Tucson - Central, AZ Real Estate — Homes For Sale in Tucson - Central, AZ

Central Tucson is full of quirky neighborhoods, shops and southwestern character. From Sam Huges to Poets Square, to Winterhaven! Close to U of A, Banner Medical Center, 4Th Ave, Downtown and more!! less

Central Tucson!! Bounded by Oracle Road on the West, Wilmot on the East, River Road on the North & Aviation Parkway on the South, the Central District sits smack dab in the middle of Tucson. The University of Arizona and the Sam Hughes District lie within this Central zone. The Rialto, The Hotel Congress, 191 Toole, The Fox Theatre, The music scene is alive and well!!! less

Located in a lofted basin 2,600 feet high, surrounded by beautiful mountains and peerless views, Tucson, Arizona, exemplifies the natural beauty of the Southwest. When architect Arthur T. Brown designed homes and buildings for this desert plateau, he rarely let man made ornamentation get in the way, crafting simple structures finely attuned to the rhythms of the sun and seasons. "His work doesn't stand up, scream, and shout," says Bob Vint, founder of an eponymous architecture firm in Tucson who has researched Brown's work. "It's just simple, elegant, and unpretentious, and made of real materials. The buildings are sincere, just like his personality." Vital stats Arthur T. Brown 1900-1993 Worked in: Arizona and Illinois Brown's work was also filled with pioneering-and sadly underappreciated-examples of environmentally aware architecture. He pushed progressive passive solar principles during a time when, he lamented, "gas was so cheap nobody cared." It was all part of his core philosophy: Architecture wasn't about style, it was about solving problems. Biography The key characteristics of Brown's mature designs, frugality, and minimalism, reflect his personal values, honed during formative years as an architect in the Depression. Born in the farming community of Tarkio, Missouri, Brown would study architecture at Ohio State University, setting off for the big city of Chicago after graduation to make his name. He began as a draftsman before landing a gig in David Adler's prestigious office on Michigan Avenue, where he'd stay until 1935. He remembers seeing big-name architects like Frank Lloyd Wright in the building elevator, heading up for drinks and debate at the Cliff Dwellers Club. Kane house Jude Ignacio and Gerardine Vargas/Courtesy of Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation During the lean years of the '30s, Brown struggled to make ends meet in Chicago, taking whatever work he could, including a graphic design gig making signs for the 1933 Century of Progress exhibition. On the advice of a classmate, he headed west to Phoenix in 1935, taking a seven-day road trip across the country chasing the possibility of work. By 1936, he had arrived in Tucson, and while the scenery had changed-and he formed a partnership with Richard A. Morse-work was still scarce. He recalls the struggles of scraping together work before the postwar boom in his autobiography: He once sketched out an addition for a clothing manufacturer who, short of cash, paid the architect with two pairs of pants. But by the mid '40s, Tucson was taking off. Returning GIs, who had trained nearby, loved the scenery, and a large Hughes aircraft plant also attracted plenty of investment (and potential clients). Brown was busier than ever, working on private homes (including one for reproductive-health advocate Margaret Sanger), restaurants (his sleek design for the Red and Blue Dine-In was celebrated in a British magazine), and public schools, buildings that symbolized the city's midcentury surge. Modernist Next Door Highlighting the often-forgotten regional architects who created modern designs in the second cities, suburbs, and small towns of the U.S. Vladimir Ossipoff During the '40s and '50s, Brown began refining passive solar techniques to channel and store the sun's heat for the desert city's cold nights. His 1946 Rosenberg House features floor-to-ceiling glass walls and a black-concrete core that stored the sun's energy overnight, while his 1948 Rose Elementary School included a slanted, south-facing roof built with sandwiched aluminum roofing panels, which created a gap of warm air that was circulated through the building. Before sustainability was a buzzword, he'd designed a school that, by dint of Brown's design, decreased heating costs by 80 percent. less