Desert Architecture Series #10 | Christy Wareing | Phoenix, Arizona

Spanish Colonial Revival Architecture is an endless provider of independent outdoor livable spaces, and this special estate on the lower hillside of Camelback Mountain in Phoenix, Arizona is no exception. Also exceptional, the views: powerful canyon walls of Camelback on one 180 degree panoramic side, and then the sunset view on the other, dramatized by downtown city lights creating a awe inspiring foreground interspersed with mountains. The layout of this home is as unique as it gets to not miss a single framed view of both panoramas.
The layout is basically L-shaped, with the Master Suite on the Upper Level, which includes the Office, Workout room, and a Covered Outdoor Living Room, fondly referred to as the Cigar Deck, outfitted with a Wet Bar and corner fireplace. The main spaces on the main floor, such as the Entry, Great Room, main Wet Bar, Sitting Area and Dining Rooms, converge in the center and primarily stay open like a more contemporary home. To stay authentic with this non-traditional layout, the hand hewn dark wood beams and thick archways of the ceiling define the spaces in the traditionally authentic manner of a typical Mediterranean home. Radiating from the center is one bedroom wing terminating in the media room/theater, and the other being a garage wing that terminates in a guest casita. One of everyone’s most favorite spaces is the Outdoor Kitchen, where the bar wraps around the BBQ and heavily used Green Egg smoker.
Courtyards, fountains, fireplaces, arches, wood, stone, hand painted tile, clay, plaster, wrought-iron and true-divided lights in windows and French doors are truly the language of Spanish Colonial Revival Architecture. This home employs all of these features and then some: groin vaults, barrel vaults, patterned floors, heavily articulated roof masses with low pitches, Juliette balconies, hand carved cantera stone fireplace surrounds and window sills, venetian plaster, and clerestory windows bringing natural light in from both sides of the home.
Even more valuable than this home’s authentic details, materials, and features, which paint the romanticized picture of the Mediterranean, is the human element of the architecture….light….scale….lifestyle.
Website - christyandco.com
Film by Chibi Moku - chibimoku.com
Color Grading by Thomas Stigler