At a presentation by City of Scottsdale Mayor Jim Lane, the Old Adobe Mission, the first Catholic parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and the oldest standing church in Scottsdale, was recognized with a 2014 Scottsdale Environmental Design Award.
The Scottsdale Environmental Design Awards program was initially formed in recognition of the Late Councilman Tony Nelssen. It is a partnership between the city’s Environmental Quality Advisory and Development Review boards, assisted by members of the American Institute of Architects and the American Society of Landscape Architects. The program’s purpose is to encourage and recognize aesthetically expressive sustainable designs appropriate to the upper Sonoran Desert and Scottsdale’s unique contexts, and promote expanded quality green & sustainable development through education by example for the general public.
In a new category for 2014 called Scottsdale Legacy Projects, the Old Adobe Mission was one of seven projects nominated. This category recognized projects over 25 years old that were built with a unique approach to Desert Sensitive Design. Four awards were made by a third-party jury of building and landscape architects, who recognized the Old Adobe Mission in part for its thick walls, deep-set windows and use of materials from the land during construction.
The City of Scottsdale Environmental Design Awards are presented every two years. For more information contact the City of Scottsdale at (480) 312-3111 or visit www.scottsdsdaleaz.gov.
Built by hand by the Mexicans who first settled in Scottsdale in the late 1910s, the Old Adobe Mission located at 3821 N. Brown Avenue was completed in 1933. Today it stands as a monument as one of only three remaining adobe structures in downtown Scottsdale. For more information about the Old Adobe Mission, its current “Building A Legacy” Renovation Campaign, or to schedule a tour, call (480) 980-3628. The Mission officially re-opens for the season October 18, 2014.
