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 metal building 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 General Services Administration building in Rio Rico defines a simple and direct approach to creating an efficient multi-use facility with high security concerns.  Rob Paulus Architects worked closely with the developer and the general contractor to provide an efficient CM at Risk delivery process for a building with varied uses and complexities.  The project [...]

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 [...]

The new AzCIM facility will pull from the healing powers of nature, incorporating vegetation and shading with sustainable building technologies to create unique and high quality indoor and outdoor environments that clearly exhibit the values of the AzCIM. The design is conceived as a solid mass with a canyon cut through the center that supports a [...]

The College of Engineering Student Club Innovation Center places the work of the Engineering Students front and center along busy Speedway Boulevard.  The extroverted design approach was a result of asking many questions of the faculty, staff, dean and student leaders.  Through this process a more visible and public scheme was decided on that defined [...]

This house for an astronomer in the Tucson Mountains takes full advantage of its sloping site to create a dramatic living arrangement in a harsh yet beautiful environment. Working with a minimal footprint, the stacked scheme utilizes strategic view openings as well as a vertical progression of spaces to proceed from enclosed and earthbound to [...]

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 [...]

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 fills in the corner of Congress and Fifth Avenue [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

The approach to Casa de Plegado is simple—to create a series of folding elements that configure the residence within the site to capture prominent views and respond to solar orientation. Folding roof forms of rusted metal open and close to the sky above and terrain below, a gesture that parallels the nearby Catalina mountain range. [...]

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 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 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 [...]

Team Rob Paulus Architects developed a design for Tucson’s first Canstruction® competition in September 2010.  Along with Epstein Construction, Robinette Architects, Avila Concrete, and Tom Powers Architects, the team stacked about 2100 cans of Fry’s kidney bean cans—almost one ton of food—to be donated to the Tucson Community Food Bank after the installation.   “Have a Heart” [...]

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 [...]