Like many metropolitan areas in the West, Tucson has its share of generic strip malls and sprawling subdivisions. As a native of the desert city, architect Rob Paulus has long aspired to buck the development trend, focusing instead on urban infill, adaptive reuse, and sustainable design. His recent project, 990 Offices, exemplifies this ethos. It also marks the third step in an impressive endeavor to breathe new life into Millville, a vapid industrial zone near downtown.
To fully understand 990 Offices, one must first rewind to 2002, when Paulus took a major leap of faith in urban revitalization. He and his wife, Randi Dorman, president of the Tucson Museum of Contemporary Art, teamed up with two investors to purchase a vacant 80-year-old cold-storage facility in Millville. The architect then embarked on transforming the warehouse into condos — a novelty in Arizona at the time. “This was the first residential loft conversion in the state,” says Dorman. The couple also acquired a roughly 1-acre parcel across the street, where they set out to construct a series of metal-clad, single-family dwellings designed by Paulus.
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