Jose Orozco; Mexican Architect Designed Famed Houses, Hotels

Jose Orozco, 65, prominent Mexican architect who designed major residences and hotels on both sides of the border. A native of Mexico City, Orozco earned a degree in architecture at USC and did graduate work at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico in Mexico City, where he later taught. One of his residential designs in Los Angeles was for the late entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. Another was for Don Kubly, a president of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Orozco established his own firm in Mexico City in 1962 and designed hotels, restaurants, residences and planned communities in Southern California, Texas, Florida and particularly in Baja California, Mexico. In 1981, he and his wife, artist and designer Patricia Davis Sutton, created Rosamar, one of the first planned residential communities on Baja California’s northern coast. Orozco also designed hotels in Cabo San Lucas, La Paz and Rosarito Beach and a complex of 27 houses at Plaza Del Mar. Also known for his furniture design, paintings and photographs, Orozco last exhibited his work in San Diego in 1994. On Dec. 16 in Baja California in an automobile accident.