Debbie Jarson
Scott Jarson
CONTRIBUTORS
David M. Brown
Andrew Jarson
Alex Jarson
Lockley
EditorEditor’s Note:
As Arizona embraces the shift to mild weather and soft light, we welcome you to our celebration of the Season! As our sky changes with the cooler temperatures, and the light-play between shadow and form becomes pronounced, we become a joyous community that can once again interact again with nature in comfort. This issue is dedicated to this wonderful time of social gathering…a magical time in the Desert.
This edition spotlights two Architects that have made significant contributions to the visual landscape of our desert southwest. Edward “Ned” Sawyer Jr. has been a stalwart and expressive architectural player here for decades. We are pleased to celebrate his inspired work, but also the sincere and special nature of this gracious gentleman. His “total design” concept speaks to a level of commitment we find ourself continuously inspired by.
Architect Paul Christian Yaeger designed so many iconic homes, especially on the Valley Hillsides, you’d think he’d be more known. We dug deep to share all we could on this fascinating man who remains a bit of an enigma. With their prominent elevations and Who’s-Who list of original owners, these special homes have an architectural language of their own.
Read on to keep up to date on a most interesting grouping of current art shows at the venerable Heard Museum and at Lisa Sette Gallery. Both give proper homage to Native American contribution and life. We say goodbye to some dear friends whom we were so inspired to know; our small celebration of their lives are nothing in comparison to the reach and legacy that these fine people graced us with.
We are sure you’ll enjoy a look back at recent sales and will enjoy some truly fantastic Architecture for sale. We finally get to share our newest “Patented” signage and of course, we have curated some of the best and most unique objects available for the most discerning on your gift list.
Lein Residence
Architect: Ned Sawyer ADVERTISING info@azarchitecture.com
Finally, thank you for joining in our conversation on design by including our magazine on your reading list. Our business is Architectural Real Estate, and we are like kids in a candy shop; representing these special properties delights us every day. We hope that you’ll find them inspiring too. Our firm delivers expert marketing and knowledge to buyers and sellers, helping them to achieve their goals. Unlike other brokers we empower clients to live their dream life. Defining Desert Living is just one way we celebrate a shared passion with you!
It’s all part of what we call Defining Desert Living!
Scott Jarson,
In the midst of our Valley there are cool, irrigated citrus groves in the shadow of Camelback Mountain, along with pockets of Spanish revival, adobe, and midcentury modern ranch homes. There are forests of giant saguaros in the foothills to the north, an area that is known for cutting-edge architecture, and rows of majestic date palms lining streets of historic homes in central Phoenix. All of this makes for a rich, urban landscape that includes modern in-fill architecture, loft projects and stunning high-rise towers. All coexisting within the dramatic backdrop of our unique Sonoran Desert.
azarchitecture understands the contrasts and architectural nuances that set unique homes apart. From Frank Lloyd Wright to Case Study, Eames to Al Beadle, azarchitecture speaks the language of modern architecture.
This Blender is thoughtfully designed and meticulously engineered with industry-leading technology. thebeast.com
What we need - more candlelit conversation. Powder-coated steel in five shapes. bludot.com
For whenever you need some flavor on your plate and some color in the kitchen. 2modern.com
Cast from solid concrete it’s a great way to ensure that everything has its place and stays there. areaware.com
Die-cast steel toaster in green. Backlit knobs. Reheat, defrost, and bagel settings. williams-sonoma.com
One of the most powerful 1000W portable power stations ever created. It’s noise-free, maintenance-free, 100% pollution-free, and safe to keep INSIDE your home. judy.co
Hardcover book documenting this important exhibition at the Heard Museum heardmuseumshop.com
1000 PIECE
A vibrant way to meditate on color. areaware.com
This analog clock’s alarm is an original sound design by Grammy Award-winning artist Jon Natchez (The War on Drugs), with a different sound created randomly by the clock each morning. store.moma.org
For the last 45 years, we’ve been helping people who love music get the skills and knowledge they need to become professional guitar makers and repair technicians. Join us and start yourself on the way to a career you can really believe in.
M. BROWN
DAVID
An architect in the Valley of the Sun for 50 years, Sawyer has designed about 250 commercial buildings and homes that excite and delight in Arizona, California, Colorado, Wyoming, Oregon, New Mexico and Texas. These designs include the award-winning Corbus home, floating amidst the granite boulders of north Scottsdale near Pinnacle Peak and Troon North (1977) and his masterpiece commercial building, The Pavilion, on Biltmore Circle (1980) in Phoenix.
His work has appeared in Architecture, CityAZ, Sunset, House Beautiful, and Phoenix Home and Garden magazines and The Kitchen Book, National Geographic Books – The Beautiful Southwest and A Guide to the Architecture of Metro Phoenix by the AIA Central Arizona Chapter.
Sawyer programs, designs, prepares construction drawings and inspects the construction of each project, explains Douglas B. Sydnor, FAIA, principal at Scottsdale-based Douglas Sydnor Architect and Associates Inc. and author of three architectural books. “Ned has a reputation of developing creative designs for projects with unique programs and conservative budgets.
Beyond architectural design, Sawyer often guides the interiors with custom-designed furniture, accessories, company logo graphics and the art selection. Creating with this approach is more holistic and provides a visual continuity,” Sydnor explains. In addition, he designs mailboxes and entry doors, logos and other artworks for residential and commercial clients.
Throughout his career, he has affirmed a passion for the Mid-Century Modern style –– “an appreciation for simplicity, a desert architecture, instead of the fads,” Sawyer has said. A number of years ago, he told Sydnor that his goal for every project include natural and neighborhood contextualism: making sure the building fits, wherever it is, whatever it is. “I establish an aesthetic using washes, rocks and hillsides,” he has said of his home projects. “With residential clients, I have them discover such aspects during and after construction.”
