Site Context Concept

	Pedestrian shed: a quarter-mile radius indicated by dashed yellow line. Click image for more detailed view.

The Mercado District is located within western Tucson's Menlo Park. The project also lies within Rio Nuevo, which is part of an overall municipal strategy to reinvigorate downtown Tucson and areas straddling Interstate 10 adjacent to downtown. Mercado District comprises the most westerly 14 acres of Rio Nuevo's 62 acres, and is an eastward extension of the Menlo Park neighborhood.

The aerial diagram to the right indicates the area within which a person can walk an average distance of 5 minutes from the center to the edge, encompassing the project site as well as a portion of the Menlo Park neighborhood.

The largest distinction between downtown Tucson and Menlo Park is the change in scale resulting from urban renewal 'improvements' in the 1960s that destroyed the traditional character of downtown Tucson by demolishing the historic city center and creating megablocks with large buildings floating in a sea of parking. Not only were the sustainable urbanism and well-defined public realm of Tucson's Barrio neighborhood eliminated, but the benefits of such urbanism were also lost: walkability, shade, buildings with windows and activity fronting the sidewalk, and the dignified siting of civic and institutional buildings.

Though prior to construction the Mercado District site was vacant and unimproved, it was less damaged than the 'improved by urban renewal' properties to the east. As such, the site is receiving sensitive planning attention with the goal of helping to complete the area of the city to which it belongs.

  
For more information, please contact us.