Renovations and Additions
Two 1970s-era buildings–a house and a performing arts center–get a fresh outlook.
BY NORA BURBA TRULSSON
Residential Expansion
Tucson, Arizona
Steve Secrest
Tucson, Arizona
Before and After
Architect Steve Secrest’s three-bedroom Tucson home had a lot going for it--a nice location in the Foothills neighborhood, views of the nearby Santa Catalina Mountains, a generously sized lot and enough sense of the wide-open Sonoran Desert to keep his young family from feeling like they were too penned in.
But the 1970s-era, vaguely Mediterranean-style home had more than its share of flaws. The home’s dated floorplan didn’t connect to the outdoors; in fact, the only way to get to the back yard and porch was through either the master bedroom or garage. The garage itself, located on the home’s north side, required a sharp left turn for entry and barely fit one car, let alone two. The dark, small kitchen was a time capsule from the Nixon administration--it hadn’t been touched in 35 years.
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| A fireplace with a cantilevered hearth anchors the great room addition. Window placement on the far wall lets in natural light, but blocks views of a neighboring home. |
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Secrest opted to renovate and expand the home, concentrating his efforts on the home’s northeast corner, the site of the existing kitchen, dining room and garage. The architect, who also served as contractor, opted to remove the existing garage, replacing it with a new, wider garage on the home’s east side, thereby eliminating the tight turning radius. The site of the old garage made way for 500 square feet of new construction that includes a great room, home office and pantry space. Secrest also removed the back wall of the existing dining room and kitchen, opening both spaces to the new great room/office addition.
“The new location of the garage allowed for the new great room space to be adjacent to the dining room and kitchen,” says Secrest. “The new garage also serves as a buffer between the house and a roadway to the east.”
In elevation, Secrest echoed the flat roof of the existing house for the garage and living space additions, but took a more contemporary spin through the use of a cantilevered roofline that floats above clerestory windows in the great room addition and, for the garage, the unexpected use of slot windows that let in natural light.
For the garage, Secrest used integrally colored concrete plaster for the walls, complementing the existing home’s painted stucco walls. The great room addition’s simple palette of block walls, scored concrete flooring, glass, steel and wood speak of Modernism, yet fit well with the original home.
Sleek architectural details abound. Secrest chose mullion-less, butt-jointed glazing for clerestory and floor-level windows along the great room’s north wall, which serve to provide light yet strategically screen views of a neighoring home. Privacy and solar control are via retractable screens, set in the ceiling. A fireplace, anchored by a cantilevered concrete hearth, is open on three sides and is visible from the kitchen, dining area and great room. A large, custom sliding door connects the great room to the exterior.
Secrest also remodeled the dining room and kitchen, fitting the kitchen with new plumbing, lighting, contemporary cabinetry, countertops and appliances. The pantry, located between the kitchen and garage, is clad in birch panels with concealed pull-out pantry doors.
The exterior was also updated. The back porch framing was saved and covered with birch panel plywood to echo the interior materials. New pavers, a geometric grid of arid-region plantings and a square of lawn add a fresh touch to the back yard.
The renovation and additions have allowed Secrest and his family to enjoy their desert surroundings. “The new space becomes a stationary frame in which one can experience the ever-changing environment,” he says. “You can see the daily and annual changes of light, the blooming palo verdes in the spring and the dark clouds rolling over the Catalina mountains during the monsoons.”
The project won Secrest two awards, a 2008 Merit Award from AIA Southern Arizona, and a 2008 Home of the Year Award in the remodeling category from AIA Southern Arizona and Tucson Lifestyle Home & Garden magazine.
Architecture and builder: Steve Secrest, Tucson, AZ; (520) 742-3847.
Masonry: Central Arizona Block Company, Inc. 6030 S. Mann Ave., Tucson, AZ 85756 ; (520) 514-1177 or www.cabcoaz.com.
Windows: Diamond Glass Works, 1320 E. Benson Highway, Tucson, AZ 85714; (520) 624-3255.
Cabinetry: IKEA, www.ikea.com.
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Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts
Scottsdale, Arizona
John Douglas, FAIA
Douglas Architecture and Planning
Scottsdale, Arizona
Photography by Wen-Hang Lin
 The renovated atrium includes backlit cast-glass panels to mark the theater entrance, new flooring, a new mezzanine and illuminated glass artwork by Kana Tanaka above the curved cafe wall.
In 1975, Gerald Ford was president, the country was in the grips of a recession and, in Scottsdale, a new performing arts center opened with a concert by Grammy and Tony Award-winning singer and songwriter Roger Miller.
In 2009, Barack Obama serves as president, the country has been in the grips of a recession and, in Scottsdale, the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts has reopened after more than a year of major renovation with a concert by Emmy and Tony Award-winning singer and actress Kirstin Chenoweth.
 The $16.6 million renovation project of the performing arts center, spearheaded by Scottsdale architect John Douglas, is both an homage to its history and a look to its future. It is a full-circle journey that connects two seemingly parallel zeitgeists, spaced 34 years apart.
The performing arts center was one of the most notable projects designed by the late Arizona architect Bennie Gonzales, FAIA, who also designed Scottsdale’s signature municipal structures, including the city hall and main library, which are linked to the arts center by the park-like Scottsdale Mall. Gonzales was known for his simple, pure forms that echoed both classic Southwestern and Native American architectural themes.
