This house for a single guy in his mid 30’s draws upon the slick and cool ideal of a modern bachelor pad. Set on the edge of an older neighborhood near the University of Arizona, the concept creates indoor, outdoor living that makes the best of a small site and tight budget. Constrained by formidable setbacks [...]

Home to one of Tucson’s ice manufacturing plants until it closed permanently in 2002, the Ice House Lofts are 51 distinctive residences located in the 1923 Arizona Ice and Cold Storage Company building. The design preserves the authentic industrial character of the existing building’s exterior shell while simultaneously infusing it with new life in the [...]

Barrio Metalico is a small community of nine freestanding houses set within the industrial and residential neighborhood of Millville, east of downtown Tucson, Arizona. Initially conceived as a speculative project to enhance the neighborhood in anticipation of the adjacent 51 unit conversion of a 1923 Ice and Cold Storage the Metalico homes quickly took on [...]

Located in the center of Tucson, this 22 unit town loft project defines community living with proximity to shopping, restaurants and the nearby University. Built on the former site of a mobile home park on one side of Third Street and over a dilapidated duplex on the other side, Indigo Modern re-builds an important infill [...]

Silverado Flats provides a sophisticated alternative to the ubiquitous stucco-box apartment building. Centrally located, the project utilizes an infill site to create twelve units with outdoor spaces, an abundance of light, and a central entry court to foster a sense of community. The program and site constraints called for two distinct sizes of units: one-bedroom one-story [...]

Notched into a steep hillside in the Tucson Mountains, this house utilizes simple rectangular forms arranged along a curve. With simple contrasts of rough to smooth, curved to straight, hard to soft, and heavy to light, the design creates a sequence of spaces that encourage multiple interpretations of its desert environs. Overlaying a strict geometry on [...]

The monumental sixteen story 5151 building on East Broadway has been updated with a fresh, modern interior. The largest office tower in Tucson was initially designed without direct connection to the adjacent Major Boulevard and lacked the presence worthy of Tucson’s largest office tower. This design provides this connection and begins the process of updating [...]

Located in downtown Tucson, this project involves the renovation and re-adaptation of a two-story 1890’s building into mixed-use housing and commercial. Phase one, the façade renovation, is complete while phase two, the loft conversion, awaits additional land assemblage to satisfy parking requirements. Ultimately, the scheme will create four lofts upstairs with a central stair coming from [...]

Designed for the husband and wife team who own the company, the project respected a tight construction budget and time schedule. The building combines all aspects of the Elastek Company: office space, sales, showroom and manufacture of elastomeric products. Bold and colorful forms stand out against the surrounding industrial context. Highly articulated steel elements, painted bright [...]

74 DODGE represents the potential for establishing a new typology for the ubiquitous American retail plaza. This remodel of a 200 foot deep masonry structure with steel trusses uses common materials in minimal yet varied applications to dress up the ‘Big Box’. Shifting building heights through the introduction of secondary façade treatments transformed what was a [...]

This metal building project consists of two separate buildings shared by the same entity. Southwest Hazard Control, a business that provides environmental abatement services, will operate its administrative functions from the office building with storage of its goods for services located in the warehouse building. A wedge-shaped courtyard is formed between the two buildings providing [...]

One of three major mid-rises in downtown Tucson, the Bank of America building affords incredible views to the surrounding city, desert and mountains. These powerful vistas informed the design of the lobby and conference room to become as transparent as possible. The interior creates a tranquil environment for the attorneys and their clients on the floor [...]

The Barrio Restaurant project involved a close collaboration with three owners of a premier Southwest dining establishment. Located in downtown Tucson, the restaurant takes up the bottom floor of a two-story building that dates to 1914. Built in conjunction with a complete overhaul of the historic façade of the building, the design plays off the [...]

The renovation of the St. Andrews Gospel Hall provides new gathering space to complement the congregation’s new worship facility. The program consisted of creating a large lobby gathering space, a children’s library, a choir rehearsal room and office space, a warming kitchen and various other support spaces. The existing space was an older metal building and [...]

990 East Seventeenth represents the re-adaptation of an existing repair shop building into 4,292 square feet of modern professional office building. Taking advantage of the efficient and open structure for open space and expanses of glazing, a unique office space and north facing courtyard is created to serve a small scale design-oriented user. The transformation begins [...]

The re-adaptation and repositioning of the 1969 Martin Luther King Jr. building represents a major step forward to breathing new life into the East end of Downtown Tucson. Situated adjacent to the thriving Hotel Congress and the newly renovated Rialto Theater, the One North Fifth project will fill in the corner of Congress and Fifth [...]

Situated at the first uplift of the Catalina Foothills in Tucson, this residence for Rob Paulus and his family reaches up and out to capture impressive mountain and desert wash views while providing a clear counterpoint to the curvy site. Although over an acre in size, the small build-able portion of the site informed the [...]

