Tucson Pictures

[colin]

A few Tucson photos I've taken over the past year or so.

Blue house in El Presidio:

Corner Market in El Presido. Now a home.

I went one day and took pictures of what I thought were ugly buildings around town:

County Courts Building:

Pima County Building, which I call the County's Castle:

Tucson House is by far the ugliest building in town, if not the state. If it was originally a hotel, but failed and was purchased by the City and turned into a public housing complex. It's funny because people in Tucson often almost seem ashamed of this building, and rightly so:

Gould-Simpson Building on the UA campus, which I've mentioned before. The building visible in the foreground is the Franklin Building, which has since been destroyed to make way for the construction of a new Family & Consumer Sciences Building.

San Augustin Cathedral:

More to come.

[MJLO]

thanks for the pics colin, I always love seeing the sights around Tucson. I'd love to see more streetscapes, or some of the high rises from the ground It would be awsome.

[Mith242]

Nice shots. I think I have to agree with you on the buildings you didn't care for. I also really liked the cathedral pics. I'm not Catholic but I've become a big fan of a lot of the Catholic churches of the southwest asfter visiting New Mexico so much. I've noticed the Catholic churches in southern AZ seem to have a unique look and different from any I've seen in NM. Also I was curious to find out more about Blue House in your first pic.

[colin]

NM churches are more traditional: adobe and rammed earth. New Mexico's great because it's just full of these beautiful, little churches.

AZ Spanish churches are more classical and colonial: elaborate murals and carvings, domes. There's a whole string of these running south from Tucson, the most famous and, IMHO, most beautiful being Mission San Xavier Del Bac south of Tucson. Several in northern Sonora also look strikingly similar, all being the influence of Kino.

The rammed earth style with the strange, solid color is actually pretty common around Central Tucson. Barrio Viejo, Barrio Anita, El Presidio and Armory Park all have quite a few homes like this. The color is usually blue, purple, orange, yellow or a dark pink (which is rarer, because who really wants to live in a pink house?). People like this style though, and I think it's beginning to drive some of the more progressive developments around town. With that in mind, this particular house isn't anything overly significant, so I can't tell you much about it unfortunately.

[Mith242]

NM churches are more traditional: adobe and rammed earth. New Mexico's great because it's just full of these beautiful, little churches.

AZ Spanish churches are more classical and colonial: elaborate murals and carvings, domes. There's a whole string of these running south from Tucson, the most famous and, IMHO, most beautiful being Mission San Xavier Del Bac south of Tucson. Several in northern Sonora also look strikingly similar, all being the influence of Kino.

The rammed earth style with the strange, solid color is actually pretty common around Central Tucson. Barrio Viejo, Barrio Anita, El Presidio and Armory Park all have quite a few homes like this. The color is usually blue, purple, orange, yellow or a dark pink (which is rarer, because who really wants to live in a pink house?). People like this style though, and I think it's beginning to drive some of the more progressive developments around town. With that in mind, this particular house isn't anything overly significant, so I can't tell you much about it unfortunately.

Good points on the churches. I also see what you're saying about the blue house. When I saw it capitolized I thought it was something special, not just a house. Even the houses there seem to be different from the adobe houses in NM. Of course they aren't all traditional looking, but the adobe houses all tend to be shades of brown. Although you do see blue trim which is an old Spanish/Moorish influence. Let me know if you have any more pics of the houses and churches from around there. I'd really enjoy seeing some more.

[colin]

What to do on a hot, cloudy day in Tucson? Drive around!

Today I went out to the west side to the Starr Pass development, and specifically to the Marriott Starr Pass Resort. This is the newest resort in town, having only been open about a year. When construction started, it caused quite a bit controversy because they basically built it into a mountain. It was also heavily delayed, and initially opened before construction was fully complete.

I've always hated this building, but I was initially impressed that it wasn't just a big hotel and a sea of parking, but the parking was instead scattered around the building in lots hidden by the hillsides. This is one of those places where there are about 100 employees standing around with two-way radios, always trying to make sure the guests are okay and rif-raff is kept in line. Very elitist. My camera was probably the only thing that kept me from being accosted.

[MJLO]

I really like the look of that place,

Are there any new Pictures of Tucson?

[convulso]

i have some pics, but i'm still riding the 56k slow wave. i'll post some next week.

that blue house is killer; just killer. i don't know how i've missed this thread before now. san xavier looking sweet, too. can you see san xavier from I-19? i thought i saw it fairly close to the road, but my passenger said it was just a factory or ag processing complex of some kind. don't see how i could be that wrong...

[colin]

that blue house is killer; just killer. i don't know how i've missed this thread before now. san xavier looking sweet, too. can you see san xavier from I-19? i thought i saw it fairly close to the road, but my passenger said it was just a factory or ag processing complex of some kind. don't see how i could be that wrong...

You can see it from I-19, right around the San Xavier exit. Ag processing complex? I don't think there's a small, white, cathedral-like ag processing complex in the Tucson area. Maybe Phoenix. Tell your passenger that they are wrong. wrong wrong wrong

I'm pretty free this weekend, so I'll go out and take some more pictures of Barrio Viejo (where the casa azul is). Also may go over to Menlo Park, which also has some beautiful homes.