Scott Jarson is a long-time admirer of Sawyer and his work. With wife Debbie, he is co-principal of az architecture/ Jarson & Jarson Real Estate, a 30-year-old firm dedicated to selling and celebrating Arizona homes designed by noted 20th-century and contemporary Arizona architects. “Ned Sawyer is a keystone in the foundation of Arizona Modernism. His talent is complete, reflective of a dedication to craft that is so often overlooked today.”
A Boston native, Sawyer moved to the Valley as a child and attended Madison Elementary and Central High in Phoenix. He grew up around architects and architecture.
In winter 1961, he began working in Phoenix as a designer/draftsman for Mid-Century Modern exemplar, Alfred Newman Beadle, AIA, where he learned about the proportions and crafted detailing of the International style as well as desert-sensitive siting. Sawyer told Sydnor that he also learned from Beadle that architecture “should be dynamic and respond to the harshness of the sun.”
When he started at ASU for the fall semester of 1961, Sawyer began to appreciate that architecture is an art experienced in the fourth dimension. “Painting is two-
“Edward B. ‘Ned’ Sawyer, Jr, AIA, is a “flat roof, walls of glass and lots of open space kind of guy,” says Fred Corbus, a long-time client of the architect. “I like doing a building that is site specific,” Sawyer has said, echoing a principle of his mentor, modernist Al Beadle. And, offering one of his own, “It’s not just about function; a successful structure has to also delight and excite.”
dimensional, sculpture is three-dimensional, but architecture is also experienced as two and three-dimensional and then through ‘time,’ the fourth dimension,” he says. “This concept has formed my professional architectural philosophy and experience.”
He entered its School of Architecture, guided by the founding dean, James W. Elmore (1917–2007); this class was responsible for envisioning the Rio Salado project, which has revitalized Tempe’s riparian area at the Salt River. After graduating, Sawyer continued to work for Beadle until 1972. He has since led his practice as well as served as an architectural consultant for other firms. He and his wife Beverly have two sons and two granddaughters.
His civic involvement includes AIA Central Arizona Chapter president; ASU Design Review Board member; chairman, Scottsdale Development Review and Planning Commission; and member of Phoenix Camelback Rotary International Board and ASU Alumni Association Board. Sawyer has
The Lein Residence on Mummy Mountain in Paradise Valley recently updated by David Michael Miller ASID
The Pavilion Office Complex
also served on design awards juries in Arizona, Colorado and California and has been an ASU design instructor and Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Apprentice Mentor.
He has received numerous awards including the Arizona Architects Medal from the AIA in 1979 and the Distinguished Achievement Award from Arizona State University two years later. In addition, he has lectured at AIA chapters, universities and special events and at the College of Architecture at ASU. In 2018, he received an ICON Award.
“Many know of his association and close friendship with Al Beadle, but for me, Ned’s own work is singular and very special. It is so particular to our place, it’s hard for me to think of a time that I was not aware of, or frankly inside of, one of Ned’s many wonderful designs,” Jarson says. “From
his fully integrated homes to all the celebrated commercial builds, Ned Sawyer’s work is also reflective of a very serious record of a special time of design growth in our Valley.”
Sawyer’s wide-ranging expertise includes educational, banking, healthcare buildings and other commercial structures as well as apartment complexes. Among these are Goodmans office warehouses and showrooms in Phoenix, Albuquerque and Tucson; several Western Savings branches in Phoenix and Tucson; and the masterplan for the American Heath & Convention Center in Sazolabata, Hungary.
The two-story Redirect Health center in Glendale combines “confident masses and planar elements with recessed niches and glazing,” he explains. Walls are eight-inch courses of exposed concrete masonry units, with “playful portholes” to view the space beyond. Black framing and smaller aluminum inset frames articulate the glazing, and horizontal metal canopies provide solar protection. “The building reflects the owner’s vision of a transparent medical practice by using open planning and glass walls where possible,” Sawyer says, noting that the glass-walled exit stairs and elevator shaft are lit during the evening hours.
Murphy Residence, Paradise Valley
Left: Western Savings, Tucson. Right: Berg Residence, Phoenix
Sawyer’s commercial masterpiece is The Pavilion Office Complex, Phoenix, 2525 E. Arizona Biltmore Circle in Phoenix, still resonant with innovation 40 years after its debut. The four-level 58,224-square-foot gardenstyle office development, grouped as four buildings, was completed in 1980 by owner Phil Davis, who contracted J.R. Porter Construction.
“With the site adjacent to the Arizona Biltmore Hotel, the developer sought the creation of a building which would reflect its context in a sympathetic manner, so the exterior and interior utilized exposed gray concrete masonry units,” Sawyer says. “Black steelwork was used for its stairs, bridges, handrails and shade devices in keeping with the hotel detailing.” A walkway over the parking area neatly transitions to a parking structure built later for the hotel. Mature trees and bermed desert landscaping add to the serenity and warmth of the campus.
A stream begins inside the covered courtyard at the second level and trickles down to a fountain on the main level, providing an evaporative cooling effect and auditory calming. Workers and their guests climb up through the levels and can chat or rest on benches, and punches through the walls offer light and views, including to the Wrigley Mansion to the south.
“The building massing was layered to form semi-private courts and a central atrium shielded from the severe sun and enhanced by fountains and landscaping,” Sawyer says. “This area serves as an oasis and common identity feature
for each tenant while providing access to all parts of its complex. The atrium culminates into a grand central stair which extends upward to an observation platform allowing tenants and visitors full view.”
