After seeing so many readers offended by Linda Ronstadt’s recent comments (which came as a followup to an interview she did on NPR’s Diane Rehm Show) regarding Downtown Tucson’s newer “Stalinist buildings,” I was reminded of a photo I took downtown back in October of 2013.
The photo was taken in the empty lot on Broadway Blvd. and S. Fourth Avenue, just north of Tucson Yoga and behind The Cadence student housing and Centro Garage complexes on Congress/Toole/4th. I was fishing for information on the lot via Facebook, not looking to evoke Cold War-era imagery from the 1950s East Berlin.
That said, I’ve mashed up the original and black & white versions of the photo with images from Stalin’s actual razor-wire-fenced East Berlin and elsewhere with stock photos of the latest behemoth University of Arizona student housing complexes to be built off campus (which is key to Ronstadt’s and others’ ire) in decidedly still-historic neighborhoods.
One doesn’t need to be a tenured UA historian or crackerjack old-school journalist to know that all of the student housing complexes I’ve included in the photo (NEXT & LEVEL, The Cadence, Hub at Tucson— not even mentioning the fearless party-crews of 2012 at District on Fifth!) either tower over or are within eye-shot from not only the Ronstadt family’s old storefronts downtown, but one of the neighborhoods to which the clan laid its roots, on E. University Blvd.
If you want to check out the view in person, stop by The Big Blue House on 105 E. University, where Jose “Pepe” Ronstadt himself resided until his death in 1933; it’s a quaint B&B these days and they would love to take you on a tour. Just don’t bring up Stalin.
This article appears in Aug 14-20, 2014.
Finally a great article on the Tucson Weekly. Great topic and one worth reading and debating.
I was shocked by the design of the student housing on Park and Speedway next to the Jack in the Box.
Sorry, but I’ve yet to see student housing on any campus where the architecture was all that stylish. Granted, I’ve only see the student housing for universities in the west, but I wouldn’t be surprised if student housing in the east is all that different. A bit surprised that Ronstadt would call the buildings here Stalinist when there are several skyscrapers in LA that really aren’t much to write home about (as opposed to the architecture in, say, Dubai, which is pretty much eye candy any place a person has to look up. Would much rather live here than there, though.)
If she wants dorms to look pretty, then perhaps Ms. Ronstadt should consider footing the bill for one. It seems the nicest architectured buildings on campus are those who had a donor or donors paying for a significant chunk of the bill.
The Park and Speedway building is obscene. It is way too large, out of scale and has all the architectural character of a shoe box. Hopefully the City Council,has learned hard lessons on appropriate scale buildings as TOD. And the land owners who think they are entitled to the largest, ugliest buildings possible are flat wrong. You know other land owners have rights to NOT have that stuff inflicted in them.
Kind of a false comparison. Of course the buildings are going to look drab and depressing in black in white – they’re not high architecture. The big difference however is that each of the housing complexes you refer to are different – they may have similarities, but they have different designs and layouts. Contrast that with Soviet era construction where there were probably a dozen different designs used to construct thousands upon thousands of buildings across Soviet territories. It’s that repetition and lack of originality which makes them depressing (that and the uniform color of concrete).
What should a 13 story residential building (with ground floor retail/restaurant) look like in 2014 if not this? I welcome examples from other communities.
thats what i was thinking Chris Elsner
Stalinist architecture? I find that a bit partisan theory!:-) How about austere architecture?
I grew up in Tucson, went to the U, left in the 80’s. What I have come to learn in my travels since that time is that the vast majority of us are powerless to make our entire town what WE want it to be, that’s just the way it is. Sure we can make our little corner of our world what we want, but outside of that we are impacted by what a very small group of people dedcide to do. However, if there is a particular climate, surroundings, scenery, etc. that suits you then go there and be happy. My mother still lives there and what I called a quail hunt is now a golf resort, I miss that land absent something called “The Gallery”, but it wasn’t my land to do with as I pleased. “You can never go home again” so the saying goes. For many of you Tucson is what you found it to be when you arrived, for me it will always be what I left behind. The nieghborhood I grew up went from Mayberry to a high crime rate area in about 2 decades, they have indeed taken paradise and put up a parking lot and so it goes. Life’s too short to subject yourself to a situation you find intolerable, that being said; do I miss the view of the Catalinas from my mother’s backyard or Randolph Golf Course? Every damn day. I suppose that’s what memories are for. There’s no perfect anything in life unless you decide it is.
Ralph Hill:
They called Stalinist so all of the Progressive Liberals could relate to the building.
Calling these buildings “Stalinist” is as ridiculous as calling the areas around them “historic”. Slapping a bright color on an otherwise sixty year old ramshackle house does not qualify it for historic status. Now these buildings might not be high architecture, but the black and white photos with superimposed barbed wire in the foreground is utterly leading and dishonest. The District, in particular, is probably the the best looking building in its immediate area (I’ve been to Russia many times and never seen a stucco, southwestern influenced building there!).
As the owner of The Big Blue House at 144 E University Blvd (correct address) I must protest. To start; The house was designed by one of Tucson’s most prolific architects, Henry C Trost, who studied with Frank Lloyd Wright and designed several important Tucson buildings such as The Steinfeld Manson (First Owls Club) 1898 and Scottish Rite Cathedral 1915 to name just a couple…
Many images are on the net to judge for yourself. Just search for The Big Blue House Tucson.
The Big Blue House is a beautiful, one-of-a-kind Queen Anne Victorian. What does that have to do with Stalin style architecture? Sorry, I don’t get it!
A response from the author would be nice…
Apologies, if I offended you. My comments were not directed at any one house. The Big Blue House is indeed very nice and probably does qualify as historic. But 1) as perhaps the nicest house in the area, it’s mere presence doesn’t qualify the entire surrounding area as “historic”. 2) technically speaking, the Big Blue House is Queen Anne Revival, not Queen Anne, which would indeed be very historic, but, in order to qualify, would need to be about 300 years older than it is.
My single level 4 bedroom red brick ranch house on the far eastside was built in 1965. How close am I to being designated “historic?” 49 years and counting! History is what happened before you got there. Incidentally, I don’t fault Linda R. for liking San Francisco’s distinctive architecture, nor do I fault her for being able to afford it. Just don’t beat up the old home town along the way.
One can tell partisan insanity when one sees communist buildings at ever corner, or see politics in such simple things as austere architecture, guess some folks are just naturally suffering from obsessive compulsive thinking!:-) I see nothing but a plain building, austere in design, maybe costs less in building materials, since I do not dwell on politics in every single waking moment of my life!:-)
Perhaps we can look to the city and county government buildings on East Congress for inspiration. With the exception of the old courthouse (a gem) these bauhaus-lite boxes define “chintz.”
UA students need more architecturally inspiring domiciles! Like the gherkin building in London or any of the wondrous structures in Dubai.
Yeah, that’s the ticket.