CAPLA Professor Michael Kothke Wins AIA Award for Casa Luce
CAPLA Professor Michael Kothke and his partner, Kathy Hancox, received a national American Institute of Architects (AIA) Interior Architecture Award for Casa Luce, a residential renovation that reimagines an existing Tucson home through adaptive reuse, sustainable design and a renewed connection to the Sonoran Desert.
The national AIA awards recognize excellence in architecture and are among the profession’s highest honors. For Kothke and Hancox, the recognition is a personal milestone and a testament to the collaborative effort behind the project.
“Receiving a national AIA award is deeply meaningful because it represents one of the highest forms of peer recognition in our profession,” they said. “The awards program is rigorous and highly competitive, so we’re honored to see Casa Luce recognized alongside work by some of the country’s most accomplished architects.”
Kothke and Hancox attended the AIA26 Awards Gala in San Diego, where they celebrated alongside colleagues, mentors and some of the profession’s most influential architects.
“It was wonderful to share the evening with former mentors and colleagues, and architects we’ve long admired, including 2026 AIA Gold Medal Recipient Shigeru Ban,” they said. “Moments like that are a reminder that architecture is a community.”
Rather than demolishing the existing home, they embraced its potential, transforming an outdated structure into a light-filled residence that highlights natural materials and strengthens the relationship between architecture and the surrounding landscape.
Kothke and Hancox said the team’s greatest accomplishment was recognizing what the home could become.
“What we’re most proud of is seeing potential and embracing the challenge to transform rather than tear down,” they said. “From the beginning, we believed that while the existing home was outdated and burdened by significant spatial challenges, it still had something important to offer. Something that transcended nostalgia or conventional renovation.”
In addition to the AIA honor, Casa Luce has earned recognition from several other design organizations. Kothke and Hancox believe the project has resonated with juries because it demonstrates how preservation and innovation can work together to create architecture that is environmentally responsible while enriching everyday life.
“It demonstrates that preservation and progress are not opposing ideas,” they said. “Rather than starting from scratch, the project embraces transformation as a creative act, revealing new possibilities and qualities that made the original architecture worth saving.”