“Ned plays with and explores massing in a method that is highly interesting,” Jarson explains. “The use of positive and negative space in his designs, which to some at first glance may appear casual, are, in fact, highly complex and thoughtful; these negative spaces often become sun respites that control light, shade and shadow. He always explores solar exposure more than most of his modernist contemporaries. These are designs for Arizona. I’ve never seen Ned design in a piece of glass that sits hard against the sun. He’s masterful.”
Sawyer says: “The occupants are intended to serve as kinetic sculpture as they move through each level change and framed vista, providing life and special activity to the architectural experience. Al [Beadle] loved it. He would come here and relax.”
Jarson admires Sawyer’s commercial and residential work but says, “His residences are really something special and often overlooked in my opinion. Perhaps because he has a large portfolio of built work, many of which include some real design-world ‘movers and shakers’ clients, we fail to celebrate them as much as they deserve. I think our community has to some extent taken Ned for granted.”
His work includes the Goldman (1976) and Funk (1978) homes in Phoenix, both awarded by AIA; Murphy (1974) astride the Phoenix Mountain Preserve; and the recent Leite high-country getaway in Prescott (2017).
He has designed four homes for Murray and Dottie Goodman, one in Phoenix, two in Clearwater Hills, a foothills county island adjacent to Paradise Valley, and another in Flagstaff in 2000. In the ’70s, Sawyer and Beadle called the family’s office furniture company in Phoenix to furnish a bank project with Herman Miller and Knoll furniture. This led to a complete Contemporary remodel of the family’s 1950s central Phoenix home in 1980. “Ned had just completed an award-winning office building in the Biltmore area [The Pavilion] and incorporated some of the elements of that design into our home,” recalls Murray.
After designing the first Clearwater Hills home for the couple in the early 1980s, Sawyer followed with today’s home, completed in 2016. The 5,500-square-foot fivebedroom is built against a hillside, spans and overlooks a wash, which robustly rushes during the summer monsoons and winter rains. Sawyer even provided water chains from the roof to intensify that effect.
Materials and details are magically mixed: masonry, glass and obscure block, clerestory windows for sun and
shadows, a white oak floor, LED lighting, a Japanese-style garden and a custom front door.
This is “total design” in which Sawyer masterfully integrates space, form, surface and detail. “It is both intriguing and seamless,” Jarson says. “His homes that incorporate this thought remain classically stunning. Simple in a Scandinavian way, but more generous and frankly . . . American in lifestyle.”
Says Goodman, “Ned approaches each project as a work of art. He really takes to heart Charles Eames’s famous quote that goes something like “The details are not just the details . . . They’re the whole thing.”
Sawyer’s residential masterpiece is an unassuming but spectacular home built into the granite boulders of north Scottsdale: The Corbus Home. The AIA Central Arizona Chapter has also awarded it for excellence.
Completed for the Corbus family on a five-acre desert parcel with large granite boulders, the small 1,300-square-foot home was designed for future expansion, which the Corbuses have done with Sawyer’s suggestions and guidance. “The couple loved the desert, its character and seasonal changes, so they felt the need to be ‘available to the environment,’ but required sun protection,” Sydnor explains.
“My wife and I couldn’t really express what we wanted in the form of a house design, and we didn’t know any architects,” Fred recalls. “So we decided to drive around Phoenix to spot homes that looked like what we wanted. This moved us into saying we wanted ‘flat roofs, walls of glass and lots of open space.’”
A mutual friend introduced them, and Sawyer has since designed three homes for Corbus.
The intention was to float the home above the desert ravine, thereby using the “mega-boulders to form and define varied living experiences,” Sawyer says, noting that the plans were the first he signed as an architect for county approval. The result is a dramatic boardwalk approach to the front door; at night, lights from below illuminate the boulders and provide wayfinding.
“In order to expand these experiences, decks were located off of each area. With the exceptions of the bath and a portion of the kitchen, all other areas remain open, with the glass walls acting only as a weather seal,” Corbus says.
The original home, before air-conditioning was added, included adjustable shade screens to control the sun from overhead and vertical louvers to shield against the sun, deflect breezes into the
home and provide privacy, Sydnor explains. “Such strategies have yielded a comfortable, energy-efficient space. Space heating and hot water are supplied by tracking-type solar collectors. The structure comprises steel columns, glue-laminated wood beams and infill panels of wood frame and cement plaster finish.”
The couple love the home. “Ned’s deep seated understanding of the desert, our personal desires, the use of open space and the lasting beauty of simple, straight-forward uncomplicated design have always given us such a sense of satisfaction,” Corbus says.
“His designs are remarkable, timeless and reflect a special brand of Arizona Modern that is truly a benchmark of design,” Jarson says. “The capper, of course, is that you won’t find anyone more, generous, thoughtful, humble and gracious. Ned is a man without equal. All of us are fortunate recipients of his abundant talent.”
David M. Brown is a Valley-based freelancer (azwriter.com). This is the fifth in an ongoing series celebrating Arizona’s “Visual Wealth.”
Design by Frank Lloyd Wright apprentice and Taliesin Architects co-founder, John Rattenbury. This remains one of the most significant homes by this firm and is deeply connected to Wright and his principles of organic architecture. Constructed with precision and incorporating the highest available building skills, this home is nearly irreplaceable today. READ MORE
Price: $5,229,000
Price: $2,195,000
Unique Modern home completely renovated and expanded with the vision of Architect Luis Salazar who has created a zen like compound complete with freestanding home office/studio/shop. Interiors offer world-class finishes and furniture-grade cabinets from Antoine Proulx. the kitchen and baths a “to-die-for” experience! Split plan offers two suites and a great room, plus the studio. READ MORE
Price: $1,100,000
The first great civilizations were born in the shadows of a great sunset. As the sun fell, the sky began to glow. And as the sky darkened, people began to dance and create. They told stories, sang songs, and read poetry about the old legends that walked the earth. No matter how long the darkness prevailed, the stories would not die.
