露西之家丨美国图森丨HK Associates

Casa Luce is a 2024 renovation of a midcentury house in Tucson, Arizona, by HK Associates. Working within a home originally designed by Tucson modernist Tom Gist, the project opens its inward-looking plan to daylight, distant mountain views, and a clearer sense of the original structure.

About Casa Luce

Casa Luce reworks a 1960s house in the Catalina foothills without losing sight of what made it distinct in the first place. Originally designed and built by Tucson modernist Tom Gist, the home is defined by earthen burnt-adobe walls and a low roofline, but over time its center had become crowded by dark, dated elements that pulled attention away from the landscape.

HK Associates approaches the renovation as a precise edit. The project strips away obstructions, brings daylight into the middle of the plan, and redirects the living spaces toward the south-facing picture window and the distant Santa Rita Mountains.

Clearing the Middle

The original arrangement focused on a closed-off kitchen and a dim interior core. A low mechanical bulkhead compressed the space, while a sunken indoor terrarium and four large masonry piers occupied the center of the house. Together, those elements made the plan feel inward and confined despite the presence of a large window facing open desert views.

The renovation changes that condition with one decisive move: the removal of the four masonry piers that once supported the roof at the center of the home. In their place, three glulam beams and four steel columns reshape the structure and create the effect of a floating ceiling across the main living spaces. That shift changes both movement and perception, making the middle of the house feel open rather than blocked.

Light and Finish

Daylight becomes the project’s main organizing element. It now reaches the heart of the house and continues into the bedroom wing, which had previously been linked by a low, dark corridor. The route to the three bedrooms is guided by changing light, from the diffuse glow of a frosted-glass screen at the kitchen threshold to shadows cast by the partially exposed roof structure.

The material palette is edited with the same restraint. Lime plaster walls and wood veneer cabinetry form a calm backdrop for the retained structural materials of concrete, earth, and timber. The ceiling is also redefined as a unifying feature, replacing visual clutter with a clearer reading of the house overhead.

Outward to the Desert

The project extends that reorientation beyond the glass. A broad swimming pool reinforces the long view from the south-facing window, and its infinity edge draws a clean line beneath the distant mountains. Long concrete steps appear to fold out from the interior to form amphitheater seating, giving the exterior spaces a stronger role in daily use and linking the house more directly to its setting.

Reuse as Structure

Much of the project’s force comes from what it keeps. Original adobe walls, the concrete slab, and the Douglas fir roof structure are retained, limiting demolition and reducing embodied carbon. New Douglas fir ceiling elements, lime plaster, FSC-certified wood veneer cabinetry, and locally fabricated cabinets and furniture continue that approach through material selection.

Casa Luce is most convincing where its structural changes and material restraint work together. The renovation makes the house brighter, clearer, and more outward-looking, while staying grounded in the weight of adobe, concrete, and timber that defines the original home.