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Fendler designed the 4,000-square-foot home to allow the owners to enjoy the view. “When you walk into the house, you’re on an axis with a view of Pinnacle Peak,” he says. He selected a mix of stone, stucco, and timber for the exterior, plus a clay tile roof—often used in warm climates—that reflects more sunlight than conventional asphalt. The lot adjoining the golf course appealed to Fendler’s clients, particularly the husband, an avid golfer. With more than 2,000 square feet of outdoor living space, the home offers spectacular views of the course, the Sonoran desert, and the mountains in the distance, including Pinnacle Peak, a distinctive granite summit rising 3,000 feet. “The inside-outside sensibility of this area has been an inspiration,” Fendler notes.
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Artisans at Handcrafted Tile in Phoenix carved the base and applied an antique wash to the limestone relief that became a wall-mounted water feature. To take advantage of the area’s warm climate and abundant sunshine, he says, he gave the home’s outdoor living spaces “a great deal of attention.”
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The beauty of their flowers is a remarkable trait of the Argentine giant hybrid Echinopsis, a genus of cactus that grows abundantly in the crevices of rocks and in the landscape planned for the clients. Flowering cacti and plantings were a happy surprise for Fendler. “It’s a lot greener than I had anticipated,” says the architect of his early trips to Scottsdale. “Once you start to understand and appreciate the landscape,you find it’s really quite beautiful.”
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MichaelRLong Getty Images/iStockphoto
The striking Mexican bird of paradise grows easily in the desert Southwest. Dinner plate prickly pear, like most species of cacti, is native only to the Americas and appears throughout residential and commercial landscapes in the Phoenix area. “Planting native plant material is an integral part of the built environment,” says Fendler. Massing plantings have yielded a lush look.
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Interior designers Susie Sheahan and Nancy Spewak selected a 30-inch statement lantern for the outdoor living room. Moroccan-influenced fixtures with glass insets are fairly common in Phoenix-area homes, says Fendler, noting that the splashes of color are reflected in the selection of hand-painted tiles in the house and in the terra-cotta entryway floor. A similar extra-large domed lantern (pictured above), is available here.
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A view of Scottsdale, Arizona, which inspired Fendler
Before designing a home in the Mirabel Golf Club community north of Scottsdale, Arizona, architect Paul Fendler of Fendler + Associates had never visited the Southwestern United States. But when a client gave him considerable creative license to build a second home there, the St. Louis–based architect was inspired by the harmony he observed between man-made and natural elements. “I don’t want to say the architecture is secondary, but it’s not the main event,” says Fendler, of Fendler + Associates.
Next destination: The Nordic countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland. “In addition to the landscape, culture, and architecture, I want to see the northern lights.”