People found happiness. They shared it together.
As the phases of the moon passed, the darkness spread throughout the different lands. People began to fear it, taking shelter from monsters at night. The stories they once told around the fire were now written with ink. The sun rose and people rejoiced. But without the open mouth of darkness near our ears, there was no story to tell. The dream of life, this idea of mystery and unknown depth, seemed to fold in on itself, and people forgot it was even a dream at all…
A new exhibit at the Heard Museum, Substance of Stars, invites us to step into the dark to see what the past is hiding from the future in the present day. Substance of Stars combines historic and contemporary works with immersive
2022 / 2023
digital technologies to showcase the cosmological and spiritual practices of each community.
This three-year collaborative project with four Indigenous Nations examines the collection of the Heard Museum from Indigenous perspectives of their own cultural production, across a variety of media.
The exhibition’s centerpiece is the Sky Dome, a 360 degree room, surrounding the viewer with seasonal landscape imagery created by four Indigenous videographers. A ceiling-mounted fiber optic map of the cosmos rotates four times around the North Star as it demonstrates seasonal changes from the viewpoint of someone living in the Four Corners.
I learned that Náhookos Biko’ is the central fire in Navajo cosmology. It is the North Star Polaris. Náhookos translates to the revolving motion of the stars in the night sky. Náhookos tells how the stars are falling. As we look into the night sky, we may not notice the rotation of our planet right away. But over time, the stars move east to west.
Náhookos Biko’ never leaves its place in the sky. When we need guidance, we turn to it, receiving direction from somewhere we perceive as the present. But of course, that’s not the entire story. Stars are episodes that happened years ago. The light is transmitted through the cosmos, until we receive it, years later.
We find that we are actually looking into the past from the present. But how did we get there? And where are we going in the future?
The dawn of America came when people could no longer imagine a world with darkness. We created our own myths, held firm in the torch of the American spirit, and we built a palace of ideals. We made a history of our own. The world became a place of light.
An electric sea of energy reflected the world around us. The land and sky became two sides of a silver coin to explore. We were free, or so we thought, but true ideas were distilled in the afterglow of our past inventions, and our creations were no longer reflections of our hopes and dreams.
In this post-historical world, we created gods in the image of ourselves. We built the tallest structures, the biggest monuments, and the greatest works of art. We created them to be symbols of our accomplishments, icons of power, and we celebrated our lives within the context of the era at large.
BY ALEX JARSON
But the tribes remember the genesis. Their ancestors held onto the pain, the horror, and the darkness of the past. There is no shying away from the truth. It lives on in the shared experience of DNA. It also lives on in the story of the stars.
The exhibition reminds you that the world’s history moves like the seasons. Humans built it all with hope and change in mind. We lit the torch because our value was in the future. We needed to see the path forward. And we needed to keep moving.
This page:
Sky Woman, 1936, Ernest Smith (Tonawanda Seneca),oil on canvas
Sky Woman, Joe Greene (Mohawk), Soapstone Shooting Star, 2007, Fidel Estudillo (Diné), silver
Left: Tsé Bit’a’í (Shiprock Mountain): Steven Yazzie (Diné)
Today, worth is measured a little differently. We have the economy, the stock market, the dollar, and a thousand different variations that go together. They are all reflections of each other, but at the end of the day, they represent one thing: modern value. But they are hollow shells of what we want to believe. We are still looking for a new world.
In many indigenous tribes in America, value was measured in the honor and respect you brought to the group. In other words, how your story reflected onto your tribe was important. For the Haudenosaunee and Iroquois people, wampum belts were crafted from Northern Quahog shells, a beautiful clam found in the Northeast. These shells were often crafted into jewelry and belts, and used as a certificate of authority or credentials.
Though wampum was used in trade, it was not money. To the Iroquois, wampum was a way to tell their story through
archetype, color, and shape. It was a path to achieve cooperation through tribes, and a highly important item in the giving of names. One could not outright own value. The value of the wampum was not just in the monetary value of the shells, but in the spiritual and cultural value of the entire item.
The Yup’ik tribes of Siberia and Alaska have a concept known as Ella, a shared consciousness that is part of the One Mind. They believed there is a unity to all things, that all things have godliness of everything. All realities—physical or metaphysical—are aspects of the one.
Therefore, they structured their society as such. But there is a polarity to it all, in which all ideas spin.
Every idea has a reflection. The ocean reflects the sky, and in turn mirrors the spirit of the world. Every idea, good and bad, has a mirror image of itself. A light and a dark. And so now we seem to have reached an impasse, or turning point between the two.
In so many ways, we’re stepping into darkness again. This is a terrifying concept to us because time is never supposed to move backward. But the truth about time, is that it’s moving in every direction, all at once. Our minds interpret those movements. When all points connect, a bright period of light will come. But until then, we have a lot of work to do.
For instance, our mistakes are catching up to us in the form of pollution, slowly dimming the radiance of the stars throughout my lifetime. It’s only until we find ourselves in one of Arizona’s six “Dark Skies” sites, that we realize how bright they really are.
In modern America, culture has been distilled and reduced into caricatures of what used to be. Our entities are cartoons telling us what to buy, eat, wear, and think. We have become beasts with a collective goal to stay happy through valueless contractions that complicate our everyday relationships as the natural world bites our ass with a vengeance.
The stars in the sky burn bright, but upon closer inspection, they glow like dollar signs on a Pac-Man screen.
The tribes knew of the possibilities of man. The trajectory was obvious. We are symbiotic to the process, not above it. But we behave like the gods we made at the early 20th century. All we had to do was follow the path and heed the warnings. Of course, our ancestors may not have known the intricacies of skyscrapers. But they knew the intricacies of the spiritual realm, and they told its story on the darkest nights. They knew it needed to stay within the circle of the Earth, and they vowed to keep it there forever.
