Opinion:
The historic Rose of the Desert monastery in the Sam Hughes neighborhood is being transformed into the Benedictine, a place of ‘luxury apartment homes”, according to their website. It is one among several new or newish apartment complexes in or near downtown that are positioning their units as luxurious or upscale. But after taking virtual tours of a few of these so-called apartment homes at the Benedictine, in my opinion, a better description of the apartment interiors would be, sadly, quite ordinary. They lack any indication of imagination! (Except for the rent, which at the Benedictine and other high rises downtown is coming very close to matching Los Angeles rental prices.)
Inspired by San Xavier del Bac church perhaps
The 80 year old monastery, designed by architect Roy Place for the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration should have provided brilliant inspiration for whoever designed the new Benedictine apartments.
When the Sisters commissioned Roy Place in 1939 they specified that they wanted a building reflecting Southwest culture and classical aesthetics. I also have a sneaking suspicion they had also looked at the San Xavier del Bac Mission Church–built in 1791– and said: “Like that”.
It should not have been difficult to create apartments with Southwest and/or Spanish Revival architectural details interpreted for the 21st Century. There are literally hundreds of condo complexes around Tucson that have done just that.
Instead, in several of these new buildings, the individual rental units look like loft-like gray boxes with open living/dining/kitchen spaces–absolutely identical to boring rentals in boring buildings found in every city on the planet. So disappointing. It is a very big missed opportunity to create something distinctively Tucson!
I will tip my hat to the fact that the Benedictine builders are making a special effort to preserve the monastery church, however.
Big windows can be big trouble
One more thing: it’s also surprising that quite a number of the units at the Benedictine and the others downtown have south facing windows, floor to ceiling. I sure hope that the builder used double pane windows to protect from Tucson’s scorching summer heat. Otherwise the “views”, if any, are going to be hidden by blinds all day.
Okay…when I started to write this post I intended to address the topic of building “luxury” apartments when affordable rentals are really what’s needed in Tucson. But posts sometimes go their own way. The Tucson City Council recently, however, gave the go-ahead to adding grannie flats/casitas of no more than 600 sq. ft. on lots zoned for single family homes. Perhaps that will help relieve the housing crunch–and sky-rocketing rental prices–in Tucson. And I sure hope these new units are architecturally suited to the Old Pueblo.
