Abode walls going up on city’s re-creation of 18th-century structure
Construction crews continue to build the wall that will someday enclose the Rio Nuevo Mission Gardens Heritage Park at the base of "A" Mountain. The 4-acre garden is to be lined with fruit trees such as pomegranates and grapes.
The adobe walls re-creating the 18th century Mission Gardens should be completed in a couple of weeks, but don’t expect to see anything growing there any time soon.
Former City Manager Mike Hein in February shelved planting the gardens in favor of focusing all Rio Nuevo attention on the Tucson Convention Center area. That hasn’t changed under newly appointed City Manager Mike Letcher.
“I have not received any other direction,” said Fran LaSala, an assistant to Letcher. “As far as I know, we’re going to build the walls and vacate the site until they have funding to complete the gardens and maintain them in an appropriate manner.”
The garden walls cost $900,000 and completing the gardens would cost another $900,000 to $950,000, LaSala said.
The 4-acre site includes a buried pit house. “There is still a lot of archaeology there that we are not disturbing,” said Jeff Dupuis, superintendent with Lloyd Construction, the firm building the walls.
The gardens were supposed to be completed by this winter, but the City Council switched course in February and put the entire Tucson Origins project on hold. That includes the Mission Gardens, the Mission San Agustín, the University of Arizona Science Center/Arizona State Museum, Arizona History Museum and Tucson Children’s Museum.
The wall around the garden will be completed in about two weeks, Dupuis said.
By Teya Vitu, Renee Bracamonte