It will never die. Instead, it will rest inside a dream, until awakened again.
The nature of dreams is an ancient phenomenon. It is something we are born with, and something we strive to learn and understand. Dreams are the fire of the soul, the engine of our minds, and the way in which we connect to the universe from within.
We must keep dreaming.
Dreams are born in darkness. They serve as a window out of our world, which provides a new perspective. In turn, dreams are a vast library of knowledge, a shared memory, and a wish for what’s to come. Just as the mind is a complex network of neurons, our consciousness is linked through the generations.
Left: Nepcetaq (“Sticks to the face” mask), 1850, Central Yup’ik, Alaska
Carved wood, pigment, seal blood, feathers, fox teeth, seal skin;
Above: Ni’hodithit, (The First World), 2004-2005, Peggy Black (Diné)
In the modern world, stars are a measure of time. Many grandfather clocks bear illustrations of celestial events and entities.
The Navajo have a story of the beginning of time. The story goes that when the world began, it was a First World of darkness called the Nihodilhil, encapsulated by a heavenly sky. People arrived as insects and various animals first, evolving with each new world.
Leaving the darkness of the First World, they found themselves in the blue of the Second World, and then the Yellow of the Third. The Fourth World was glittering and white, and this was when humans evolved into what they are today.
But everything changed in the Fourth World. Man was not satisfied. The land was dry and barren. So he kept searching. He’s still searching to this day.
There are two worlds after the Fifth World. The first is a heavenly realm referred to as the World of the Spirits of Living Things, and the second is the Place of Melting into One.
We will never see the world in the way of our ancestors, but that doesn’t mean we should give up the ghost. We are still here. We are still alive. We are still connected.
If we fail to act on our mistakes, the earth will be fine without us. That’s the unfortunate reality. If Earth is a conscious entity, then climate change is our problem. Earth has the power to heal itself. As a culture, it is imperative to listen to the past if you want to continue adding to this great civilization.
The future is abundantly clear. We can see it in the substance of the stars.
Substance of Stars / Heard Museum / 2022 - 2023. This multi-sensory experience shares the creation stories that form the foundational knowledge systems and inspire artistic production for the Haudenosaunee, Yup’ik, Diné, and Akimel O’otham Tribes. Substance of Stars will combine historic and contemporary works with immersive digital technologies to showcase the cosmological and spiritual practices of each community.
BY WALT LOCKLEY
Firstly, it’s Y-A-E-grrr, not Y-E-A-grrr, as it was misspelled by Architectural Digest in 1959 and by many others since. Grrr.
Secondly, contrary to published rumor, Paul Yaeger’s name does not appear on the lists of Taliesin apprentices and other associates. You can see strong Wrightian associations in his work, sure. Friends called him a disciple.
Yaeger was born back east in 1923. His father, Harry C. Yaeger, worked for Underwood and held many patents for powered typewriters from the late 1930s into the 50s. This, fair to say, was a technically-minded family. (Paul later developed a preference for the Ford Fairlane Skyliner retractable hardtops produced between 1957 and 1959, high-end stereophonic equipment of the day, and radiant heat coils installed in the ceiling.) Paul came up through the Loomis School in Connecticut, one of the better prep schools, then Trinity College in Hartford class of ‘45, then to Princeton ‘47, then married in West Hartford Connecticut in 1952.
Yaeger arrived in the valley with no need to enter the educational rigors at Taliesin West. His first credits here pop up in 1955.
Paul Yaeger’s whole architectural career is represented by a single building for a single client, a fascinating house for an extraordinary client. That glaring spotlight tended to throw the rest of his work in shadow, then and now.
The client was Senator Barry Goldwater. The house was called Be-nun-i-kin.
It’s still there on its own private hilltop, after a major remodeling in 2005, and still a private residence. A little south of the Unitarian Universalist Church on Lincoln. Visible from the John Waddell bronze group in the back garden – but let me discourage any urge to visit. It’s hard to stroll past and casually glance through the windows anyway. It doesn’t work like that.
The Goldwater House had a moment in the sun lasting several years. Not all the attention was welcome. When the house appeared in Arizona Days and Ways of January 4, 1959, its client already had a distinctive national profile as a U.S. Senator from Arizona, and of course locally for a long time as the sporting idiosyncratic elder son of a well-regarded business and family. Barry Goldwater represented true Arizona backbone, from stock of roadbuilding original settlers who also happened to be Russian-Polish Jews, merchants in Phoenix from 1872. He was a Senator from Arizona. He had charisma.
It didn’t hurt that new Goldwaters department stores continued to pop up, Park Central in 1956, Scottsdale Fashion Square in 1961, that name in larger letters all the time.
So local coverage of 1959 described a house customized to the needs of the family, forward-looking for sure but rooted in the authenticity of Arizona crafts and materials. For example its Triassic red sandstone walls and chimney had been quarried from an outcropping up north on the Navajo Reservation that Senator Goldwater had spotted from his private plane, then arranged to harvest. Whatever else it was, Be-nun-i-kin was a serious essay in desert masonry.
The overall shape was an arrow, pointing to Camelback. All the furniture was either built-in or customdesigned by the architect, who had been “given free rein on the design, subject only to fulfillment of the space requirements of the family… All the angles are functions of a 60-degree equilateral triangle.” Lloyd Kiva contributed hand-screened draperies, and John Bonnell of the White Hogan carved the front door and some interior wooden fixtures, among many many other features and integrated craftwork.
On October 24, 1963 the house and its owner appeared in the national Saturday Evening Post, in a piece by the Washington columnist Stewart Alsop.
It had somehow become necessary for Barry Goldwater to run for president, although nobody wanted him to, including him.
