Roy Place

Who was Roy Place?

Roy W. Place was a Tucson, Arizona architect.

Born in San Diego in 1887, Place moved to Tucson in 1917 after working in Chicago and the Boston firm of Sheply, Rutan and Coolidge. Place partnered with John Lyman in 1919, together constructing over 20 buildings in Tucson. Place worked independently from 1924-1940 as the University of Arizona's Chief architect. Roy’s son, Lew Place, joined the firm in 1930, became a partner in Place and Place in 1940, and managed the firm after his father’s death. Lew Place designed several University of Arizona buildings as well as Pueblo, Rincon and Salpointe High Schools. Lew was also the sculptor for the two figures on the Cochise County Courthouse.

Place’s sophisticated Spanish Colonial Revival building shaped the character of Downtown Tucson from the mid-1920s until urban renewal of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Buildings included the Plaza Theater constructed in 1930, the Montgomery Ward Building under restoration in 2010 and The Pioneer Hotel. The domed and pink plaster Pima County Courthouse, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The courthouse and the Davis Clinic Building are Place’s only extant surviving examples of this architectural style in the downtown Tucson, but other examples abound around the city.