Hohokam Camshaft Gates

Phoenix artists Bob Adams and Michael Maglich were commissioned to collaborate in the design and fabrication of seven gates for the Phoenix Convention Center loading dock area along 5th Street, between Monroe and Jefferson Streets. The idea was to create something unique for an otherwise sterile and utilitarian, yet crucial side of the convention center.

The results are the Hohokam Camshaft Gates, created to acknowledge the importance of trucking to the operation of the convention center while paying homage to the first Phoenix urban dwellers, the Hohokam people.

The spindles on the gates are representations of diesel truck camshafts and the heads that rise above the gates are enlarged reproductions of heads found on prehistoric Hohokam clay figurines from south central Arizona. The quirky and different "Hohokam heads" were sculpted by C. Matt Thomas.

"We definitely like how the design ties trucking, one of Phoenix Convention Center's most valuable operating partners, in with the history and heritage of the people who founded this beautiful valley of the sun," said Kevin Hill, Phoenix Convention Center Director of Marketing. "The response has been very positive, both from truckers and visitors alike."