Bill Mackey

Bill Mackey is an Assistant Research Professor for the Drachman Institute and is the author of papers regarding land use policy and regulation, and specifically how those influence housing development. These papers are written for non-profit organizations and municipalities and help guide decision making at the local level. He presents this work to political bodies, neighborhood organizations, and conference audiences.

Bill Mackey is a principal of Worker, Inc., a firm specializing in art and architecture. The work explores human connections to built environments and bridges the theory and practice of social sciences, planning, architecture and art. Engagement simultaneously includes public, academic and professional fields.  

For over 25 years Bill has practiced architecture in the Tucson region. Projects range from private to public, hi-end to low-end, private garages to a 182-unit multi-family housing development and restaurants, zoos, jails and elementary schools (sadly, programmatically similar).  

He has poked fun and embraced (with love and hate) the landscape of Tucson and the policies in place that help create it. He presents critiques in public exhibitions, books and ephemera. He is asked to present work at the Museum of Contemporary Art and impromptu “art” events organized by (un)established artists of Tucson. He is sometimes taken seriously and has sat as a commissioner with the Tucson Pima County Historical Commission, a stakeholder for the development of Accessory Dwelling Units in the city of Tucson, a member of the steering committee for Affordable Housing for the Elderly of Tucson, asked to give presentations at neighborhood associations, schools and the Development Services Department at the city of Tucson, and written reports and studies for the Drachman Institute of the College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture at the University of Arizona. 

Bill has received grants from the Graham Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the Tucson Pima Arts Council and the Arts Foundation for Southern Arizona and Tucson. His clients keep calling him back and refer him to other people. 

Bill taught as a lecturer at the School of Architecture, the Honors College and the Department of Geography and Regional Development at the University of Arizona from 2006 to 2025.