As part of the cruel “let’s meet the candidates” invasionof-privacy routine, and with a subtext of east coast establishment putting frisky westerners in their place, Stewart Alsop flew out and wrote up his encounter with Goldwater. The second sentence of the long profile ends with the word “half-Jewish”, which the Senator certainly was. Alsop described a completely different Be-nun-ikin, concentrating on its nutty features “which are always getting out of order,”, the oddity of its hexagonal floor plan, the electronic control panel in the bed headboard, the mic’d up amplified waterfall, and an American flag which you could normally hear automatically furling itself at sunset on a metal armature, except it hadn’t worked for weeks.
All this was support for Alsop’s proposition that Barry Goldwater was an adult child from camel country. “His
house might have been built by a dexterous 12-year-old boy suffering from an overdose of Popular Mechanics.”
This national press went on for about five years as Goldwater reached, then lost, the 1964 election. That science-fiction house of theirs became a local legend.
One clear plus for Yaeger: some of that national publicity included an illustration of that floorplan, which was reprinted from Tampa to Spokane, looking all triangular and exotic and smart. It caught the eye. It still does.
All this attention, and all these write-ups, miss the single strangest thing about the project, which is how intensely customized the Goldwater house is. How it was shaped around the needs and desires of this particular family, or the head of this family anyway. This meant datagathering and “programming” in the old sense, an unusual amount of research and detailed decisions to make. The architect and the family spent a year together. Apart from the resulting gizmos and the personalities and
Fratt Residence on Camelback Mountain is one of Yeager’s
retains it’s original cast-concrete “Bermuda” roof, another Yaeger detail.
whatever else, that part of the story shows a commitment to tailoring the Goldwater house to an exact tight fit.
And, also, it’s tailored to its hilltop site. Putting a house on the crest of a hill comes with some vertical siting decisions, which can be done with sensitivity or not. Yaeger chose to introduce height variations in the main interior level (slightly higher bedrooms), had the carport and pool tucked away a half-story half-underneath, then surrounded the envelope with limited flat decking and rough fieldstone cactus planters outside. Then the desert dropped away. There was no yard, no flat spaces outside the windows. Just air.
Does that explain the unusual “60-degree equilateral triangle” approach to the floorplan? Did triangles allow a better fit of the house to its hill? It seems sensible that a more faceted exterior could fit the natural formation of its hilltop more closely, and you could frame views with more flexibility and variety, right?
No. Nope. Yaeger offered a completely different reason. Quoted in Suburbia Today of April 1960, when asked about why all the triangles our architect answered, “Senator Goldwater is a man avidly interested in the history of Arizona’s land and peoples, a robust and uninhibited personality, and to me he did not seem to belong in anything as slick or rigid as a rectangular space division.”
Honestly that wasn’t the reasoning I expected. If Mr. Yaeger meant to evoke Senator Goldwater caroming off his own honeycomb walls at top speed, good job.
Where did the idea come from?
The hexagonal plan has its own history, nationally and in the valley. Wright and Taleisin pioneered it with the Hanna House in Stanford from 1937, aka the Honeycomb House, also on a hilltop. The Goldwater house is a looser jazzy composition of triangles in comparison. The Hanna
House had to be much more strict because the walls were demountable, meant to be rearranged every few years, and so had to be identical and interchangeable everywhere. Part house, part kit. (The Hannas were a married couple of educators and behaviorists, who brought along their own ideas about environmental psychology, 100% willing to experiment on themselves and their kids.) (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.)
A honeycomb unit is a reasonable step away from the restrictions of 90-degree angles, while remaining sort of buildable. There are claims that space is wasted in foursquare corners. As you turn a 60-degree corner that’s not quite a corner, that can be disorienting. Perhaps a feature. Maybe a bug.
Up in Pinnacle Peak the Chicagoan artist Walter Bohl had designed himself a hexagonal studio, with the help of a Taliesin apprentice named Bill Owen, in 1953. Bohl said the contractor estimates had blown his mind so he took to building it himself. It took him six winters.
But after the notorious Be-nun-i-kin showed up in the newspapers there was a wave of similar geometric experiments with the floorplan within the next few years, popping up in the desert, designed by Blaine Drake, H.H. Benedict, Charles Montooth, and others. Paul Yaeger used the same general approach for other houses in 1960, 1970, several casas above the Gardiner Tennis Ranch in the early 1970s, and 1981, although there are structural facets and unusual angles in almost all of his work.
work.
A designer who takes that level of care will not have a long list of credits. That’s the architect you want, though.
Of about 70 known projects, about 60 are in the Valley, concentrated in eastern Phoenix and Paradise Valley, with the others in California and other western states. Of the 70 about seven are commercial projects. The rest are custom houses, usually hidden from public view.
Those seven commercial projects are modest. There are a couple of medical offices, one at 7301 E. Thomas in Scottsdale with those thin exaggerated arches obligatory for the Los Arcos side of town in 1970. Yaeger also designed the concept market-restaurant Butler’s Pantry on N. 16th Street in 1969, which became Ajo Al’s, and which remains a legitimate architectural experience for a field trip this evening, I’d say, with the rhythm and buzz of good restaurant surroundings, an effect enhanced by those hot enchiladas with that jalapeno white sauce, dang.
And, maybe the best of the batch, although it’s regrettably long gone, was the 1965 Paradise Ford dealership at Camelback and Scottsdale. Paradise Ford grew so fast in 1965 it required two or three architectural updates to deal with the crowding on the street. Yaeger’s version came in November, a glassy pavilion – a lantern, really – with a complicated faceted roof and a really nice vibe.
One of Yaeger’s first houses in Phoenix was 48 North Country Club Drive, originally for Charlie A. Morgan, later associated with the Nace family, built in 1955.
