Museum of the All Souls Procession: Merle Weisshaupt '26 B.Arch

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Project Narrative

The All Souls Procession is an annual event that is a fundamental element in the recipe of Tucson’s cultural life radiating from the heart of the Latin-American community into the population at large. It is one of many examples of the vitality of cultural interaction that takes place in Tucson in a very special way. 

The Museum of the All Souls Procession provides Tucson with a resource in daily life that invigorates our awareness of both the strength of our multicultural community and our potential to connect our human achievements from the past into the future on an ongoing basis. In addition, the presence of the museum in Tucson enriches wider cultural circles as an offering to visitors from around the world who have the opportunity to experience it as an inspiration for what is possible when different cultures embrace one anothers’ human traditions. 

Procession is manifested throughout the design of this building which circulates through a variation of indoor and outdoor spaces that display key elements of the event of the procession itself. The facade features weathered steel panels and wooden beams which symbolically connect historical contexts to modern realities. Perceptively aging materials demonstrate the progression of time through generations. Just as the urn which is at the center of the All Souls Procession is built anew each year, the wooden frame system is replaced cyclically as a representation of new generations continually joining the tradition.

All images are by Merle Weisshaupt and may not be used or reproduced without express written permission of their creator.