Saved: The Ball-Paylore House

Some fantastic news for solar house history: the iconic Ball-Paylore House (Arthur T. Brown, Tucson, 1950–52) has been purchased by the Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation and is under restoration. More information here. Contributions are needed!

In The Solar House I wrote quite a bit about Brown as “Tucson’s pioneer of solar design,” with several paragraphs about the Ball-Paylore House, including this passage:

[Brown] developed a novel shading strategy using circular “revolving porches.”  These were movable shades connected to the house which rolled on casters at the rim of the patio slab and a track in the eave line.  The homeowners could shield the house from direct sun throughout the day, or admit the sun when heating was needed.  In essence, the house was conceived as a kinetic solar mechanism, compelling for its ‘lyrical’ qualities.

I concluded the Ball-Paylore House “demonstrate[d] an environmental sensitivity that is usually not associated with 1950s architecture.”

Here is an image from the Maynard L. Parker archive at the The Huntington Library (link).