An auspicious early commission for an out-of-towner. The design was a low-slung ranch house, made from concrete block and wood trim, with a self-confident chunky rectilinear design. Interestingly there was a steel frame in it, according to Arizona Builder and Contractor of September 1957, to get the desired deep shadowing overhangs and free-span space in the huge living room. It was billed as the first “atom-proof” residence in Phoenix.
Another prominent Yaeger house is at the highest built elevation on Camelback, we think, on its northeastern flanks. It was designed in 1969 for Curtis Calvin Cooper, then was better known as the home of the abstract expressionist painter Dorothy Fratt. Should we call it the Fratt House?
Just this once. The Fratt House is one of a set of Yaeger houses set into hills with playfully vertical features and spaces inside, decisions arising from their specific rocky windswept surroundings. The Fratt House is built around a central sort of fieldstone tower / chimney mass, which organizes an interior with shallow balconies overhead from the entry point, creating a sense of upward retreat, a sense of nautical trimness, a sense of ski-chalet-in-thedesert, and the kind of thing that’s difficult to photograph. Yaeger embraced and mastered these human-scale 3-D complications. He was really good at that.
There’s a commonality in all these designs, a throughline. It doesn’t have much to do with curb appeal. It has something to do with the materials, what I think of as good rugged National Park materials.
More than that, it has to do with Yaeger’s interest in good fit. His design approach is most like masterful tailoring, bringing that sense of rightness and elegance and balance that comes when your clothes fit (people have told me). His use of faceted geometry comes, not for its own sake, but for a better fit, to avoid wasted space, leftover corners, muda. He used fine materials sparingly and with respect. Same with his treatment of the site.
This view of Paul Yaeger is completely consistent with the Paul Yaeger who turned up in the Republic in June 1971, taking part in the conversation about defending the fragile slopes of Camelback from brainless construction. He’d shown slides to the Phoenix Press Club demonstrating flat-land houses, suitable enough for the orange groves below, that developers had shoved onto leveled cuts in the slopes. The absurdity of the house mass and its footing was one thing. Yaeger knew one mountainside property with a site blasted by dynamite and graded flat for $30,000 (in 1971 dollars; $200,000 today) which cost the owner another $35,000 to pay off the downhill neighbor for the piles of scree he’d dropped from above, ultimately all for the privilege of living on a tailings dam.
He offered an alternative. “I have never used more than $1,000 for grading,” he said. “You have to go out and look at the features of the lot and get the feel of it. You have to analyze the contours and figure out how to get machinery into it. You may even have to use hand tools.”
Great opportunity at Tranquil Trails! Stunning views of Black Mountain to the West, and Continental Mountain to the North, await you in one of the most spectacular and private communities of Carefree, Reserve at Tranquil Trail. This untouched, high desert, custom homesite is located within minutes of the quaint downtown Carefree area. READS MORE
Price: $425,000
A Modern Loft-Style Studio designed by the talented Studio MA Architects, PRD845 offers an exciting project that defined the Downtown Experience! This urban-hip 1 bedroom, open floor-plan studio combines Modern Architecture with superb materials, light-filled spaces, and ecosensitive design. Next to Roosevelt Historic & Arts District, and just a short walk from the Light-Rail, great restaurants, and museums. READ MORE Price: $342,800
For the discerning owner that wants a preserve-like setting complete with architectural concepts already started, this five acre lot in glorious Ranch Highlands offers sweeping views, a fully improved gated community, and high-design, located in one of the most architectural neighborhoods in North Scottsdale. READ MORE
Price: $525,000
Price: $309,000
Al Beadle’s iconic architecture of block and geometry creating a mixture of private and shared spaces. All connecting through overhead beams and linear concrete that never disappoints! Grandview Garden is approachable architecture that shows the genius of one of the greatest Arizona architects of all time. The space is exactly where you need it, allowing loads of natural light to fill the custom painted rooms. READ MORE
Mid-Century Home originally built by Ralph Haver in Marlen Grove! This post-war modern home was completely updated inside and out. With signature Ralph Haver Architect details such as a low-sloped roof, vaulted and beamed ceilings, and clerestory windows to bring in natural light throughout. The attention to detail is a minimalist’s dream come true – you will want to call this home! READ MORE
Phoenix offers a handful of signature designs that define contemporary Desert Modern Architecture; this home designed by Wendell Burnette is one of the finest we have represented.
A superb balance of mass, materials, light, scale and perforation perfectly placed on a native landscaped, gentle hillside slope. You’ll find wonderfully executed details; a wealth of minutiae to delight the connoisseur in a clean and modern design that offers a comfortable plan that plays elegantly into our desert-lifestyle.
The home was carefully renovated and restored in 2012; the new owners painstakingly following the Architect’s vision and direct oversight to co-create the final work as it is today.
Stunning city-views anchor you to the urban hub while the nearby Mountain Preserve panorama calms the soul. The private pool is a sensory experience, providing an enclave that is both dramatic and serene.
The gardens were updated and recreated to naturalize the setting and to allow a seamless connection to the site. Well published and celebrated, this remains a signature design for Mr. Burnette and is widely considered to be an outstanding example of his work.
From the Architect: “Two volumes of light - one warm and one cool - one projected to the expansive horizon and one toward the canopy of the desert sky. Inspired by John Van Dyke’s ruminations on the phenomena of desert light, …the Dialogue House is a gestalt instrument for touching the full range and specificity of this light, this “place”- day and night, season to season and year to year.“
We invite you to learn more of this very special home, see more at azarchitecture.com or enjoy an in depth video tour here
This home is currently offered for sale at $2,195,000. Interested qualified Buyers seeking the finest in Desert Modern Architecture should contact Scott Jarson directly for a personal introduction to this fine home. 480.254.7510
Now showing at Lisa Sette Gallery - October 1, 2022 - January 7, 2023
Rita Smith’s hair is pulled back in a coruscating flash of blue morpho and her expression is enigmatic–a velvety black gaze reaching us from a distant moment in time. A folded serape neatly wraps her shoulders, its intriguing surface composed of hundreds of variegated patterned pieces. In the artist Benjamin Timpson’s 2021 rendition of this 1920’s-era black and white portrait, Smith is both ephemeral and radiant with lived humanity. Timpson’s use of deconstructed and intricately overlapped butterfly wings as a medium of portraiture presents his subjects as woven from the complex materials of memory, nature, metamorphosis, and survival.
