3 Distinctive Characteristics of Tucson Houses
My family recently spent two weeks on a road trip through many states in the Western US – Utah, Wyoming, Montana & Idaho. It reminded me just how unique many houses in the Southwest are. Here’s three things that set most of the houses in Tucson apart from other areas of the country:
1. Top – With our very low (basically 0″) snow fall per year – there is no need to have pitched roofs in Tucson. Many houses are built with a “flat roof” that have a very small slope to encourage water to run off in one direction. This flat roof really make our buildings look like they are just walls – no roof is visible – and is a very unique characteristic in Southwestern architecture.
2. Middle – It always amazes me the types of materials that are used in other areas of the country – our blazing hot sun & low humidity takes a toll on many things and having exposed wood on the outside of buildings is uncommon and takes a lot of maintenance in Tucson.
3. Bottom – Because of the extremely dry and hard soil we have, there is no need to dig a basement as a foundation for a home in Arizona! Most houses simply have a slab foundation that is set right on the dirt. I can count on one hand the number of houses in Tucson I’ve been in that actually have a basement – and most of them are over 100 years old!
From Top to Bottom – our houses in Tucson are unique! While there are definitely homes in Tucson that differ from these generalizations and have used architectural influences from other places in the country, much of our town is built with the Southwestern styles that have been influenced by the weather and climate of the Southwest!
