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Phoenix Home and Garden Article
September 2011 Issue

 

 

Phoenix Golf Course Residence
Phoenix, Arizona

This residence is on a golf course and has a canyon-like drainage area adjacent to the pool, which was blocked by a 6 foot wall. I suggested we lower to wall to allow visual access to the adjacent landscape. These are the renderings we used to show this idea to the client.  

before

Lowering the wall opens up a view to the adjacent landscape and golf course. 

Night time view

South Mountain Residence

Phoenix, Arizona

This residence was a blank slate and beyond the backyard the street is 6 feet higher than the house. Anyone walking on the street could see into the house and the backyard. Privacy was my #1 concern for this project. 

This is the existing backyard.

This is the current view from dining room.

This rendering simulated what could be seen from the yard. 

These are my concept sketches.

The height of this fireplace wall was chosen to block views into the house.

This upper level deck creates a space for the client to engage with the street behind the house. There is a movable screen that can be shut to close off the deck from the back. 

 

Park View Residence

Tempe, Arizona

The client wanted to remove the existing pool and create a patio. Their backyard was adjacent to a city park, blocked by a six foot wall.

I suggested that we somehow open the fence to the park some of the time to make the park part of the yard. A couple of ideas were a viewing deck so the clients could see the park from their yard and a rolling gate which would open the yard up to the park and close it when the clients wanted some privacy.

There was already an existing grid of mesquite trees from a previous design, which we worked into the new design. 

Version 1 replaced the pool with a new patio and two 8 foot walls framing the park view.

Version 2 kept the walls and replaced the pool with a sunken patio.

 

We did some 3D models exploring versions of the idea of a viewing platform.

Versions 3 and 4 kept the sunken patio and added two different versions of the viewing platform. 

The final design will be closest to Version 2, which has a sunken patio and red walls framing a new opening to the park.