Architecture Professor of Practice Takes Arizona Daily Star Readers on a Southern Arizona Road Trip

Nov. 7, 2022
Who
Jesús Edmundo Robles Jr, Assistant Professor of Practice in Architecture
What
Favorite Places Editorial for Arizona Daily Star
Where
Southern Arizona's Madrean Archipelago
Image
Jesús Edmundo Robles Jr. and truck

Jesús Edmundo Robles Jr surveys the Madrean Archipelago of Southern Arizona at sunset. Photo by David Fenster and Jandro Davalos.

“There is a place in Baja Arizona that rests in my memory and daydreams, more as a passage than an arrival to a specified destination,” writes Jesús Edmundo Robles Jr in a November 5 Arizona Daily Star editorial. “A confluence of history, cultures, landscapes, biomes and folklore. It is as much defined by the roads, trails and stories that lead you from the Tucson basin into the valleys and high desert grasslands of the Madrean Archipelago.”

Robles, an architecture assistant professor of practice at the University of Arizona’s College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture, takes the reader along for a ride in his trusty pickup truck as part of the newspaper’s “Favorite Places” series. Robles narrates the spare beauty of the 80-mile drive on the two-lane road between the Santa Rita and Whetstone Mountains, though Sonoita, and into the Patagonia Mountains.

Enjoy the drive with Robles via the Arizona Daily Star or watch the video:

Robles, who joined CAPLA in 2013, is a principal at DUST Architects, an award-winning studio grounded firmly in the tactile, in pursuit of the intangible. The studio, as well as his teaching at UArizona, explore ideas and ethics rooted in a reverent intimacy with craft and place through endeavors into the essential and the timeless.

  

Subscribe to The Studio

Sign up for CAPLA's monthly e-newsletter to get the latest news and events, insights from faculty and leadership, profiles of students and alumni and more.

Subscribe Now

Latest CAPLA News, Projects and Profiles

Image
The white facade of Mission San Xavier del Bac is seen against a clear blue sky. A paved path leading to the mission passes through an earthen wall fronted by cactus and other desert plants.

Rehabilitation of the Retablo Facade at San Xavier del Bac | Lecture by Starr Herr-Cardillo

Learn about ongoing work to preserve decorative finishes and restore missing and damaged elements of the retablo facade of Mission San Xavier del Bac. This work is supported by the Semiquincentennial Grant Program, administered by the National Park Service.

Image
Bike/Pedestrain

Applied Active Transportation Class Aims to Improve Bike and Pedestrian Safety on Campus

A CAPLA studio led by Senior Lecturer Joey Iuliano is turning student interest into action by focusing on improving walking and cycling conditions on campus. In collaboration with Parking & Transportation Services and the Office of Sustainability, students analyze crash data and develop design proposals for key campus corridors to improve safety and connectivity. Inspired in part by last fall’s fatal traffic accident near campus, the course aims to produce practical ideas that could inform future campus planning.

Image
Lesley Perez

Community Connection: Lesley Peréz ‘26 MSUP & ‘27 MS.Arch

Lesley Peréz (’26 MSUP, ’27 MS.Arch) is a dual-degree graduate student at CAPLA committed to advancing equity through design and policy. Inspired by her upbringing in East Los Ángeles, her work focuses on creating accessible, community-centered spaces where people can thrive. At CAPLA, she has served as a student ambassador, contributed to housing policy research with ARCHES, and engaged in community outreach through the Indigenous Society of Architecture, Planning and Design—shaping a future career in planning, transportation, and design at local and global scales.