Situated on a tight corner site in Scottsdale Arizona, this project pushes up three floors and out to maximize the zoning envelope while accommodating visibility for automobiles on the corner. The lower floor is pulled back from the street to allow parking in front of the houses while affording privacy at the entry with distance [...]

This house for a young couple on a desert hillside is commanding in both its topography and surrounding views. The dramatic slope encourages a minimal footprint and stacked space. With a strong horizontal character and minimalist forms, the structure slides between saguaros and floats over the site. A masonry base is a perch on which [...]

The Dos Pedros Lofts represent five highly efficient single family houses in the historic Barrio Viejo neighborhood in Tucson Arizona. Located immediately south of the University of Arizona, the two-story freestanding lofts with enclosed entrance courtyards represent an ideal approach of spatial and thermal efficiency built within the existing city infrastructure. High ceilings and large windows [...]

The client sought a more open approach to their new home after years of living in a historic adobe house in the middle of town. The design concept quickly evolved to reflect the couple’s desire to downsize their lifestyle while “super sizing” their views of the dramatic desert landscape. Creasing and folding the rusted metal skin [...]

The Camp Lowell Corporate Center development consists of office and out-patient medical space in two two-story and ten single-story buildings for sale as fee simple. Conceived as a simple kit of parts, the project varies fenestration and entry placement to satisfy different users while maintaining a consistent look throughout that recalls the nearby century old [...]

Lacking a unified image along a busy thoroughfare in Tucson Arizona, the owners of this Honda Motorcycle Dealership sought to clean up its façade to better reflect the high quality product they sell. The existing façade was demolished and the building was painted a gray base color allowing metal elements- powder-coated “Honda Red”- to contrast with [...]

The Arizona Department of Transportation project will be a new 10,800 square-foot facility that consolidates the numerous functions of registration, titling, and licensing under one roof. This one stop-shopping program required the design to be legible and usable while fitting on a tight and constrained site. Just as the road displays its signs and symbols to [...]

Simple criteria guided the design of this residence–configure the house on the site to maximize the views to mountain and city lights and create a passive solar orientation that works in the desert. The topography was used as a point of departure for the design; the house wraps itself around the highest point of the site [...]

This multi-story project creates attractive and zero-energy use commercial space along an under-utilized corridor which defines the southern edge of California State University in Sacramento California. Working with a unique industrial design and prototyping company, Design Annex, this building houses their new headquarters with the remaining area leased as speculative commercial and retail space. Occupying a [...]

The goal of this mixed-use infill project is to provide the opportunity for a unique and refreshing livable community in the heart of downtown. This project includes the following design elements and objectives: Courtyard scheme designed to encourage open air cross-ventilation Full-grown trees to fill interior courtyard space for shading the parking lot and to soften visual [...]

Balance serves as the figurative vehicle through which we addressed, resolved and reconciled the seemingly disparate desires and expectations for this project. Through its physical form, the solution balances the scale of the single-story El Presidio neighborhood with the adjacent mid-rise residential and government buildings. In terms of providing sufficient parking; the solution balances the [...]

The 20th street residences represent four houses set within one of the oldest neighborhoods in Tucson. The property was originally slated for a marginal five unit rental complex when a deal was struck to purchase the property and pursue a better use of the land. This new concept created four separate lots and a much [...]

The Henkel Artist Lofts represent three highly efficient single family houses in an up and coming Lost Barrio neighborhood in Tucson, Arizona. Located immediately south of the University of Arizona, the two story freestanding lofts represent an ideal approach to spatial and thermal efficiency built within the existing city infrastructure. High ceilings and abundant windows emphasize [...]

The La Placita Conversion integrates 65 new dwelling units into what was formally office and retail space to completely rebrand and create a mixed use project in the middle of downtown Tucson. Built in the early 1970’s under the guise of urban renewal, the original project and program have fallen short of the original intent [...]

Inspired by the quiet beauty of the Southwest Desert, the design concept for this nine home subdivision creates a feeling of escape and privacy in the center of town. Located in the Old Ft. Lowell neighborhood, a distinguished historic district in Tucson, this project draws upon a rich legacy of Sonoran Desert design (i.e. passive [...]

This single family residence was created for the Tucson Museum of Art 2006 ‘Birds of a Feather’ birdhouse silent auction. The Desert Dove makes her nest in the city’s forgotten places, in the incidental places underneath and between the larger elements that comprise our own shelters and industries. Inspired by this reality of urban dwelling, our [...]

Creating a site sculpture The central walkway at indigoMODERN Lofts terminates with an eight foot diameter jet engine cowling. Perfectly round and unabashed, the cowling contrasts the ninety degree angles of the architecture to create a modern day termination of axis. The cowling was acquired from a local airplane salvage yard. It has been sandblasted and [...]