Multifamily · Mexico

La Jolla Condo Complex

A contemporary expression of Sonoran living: apartments, multi-level villas and rooftop terraces held together by one architectural idea.

3–4storeys in the apartment buildings

111–133m² per apartment, by level and terrace

2typologies: apartments and villas

100%of units with a private terrace

The brief

A new perspective on residential living

La Jolla is conceived as a contemporary residential community designed around comfort, privacy, and a strong relationship with the outdoors — three- and four-storey apartment buildings, multi-level villas, private terraces, rooftop areas and shared recreational spaces within a single planned composition.

Each apartment is organised around an open social core: kitchen, dining and living flow into one another and then out onto a private terrace. The layouts keep a clear separation between the social side of the home and the private one, and they are sized between roughly 111 and 133 square metres depending on the floor and the terrace.

The villas answer a different need. They are multi-level, with integrated parking and a more independent relationship to the landscape; stacking service, social and private areas lets them sit inside the development without giving up the feeling of a house.

The palette stays short and regional: rough-laid local stone at the base, white stucco above, timber soffits under every overhang, and rain chains instead of downspouts, run down the face of the building where you can see them work. The terraces are deep enough to plant, and that planting is what keeps the glass behind it cool.

The buildings

Stone below, stucco above

The complex at dusk: the building lit from within, people on the terraces, and the street curving past the stone base — At dusk the stone base goes quiet and the terraces do the talking.

Motor court with timber garage doors set into the stone base and two levels of planted terraces above — The villas park underneath themselves: garages open straight off the motor court, and the living goes above.

Arrival to the complex with a planted median, stone retaining walls and the hills behind — Arrival. The planted median is the first thing you meet, not a gate house.

Pedestrian entry: a timber gate under a cantilevered canopy, reached by steps through desert planting — The walk-in entry gets its own canopy and its own stair through the planting.

Covered outdoor lounge with a fire table, lounge seating, a grill kitchen and a long dining table — The covered lounge: fire table, grill kitchen and a table long enough to matter.

Glazed amenity pavilion with a deep canopy, a jacuzzi garden and a timber boardwalk through gravel and desert planting — The jacuzzi garden and the gym get their own pavilion, away from the housing.

The drawings

Two typologies, one courtyard

Oblique aerial at dusk: apartment buildings around the pool courtyard, the villas to one side, the amenity pavilion and the perimeter wall — From the air. The apartment buildings hold the pool courtyard between them; the villas take the far side with their own street, and the amenity pavilion sits on its own so it can be reached without crossing anyone’s terrace.

Overhead view of the complex with the three apartment buildings, the pool courtyard and the parking along La Jolla Ote — Straight down. Parking is pushed out to the edge along La Jolla Ote, which is what keeps the middle of the site free.

Front, rear, right and left elevations: stone base, apartments above, rooftop pergolas and rain chains — Front, rear and both side facades. The stone base is not cladding: it is how the building meets a sloping site without a retaining wall behind it.

Selected Work in Mexico. Projects led by our principals over three decades of practice in Mexico, many in collaboration with ARTC Arquitectos, our studio in Mexico.

← All selected work Next: Pima Acres →

La Jolla Condo Complex

A new perspective on residential living

Stone below, stucco above

Two typologies, one courtyard

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