A Request for Qualifications has been issued in Tucson for the eventual development of a 4.4-acre site in the city’s historic Miracle Mile neighborhood.
The RFQ has been published by Pima Community College, which owns the property in question and has in recent months been looking at ways to bring back what has been seen as a declining section of Drachman Street.
That area was once the home to the Tucson Inn, a motel built in 1953 that is valued as an example of the era’s Modernist and Googie architectural style.
Two other motels, the Copper Cactus Inn and the Frontier Motel, which were both built in 1941, were also a part of the larger site that Pima Community College purchased in 2018.
School officials have contemplated several new uses for the site, one of which is to repurpose the motels as both student and affordable housing. Earlier reports have indicated that Pima has also considered simply demolishing the structures to make way for new construction.
Preservationists have urged that the buildings should be kept intact but used for new purposes, arguing that they represent a unique kind of architecture particular to southern Arizona both during and after World War II.
Undoubtedly the most visual aspect of the properties is the Tucson Inn neon-sign, a sunburst imagery that for years attracted tourists. A combined effort bringing together the college with the Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation, as well as Tucson’s Housing and Community Development, preserved the sign, leading to its re-lighting in late 2022.
Pima’s Request for Qualifications is looking for professionals to “design and implement a project to enhance opportunities for students, while also allowing for an economically viable development.”
The RFQ, which notes that Pima will “always retain ownership of the land,” has a submission deadline of August 8.
By Garry Boulard
Image Credit: Courtesy of City of Tucson
