arroyo house 25-year award
architect: Line and Space article by: Liz Farkas AIA, LEED AP
1 The house takes advantage of dense vegetation to provide privacy from public view while allowing one to experience the desert. Photo by Line and Space, LLC 2 A skyhole punctured through the exterior roof plane allows an existing Mesquite tree access to sunlight and space to grow. Photo by Glen Christiansen 3 Continuation of cantilevered roof planes and decks to the exterior help blur the boundary between interior and exterior. Photo by James Brett
The Arroyo House exemplifies the goal of a fine piece of residential architecture. It manages to be supremely elegant and utterly comfortable at the same time.
Experiencing the Arroyo House by Line and Space is an immersion into the Sonoran desert. Poised over an arroyo, a dry creek bed with intermittent seasonal water flow, the house wraps itself around native vegetation, both delicate in its touch and substantial in its permanence. The resulting organic composition is entirely at ease in its location; the house and its occupants fully inhabit the site. Instead of turning away from the unpredictable feature at the heart of the site, the house embraces the arroyo. This relationship begins with the entry sequence: a processional walkway follows the arroyo past lush riparian vegetation, leading to a stone wall with its own water feature that continues into the house. Living spaces and their decks hover over the arroyo, including a dramatically cantilevered fireplace hearth floating between panes of glass. Every room maintains a visual relationship with the site, with views either focused or expansive.
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While the elements of the house appear effortless, naturally the process was more involved. Architect Les Wallach, FAIA, took time off from his practice to teach design at the University of Arizona and to act as the contractor and oversee the construction of the house. Extremely detailed drawings were needed to fully understand all the connections, many done in the midst of construction. Stone for the project was salvaged from a highway project further up the mountain range, incorporated during construction as it became available. The structure for the bridge, a precast concrete double tee, was also purchased in conjunction with another local project. Susan Wallach received a bonus at work, enabling a late design change to use fir wood for the ceilings and for the window frames, all of which were built on site. The Arroyo House exemplifies the goal of a fine piece of residential architecture. It manages to be supremely elegant and utterly comfortable at the same time. There are spaces for gathering, spaces for relaxing, spaces for tinkering. Over the years a handful of alterations (additional casework in fir, a powder room renovation, a contemplation deck and Jacuzzi) have reflected the innovative mind of an architect keen to continue to explore, all while the original concept of the house remains strong.
The arroyo also serves to organize the functions of the house by separating public and private spaces. A bridge spans the arroyo, connecting the two functions while providing a buffer between them, with operable windows to capture cooling wash breezes. Crossing the bridge provides another processional experience to move into the contemplative areas of the house. Despite the considerable footprint of the roof (double the house itself), it never overpowers. Openings large and small balance the need for shade in this harsh environment and the need for light to the house and to vegetation below the canopy of the structure. Expanses of glazing are thus protected during the summer and available for passive heating in the winter. Stone walls and split face concrete block match the exposed rock of the hillside, and the roof fascia matches the color of the sky - key arguments to meet the HOA required “earth tones” - and all is experienced through a curtain of native trees, shrubs, and Saguaros. Work on this fragile site was so sensitively done that no replanting was needed after construction.
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The home’s significance to the architectural community extends beyond a local or even regional one. Many architecture students were privileged to witness the design and construction process of the home during Wallach’s time as a professor at the College of Architecture, moving on in their careers with a first-hand lesson about rigorous design. The house has been included in multiple books and publications, in several local and national home tours, and has received a number of design awards, including local and state AIA awards and an Honor Award from Sunset Magazine’s Western Home Awards. As aptly summed up by Julie Eizenberg, AIA, a juror for the Sunset Magazine awards: “This is the kind of house you want to find in Arizona. So completely integrated to its site that it’s a part of the desert…”
2 4 During heavy rainfall he arroyo begins to run with water. Photo by Les Wallach, FAIA 5 The interior of the bridge connects public and private zones of the residence. Operable windows take advantage of mountain breezes. Photo by Line and Space, LLC
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