[MJLO]

Could you get a skyline pic? Those are like crack to me.

[colin]

I did get out to Barrio Viejo this morning. Had quite a time riding around the streets on my bike. It's a very quiet neighborhood, but is still fairly active.

Barrio Viejo is located to the southwest of Downtown, generally south of the TCC complex, west of Stone Avenue, east of I-10 and north of 18th Street, settled around the 1860's. In the 1960's, a large chunk of the barrio was wiped out for the TCC construction, which has caused a great mistrust of Downtown development projects (i.e. - Rio Nuevo) especially in the Hispanic community. There was also a freeway proposed in the '70's which would have cut right through the neighborhood (the "Barrio Freeway"), but was scrapped quickly because of neighborhood opposition.

Architecture is traditional Mexican adobe rowhouses. The older ones generally face the street, lined together, and have a large common area in the back. The original versions had an entire block like this, thus making a large common area effectively fenced off by houses. The newer houses try to mimick this rowhouse idea.

Barrio Viejo is by far the most gentrified neighborhood in Tucson. Lots of offices have moved in. The neighborhood has maintained a nice character, although many of the Hispanic residents who had been there for generations have had to leave.

Downtown Tucson. Notice the TCC parking lot which separates the two areas. The TCC has become a gashing scar for the Downtown area as the barrio is concerned.

Church near I-10:

Convent Avenue. Possibly my favorite street in Tucson:

Abandoned rowhouse, I believe on 8th Avenue:

Older rowhouse, still occupied:

On Convent Avenue, I believe:

Newer rowhouses, notice the difference in separation so that they're more townhomes:

Teatro Carmen on Meyer. An important historic site for the Mexican experience in Tucson:

Historical mural adjacent to el teatro:

Other houses:

Mural near El Tradito Shrine:

Cushing Street. Former rowhouses, now professional offices. TCC (Tucson Convention Center) is across the street.

More if you're interested

[Mith242]

Great shots colin. It reminds me a bit of a more colorful version of New Mexico architecture. That and they also sometimes have a few more curves there as well. Very interesting, thanks for posting.

[MJLO]

Yeah they really do paint houses with pretty colors. What's the name of that tall pointy building? I like!

[colin]

I don't know about official name, but people just call it the Oil Tower. It's the tallest building in Tucson.

It was originally supposed to have a sister tower looking very similar, but it was never built, although it comes up occassionally.

[edit]

Unisource Energy Tower. Unisource is the parent company of Tucson Electric Power.

It is pointy and phallic. And it's certainly the best looking high-rise Downtown, but I don't think it's overly iconic.

[MJLO]

lol phallic. Colin, how many high rises would you say are in downtown Tucson? I'd love to see some urban shots of the city.

[MJLO]

Ok guys tell me what you think, this thread officially hasn't been posted in, in about 6 months. Tell me if you want it to remain at the top. Otherwise i'm going to unpin it, and let if fall into the ranks. I don't want this forum to have a thousand pinned topics. so the ones that don't get utilized may be unpinned.

[colin]

What?? I see it as being posted on just today!

Yeah, maybe it doesn't need to be at the tippity-top. That AZ Photo thread is enough, I think. I'll post some more soon though.

[MJLO]

Well really it's up to you guys, this is not just my forum. I'll leave it if you want. But six months of inactivity tells me perhaps there is not a need to keep it on top. I'll wait a little bit and unless someone really wants it to stay, I'll unpin it.

[MJLO]

Ok some pics from my adventures in Tucson.

What is this building? I didn't go into it to look but it's gorgeous.

The Legal Services Building, I have decided one of the ugliest highrises I have ever seen. There is an ugly high rise thread in the Urban discussion forum. This building is definately worthy of it.

More of the few high rises we encountered

Finally my exit out, we took a couple of bad pics of our impression of the outskirts.

My goal is to get back pretty soon. I liked Tucson alot. I want to get more pics of the skyline though. There were some cool views of it that I had not seen before coming in from the north on 10. Aside from that we don't get to many skyline pics from Tucson on here.

[colin]

The 10 ugliness you're seeing mostly has to do with the fact that you're following a historically industrial corridor: along the railroad, close to a flood-prone river. The area right around El Camino del Cerro is also one of the lower-end areas of town. People just don't really want to live by the freeway. But at least there are no truck stops (we save those for I-10 East).

The first building pictured is the Pima County Courthouse. Late 19th century, I believe. You can go in, although it's still offices. And, for whatever reason, that's where you can go to vote before election day.

The Tucson Museum or Art ("and Historical Block") has wanted to grab that building to turn it into a museum extension, which I think is a great idea. I mean, seeing historical art is all well and good, but it would certainly up the ante to see it in a truly historically important building. no??

[colin]

Living a block from the TCC, I see a lot of funeral processions when they have large receptions at the arena, then head north toward the cemetary on Oracle. This was the first I've seen that was all walking:

It was for a 15-year-old victim of a car crash. It was in the paper, so a lot of people just latched on to it.

[MJLO]

wow that's huge