Following an ancient path

The cranky path of a 2,500-year-old canal is the route that architect Bill Dennis has chosen for “Canal Walk,” the narrow main neighborhood street to be built in a Tucson development called Rio Nuevo. “The remains of the canal were found about six feet below ground,” says Dennis, director of the Albuquerque office of Moule & Polyzoides Architects, which has planned approximately 13 acres of the 62.5-acre development. A decision was made not to unearth the dirt canal, but to use its route for a street tightly lined by traditional Southwestern buildings. Builders who have worked in the old Hispanic Barrio in Tucson will construct houses at Rio Nuevo with local materials, such as rammed earth and adobe. Walls of buildings and courtyards will define the streets. Most housing will center on small plazas. A 40-foot-high adobe church known as a convento, which had largely disintegrated, will be rebuilt. The developer is Tucson-based Rio Development, headed by Jerry Dixon. The lots are being sold in increments of six feet, with most lots measuring 18, 24, 30, or 42 feet wide. A major street, the Avenida Del Convento, will have wide sidewalks with double rows of trees. To one side of it is proposed a mercado — a large market building — anchoring a retail and loft housing district and leading to the avant-garde architecture of a science museum envisioned nearby. The development also includes a cultural district in which three museums will be built: the Arizona State Museum, the Arizona Historical Museum, and the Origins Museum, which will recreate architecture of ancient tribes that inhabited the site. The oldest fragment of pottery in North America was found on the site, Dennis notes. Much of the site had been used as a borrow pit and later as a landfill, so some of the land will require remediation. Dennis said the development will reflect desires for solar access, water harvesting, and the use of native and appropriate vegetation, along with plans for a co-generation energy plant. The design is proceeding through the approval process, with construction expected this summer.