Before and After
Gonzales designed the 100,000-square-foot arts center to include a large main theater, a smaller, secondary theater, gallery space, offices and a vast central atrium. “Bennie Gonzales used pure geometric forms to design the arts center,” explains Douglas, who previously worked on a renovation and addition to another iconic Gonzales landmark, the Heard Museum in Phoenix. “He wanted the center’s atrium to be a public living room in a park setting.”
During the course of the years, the arts center become a beloved venue in the city, hosting numerous performances, events, art shows and more. The theaters, the atrium and the galleries were tweaked to meet changing audience and city needs. Several years ago, though, it became apparent that the center was in need of a major renovation. “Everything had worn out,” says Douglas. “It was also time to bring everything up to current codes and standards, both from a technical, performance side as well as a patron side.”
Douglas started the project in 2005 with a master plan, and shortly thereafter embarked on the renovation of the restrooms as a kind of “test” project to showcase materials, forms and ideas for the balance of the center’s work. Douglas brought the restrooms up to current codes, adding more stalls and ADA-compliant fixtures in spaces highlighted by glass-tile walls, custom terrazzo flooring and illuminated translucent resin panels that are programmed to shift colors.
 In 2008, Douglas began the most ambitious aspect of the project, the renovation of the 852-seat main theater and the atrium. Working with theater consultant Alec Stoll of Fisher Dachs Associates of New York, Douglas had the main theater gutted and its main floor jackhammered down to 40 feet below grade as part of the plan to improve sightlines, acoustics, reduce HVAC noise and provide ADA-compliant seating and access. New lighting, backstage improvements and a new control booth were also added. “We didn’t make the theater bigger,” says Douglas, “just better.”
In lieu of the theater’s original single entrance from the atrium and a central aisle, Douglas reconfigured the seating to include two entrances and two aisles, with the theater entrance marked by backlit, cast-glass panels crafted by local artist BJ Katz of Meltdown Glass Art and Design. Inside the theater, ADA seating was located at the back of the theater near the entrances as well as closer to the stage, with that lower-level seating accessed by new glass elevators. “I think that patrons using the ADA seating should have just as wonderful an entry experience as everyone else,” says the architect.
Against a backdrop of deep blue walls, Douglas reiterated Gonzales’ original geometric design them by using rectangular and circular forms for the theater’s interior. He clad some walls and balconies in cherry-stained maple paneling and created a series of wooden panels to mask technical equipment near the theater’s ceiling line. The pattern on the panels was inspired by a Louise Nevelson sculpture, located on the mall. Theater seats, tested for comfort, were upholstered in a warm, rust-hued fabric, while the flooring was left in its simple concrete form for acoustic purposes. Backlit resin panels mark the aisle numbers, while powder-coated railings help patrons navigate the steps to their seats.
For the atrium, Douglas redesigned its west entrance, closest to the parking garage, making it more visible, and relocated the box office to that doorway. Space for a new cafe was carved out of a multi-purpose room near the atrium’s north entrance.
To create more meeting space, Douglas designed a mezzanine for the western side of the open, two-story-high atrium. Accessible by staircase and elevator, the mezzanine has a large conference room that can be closed off from the adjacent balcony by a series of sliding glass panels.
Douglas had the atrium’s cracked concrete flooring replaced with large slabs of grey-blue limestone, and designed a central carpet in shades of gray and lavender, with a pattern inspired by 1970s-era graphics. The illuminated glass panels around the theater’s entry doors also serve to create a backdrop for the atrium, which is frequently used for receptions and other events. As a finishing touch, an illuminated glass sculpture was commissioned by Scottsdale Public Art from artist Kana Tanaka and installed above the cafe space.
While the main theater reopened to the public in October, the project is far from over for Douglas. Next up is the renovation of the smaller 137-theater and its adjacent lobby. That, too, will be done with a nod to Gonzales and the center’s history, and a gaze firmly affixed on the future.
Architecture: Douglas Architecture and Planning, 4400 N. Civic Center Drive, Scottsdale, AZ 85251; (480) 951-2242 or www.douglasarchitects.com.
Theater consultant: Fisher Dachs Associates, 22 W. 19th St., New York NY 10011; (212) 691-3020 or www.fda-online.com.
Acoustic consultant: McKay Conant Hoover, Inc., 5655 Lindero Canyon Road, Suite 325, Westlake Village, CA 91362; (818) 991-9300 or www.mchinc.com.
Lighting design: Roger Smith Lighting Design, Phoenix, AZ; (602) 770-7868 or www.rslightingdesign.com.
Builder: Howard S. Wright Constructors, 455 N. 3rd St., Suite 280-A, Phoenix, AZ 85004; (602) 258-5670 or www.hswconstructors.com.
Cast glass theater entry panels: Meltdown Glass Art & Design, LLC, Chandler, AZ; (480) 633-3366 or www.meltdownglass.com.
Limestone tile: Arizona Tile, www.arizonatile.com.
Custom carpeting: Shaw Contract Group, www.shawcontractgroup.com.
See Web-only extra images of this project.
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