990 TUCSON, ARIZ.

摘要

There's something inherently satisfying in a good makeover-the diamond in the rough, buffed and shined. If Eliza Doolittle had her Henry Higgins, then the disused auto repair shop on a dusty Tucson, Ariz., street had Rob Paulus. His design team adapted what was on site, transforming the utilitarian building surrounded by gravelly asphalt into a 4,300-square-foot design office with a landscaped courtyard for the firm. Constructed in 1978, the existing metal panel building was never a beauty, but it did have an efficient steel structural system. Paulus kept the steel frame, added a new aluminum skin, and heavily insulated the walls against the brutal Arizona sun.