Designed in the mid-1960s by Tucson modernist Tom Gist, the house now known as Casa Luce felt more confining than contemporary when the current owners purchased it five years ago. Turning its back on views of the Santa Rita Mountains, the home’s interior revolved around a dim central kitchen and an awkward sunken garden bounded by stout masonry columns that held up the roof but restricted movement through the space.
Asked to bring this Summer of Love relic into the present, architects Kathy Hancox and Michael Kothke of HK Associates shook out the cobwebs, peeling away dated finishes and visual obstructions while reconfiguring the floor plan to give Gist’s ambitious design the clarity and serenity it lacked. “Our approach was to consider ‘preservation’ as an active and creative architectural practice, rather than a nostalgic one,” Hancox explains.
Thanks to some engineering sleight-of-hand, she and Kothke managed to eliminate the central columns and replace the low, cluttered ceiling with a single floating Douglas fir plane that calms the space like a collective sigh. “One of the most satisfying aspects of the project was discovering just how much transformation could emerge through both bold and careful subtraction,” Hancox says.
To bring light into the interior, the architects added skylights—including a baffled one over the bedroom hallway that charts the sun’s movement through the day and illuminates a frosted-glass panel at the rear of the kitchen, lending that space an ethereal glow.
“Revealing the overlooked window wall—long obscured by curtains—was another turning point,” says Hancox, who ditched the draperies and refinished the fir surround, revealing not only the beauty of the design but the stellar view of the landscape beyond. The home’s earthy palette of Querobabi adobe, lime plaster walls and natural wood helps link it to the desert setting, as do the broad steps that now cascade down to an infinity pool out back.
Like all of HK Associates’ work, Casa Luce displays a purity and a discipline that stands in contrast to its unruly desert setting, while at the same time evoking the rugged authenticity that defines it.
ABOVE: Originally compromised by four large masonry columns and low-hanging mechanical systems, the center of the home was closed off and dark. HK Associates reclaimed the heart of Casa Luce through subtraction. “Through peeling back the layers and reconfiguring the layout, we were able to reveal a new connection to this special site and create spaces that suit the daily life of our clients,” says Hancox.
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ABOVE: “What had been a dark and closed-off interior is now a serene space filled with light and warmth,” says Kothke. “The addition of the wood ceiling and simplification of the exposed beam structure harmonizes with the richness of the original adobe walls and allows the focus to be on the view across the city to the distant mountains.”
Ema Peter Photography
ABOVE: A photo taken during the remodel shows the sunken interior garden that was hemmed in by columns, the low-hanging mechanical systems in the ceiling, and the dim central kitchen around which the floor plan revolved.
HK Associates
ABOVE: Now, expansive skylights and carefully framed openings draw daylight deep into the kitchen at the center of the home. “The restrained material palette and integrated custom cabinetry allow light, proportion and landscape to take focus,” Hancox says.
Ema Peter Photography
ABOVE: A frosted-glass panel at the rear of the kitchen transmits diffuse light from the skylighted hallway behind it. Baffles in the skylight cast ever-changing shadows on the wall as the sun moves through the sky.
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ABOVE: A new skylight transformed what was once a long, dark bedroom corridor into a procession animated by shifting light and shadows, thanks to the exposed roof structure passing beneath it.
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ABOVE: “Minimal detailing and a custom bed designed by HK Associates transformed the primary bedroom into a calm desert retreat, where light quietly animates the morning and energizes the start to the day,” Hancox says.
EMA PETER PHOTOGRAPHY
ABOVE: “The goal was to dissolve the distinction between the dwelling and its site,” explains architect Michael Kothke, who installed broad, cascading steps between the house and the pool to draw residents outside and capitalize on the views of the city and mountains beyond. “The pool became a critical part of that idea,” adds architect Kathy Hancox. “It’s not just an amenity. It’s really an extension of the architecture.”
Ema Peter Photography
HK Associates
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