal panels, and colored concrete, producing a layered surface that changes appearance through sunlight and shadow during the day. The pastel green exterior references the desert environment of Arizona and draws influence from regional modernist architecture, including Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West.
At street level, the space has been designed to remain visually open and publicly accessible. Oversized awnings and shaded arcades create protection from the intense desert climate while connecting the retail frontage and gallery spaces to the surrounding streetscape. Perforated metal panels integrated within the podium allow ventilation for parking areas while adding texture and depth to the exterior. Sloped panels along the lower levels strengthen the architectural expression at the pedestrian scale and improve shading conditions along the sidewalk.
Ray Phoenix Integrates Housing and Public Spaces
The interiors were developed by Ray’s in-house design team together with Parts & Labor Design. Shared spaces throughout the tower focus on communal use instead of isolated luxury programming. The project includes a fitness center, yoga studio, resort-style outdoor pool, communal kitchen, co-working spaces, lounge areas, gardens, and a theater-style sunken seating space. An amenity deck positioned between the podium and tower acts as a central social level, integrating landscaped gardens and outdoor recreational areas within the dense urban building.
Inside the apartments, large floor-to-ceiling windows bring natural light deep into the interiors while framing views of the Phoenix skyline and surrounding mountains. The interior palette continues the building’s restrained architectural language through muted colors, textured finishes, and clean geometric forms. Public-facing cultural spaces, including an exhibition venue and artist interventions by Alex Israel, extend the project beyond residential use and reinforce its connection to Phoenix’s growing arts district.
Image credit: Johnston Marklee / Ray Phoenix
