The Barrio Metalico homes are made of metal and are designed to blend in with Downtown industrial architecture.

Chris Richards / Arizona Daily Star

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You won't find the typical stick-and-stucco, cookie-cutter houses among the winners of the Sonoran Institute's Building From the Best awards.

What you'll find are houses designed to look like surrounding industrial buildings or condos where you help prepare common meals for you and your neighbors.

The awards, handed out every two years, recognized a sophomore class of seven environmentally conscious building projects in the Tucson area. Nearly 500 people attended Saturday's ceremony at Hotel Arizona in Downtown.

The goal is to encourage architects and builders with innovative designs that can serve as models for future development, said Wendy Erica Werden, a spokeswoman for the Sonoran Institute. All 23 projects nominated "reflect a quality of life that we should expect in our desert community," she said.

"I know from talking with the judges that this year was a very challenging year because of the quality of every one of the finalists," Werden said.

Some of the architectural styles wouldn't be welcomed by everybody, said Rob Paulus, an architect who won in two categories. The Ice House Lofts, perhaps the better-known of his two winners, transformed the 1920s Arizona Ice and Storage Co. warehouse at 1001 E. 17th St. into 51 lofts. Paulus also designed nine more free-standing loft homes that were built across the street as the accompanying Barrio Metalico.

The Barrio Metalico homes, intended to fit into a Downtown industrial area, were designed to be durable, with metal construction materials. That's uncommon in Tucson, he said.

"You either get it or you don't," Paulus said. "The reality is in Europe and the Netherlands, there's a lot more of this. Even aesthetically, it's really nothing new.

"It's about the performance of it, about the durability of it," he continued. "It's not the standard box that all the other developers in the Southwest are building."

Here is a list of the 2006 winners:

● Natural Open Space Integration in a Development — Milagro Cohousing, by founders of the Committee for Ecological Living, Morton and Mackey Architecture, and Ollanik Construction Co. Inc. This ecological development on the Northwest Side encourages water harvesting and community meals. Residents of the 28 units own their homes but share ownership of the open space.

● Urban Infill Development (small scale) — Barrio Metalico, by Warren Michaels, Phil Lipman, Randi Dorman, Rob Paulus Architect Ltd. and Caliber West LLC.

● Urban Infill Development (small scale) — Franklin Court, by Contemporary West Development, Bob Lanning and Leo Katz, architects.

● Urban Infill Development (large scale) — Glenn Court, by KB Home, Landmark Engineering Group Inc. and O'Leary Construction Inc. The urban-themed Midtown development features front porches, rear garages and side yards.

● Creative Redevelopment and Rehabilitation (public and private) — Ice House Lofts, by Deep Freeze Development LLC, Rob Paulus Architect Ltd. and Caliber West LLC.

● Mixed-Use Development — Pennington Street Garage, by the city of Tucson, Dick & Fritsche Design Group, and D.L. Withers Construction.

● Green Building (public and private) — Edith Ball Adaptive Recreation Center, by the city of Tucson, Burns Wald-Hopkins Architects and Triumph Builders Southwest. The $6 million project, across from the Reid Park Zoo, features a tent-covered, outdoor pool designed for disabled people.

● Livable Community Award — Sonora Cohousing, by Sonora Cohousing homeowners, Wonderland Hill Development Co., McCamant and Durrett Architects, and Martin Floerchinger.

REAL ESTATE