John Messina, AIA, is a senior lecturer/research architect with a joint full-time appointment shared by the School of Architecture and by the Southwest Center, a department in the College of Social & Behavioral Sciences. For the School of Architecture he has developed a new General Education Elective course, Sonora: A Description Of Place in Arid America. He has taught studios focused on the adaptive re-use of existing buildings as a means toward a renewed urbanism for cities and towns, as well as adaptive re-use and new housing construction in Marfa, Texas. He also has taught ARC 302, Tectonics and currently teaches ARC 402: Urban Form.

John Messina is a registered architect in Arizona and Louisiana, with built work in each state. In 1999 he completed restoration of an 1841 townhouse in the French Quarter of New Orleans as both architect and contractor. For that project he was awarded a “Citation for Historic Preservation” by the New Orleans Vieux Carré Commission. He has been awarded three design citations by the Southern Arizona Chapter of the American Institute of Architects for recent Tucson projects. He has lectured on architecture in the United States, Canada and Mexico, and has taught graduate design studios in both Monterrey and Tampico, Mexico.

Messina has also taught creative photography at Boston University and Wellesley College. In 1980, he was awarded a Massachusetts Artist Fellowship for his photography. At that time he was an active exhibiting photographer having had one-person shows in New Orleans, New York, and Boston, and his photographs are included in major museum collections. He received his B.Arch. from Louisiana State University and his M.Arch. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Contacts:

email: jmessina@email.arizona.edu

Tel.: 520-621-2484

Fax: 520-621-9922

The Southwest Center

1052 N. Highland Ave.

Tucson, AZ 85721-0185