There are 108 homes in Catalina Pueblo. They were designed and built in three stages during the 1970’s by Don Maxon. Although each home here is based upon one of 9 different basic designs each one was altered to be unique unto itself and, in fact, no town homes here are exactly alike, either on the inside or out.
Don Maxon is nationally recognized for land planning, designing and promotion. He was named one of the top ten community developers in the United States by the federal government. He was a member of the prestigious “President’s Club” under both Kennedy and Johnson.
Don was also the first person to cause a waste-dump from mines to be landscaped. His Anaconda Mine project, just south of Tucson, is the largest earth moving job in history even surpassing the Panama Canal.
Starting with barren desert, in the 1960’s, Maxon designed and built Green Valley, a community of about 15,000 people, south of Tucson.
Soon thereafter, he set his sights on a smaller more personal project. He wanted to design and build a planned community of town homes that was unlike any other. Planned communities, almost by definition, produce homes that are indistinguishable from one another. The challenge Don undertook for Catalina Pueblo was to give each home the aura of individuality, of appearing to stand alone and be different from every other unit in the community. This was a novel concept and no small feat to achieve.
He accomplished his vision so skillfully that Catalina Pueblo has won numerous national awards for outstanding design. And, possibly the most obvious evidence of design success is that the designer himself chose to live here. Don and his new bride, Luanne moved into one of the first model homes in 1971. Don passed away in 2007 but his legacy lives on.
