From the outset, the idea behind the new Tucson Community Center Ticket Office was to create a small but very significant addition – a “Jewel Box”. This concept sets the addition apart from the existing structure and begins to create a new image for the Community Center. The jewel box is purposely designed to be visually light and airy juxtaposed against the heavy and rough concrete and masonry walls to the existing structure. The materials for the ticket office are high tech in nature; glass-finished metal and translucent glass panels make up a majority of the exterior skin of the ticket office. In stark contrast to the main building, the finish allows light to reflect off and be transmitted through — Both brightening and lightening at the same time.

Almost floating above the ticket office space is a larger metal scrim. The scrim is made up of perforated metal panels that act as a visual plane to contain the new building signage and media displays. The perforated metal panels again add to the lightness and complement the high tech feel. The location of the signage plane is asymmetrically placed over the ticket office; this combined with other asymmetrical elements of the ticket office elevations and the kinetic nature of the signage and media displays gives the addition a feeling of energy and movement that the existing building does not have.