Smith was murdered a century ago, in a series of brutal homicides that were premeditated as a means to transfer Osage people’s valuable Oklahoma oil holdings to wealthy white men in the area. Women were the primary target in this scheme: Smith’s mother and two of her sisters were also killed during the Osage Reign of Terror - leading to the launch of the FBI. Other victims of this purge have been discovered as recently as within the last decade. Says Timpson, “This has been going on for a long time, this pattern of destroying not just the woman herself, but the woman’s power and strength in Indigenous societies.”
Community groups estimate that as many as 80% of Indigenous women and girls are the victims of violence and sexual abuse. In 2017, after a DNA test confirmed his family’s own generationally-concealed Puebloan ancestry, and a close relative was badly beaten by her boyfriend, Timpson began making portraits of such women–both identified and anonymous, past
and contemporary–using responsibly-sourced butterfly wings, deconstructed and arranged against LED microcontrolled light boxes and in stunning large-format photographs of the original collages.
Timpson’s light box portraits operate on 13 minute cycles of increasing illumination as the microscopic wing structures present dramatically shifting hues and iridescence throughout this cycle. In addition to persuading viewers to slow their examination of his work, or to return for a second look, Timpson believes “the illumination also acts as a candle–as you would light a candle for a loved one.” Titled with the names of their subjects, the deeply personal nature of these portraits is juxtaposed with the universality of the butterfly as an object of human fascination, and as a connection between humans and the natural world.
“People from cultures all over the world recognize the butterfly as a symbol of metamorphosis. Its life cycle is like the physical manifestation of so much of our
mythology, and its image is ubiquitous. But most people don’t get that close to butterfly wings. When people stand in front of a photograph with the pattern and structure of the wings blown up ten times, they’re still mesmerized… if nothing else, I hope that people come away with an increased respect for nature, this incredible basis for life. As an artist I’m working to create a poetic loop, seeking a continuous cyclical interaction between the medium, the symbolism of the medium, and the composition.”
One of Timpson’s subjects and his frequent collaborator is Caroline Felicity Antone, an activist who has connected him to survivors and their families from Native communities throughout North America. Antone is a Tohono O’odham person and founder of a nonprofit dedicated to protecting Indigenous girls and locating survivors and family members. Timpson and Lisa Sette Gallery share the proceeds from his pieces with Antone’s group.
“I met Juanita through Caroline Felicity Antone… in January of 2021 I went down to the Tohono O’odham reservation and met Caroline and Juanita in person. It was so good to have lunch with them and listen to them speak in their language. Juanita told me her story: her husband abused her for years and it culminated when he shot her–he pulled out a gun and she put her hand up to block it…the bullet went through the middle of her hand.
The first conversation can be hard. You have to acknowledge it–what happened will never be undone. But these survivors move forward through the pain to a rebirth, and serious strength and power come from that experience. My role in this process is a minor one: I see this strength in the spirits of the survivors I’ve met.”
Similarly, Timpson worked with representatives of the Osage Nation in researching the colors of Rita Smith’s luxuriant Pendleton serape, which was designed and woven by Native women. When he contacted Rosetta Peters of North Dakota about making her portrait, Peters immediately sent him an 1880’s photograph of Tatanka Iyotanka (Sitting Bull), sitting for a portrait with a
Rosetta Peters, 2021 pigment inkjet print
monarch butterfly prominently displayed in his hatband. It was an image that Timpson had never seen before: “When Rosetta sent me that, and connected it to the symbolism in my work, it felt as though this project had come full circle,” remarks the artist. Exemplified in the life of a butterfly, cycles of connection and collaboration across generations and geographical space have become an essential part of Timpson’s process.
“When I gave Rebecca Plentywounds a portrait of her sister she thanked me for this image and told me she was going to hang it up forever. I feel like that’s what artwork is for–to carry this object forward with you on your journey, to be a marker of your culture and time.”
Although these portraits are intended to bring attention to the results of cultural violence and exploitation, Timpson’s works and the relationships he’s forged along the way ultimately represent vivid connections between families, individuals, and cultures, and a ritual reclaiming of the symbolism of survival and rebirth.
You can see this important exhibition: Benjamin TimpsonIlluminated Lives at Lisa Sette Gallery in midtown Phoenix at 210 East Catalina, Phoenix, Arizona. The exhibit will be showing through January 7, 2023.
The Gallery hours are: Tuesday-Friday from 10am to 4pm and Saturday from 11am to 4pm. LisaSetteGallery.com
There are so few homes remaining that represent the “Arizona School” of Desert Modern Architecture other than the Halas House designed by award-winning, “Master of the Southwest” Architect Eddie Jones, FAIA. Immaculately kept by the original family, this home is being offered for the first time ever. Featured in many publications, this award-winning home nestles into its Camelback Mountain hillside site offering a quiet, yet expressive design well integrated into nature, with commanding views of Paradise Valley.
The three-bedroom home offers brick masonry and copper construction, simply amazing detailing and custom steel elements. Soaring ceilings make the volumes feel more the spacious and the full height glass walls bring the views and outdoors in. Not a single detail was overlooked in this custom home. The main ceilings feature a half barrel vault in redwood while the custom millwork is outfitted in white oak. Open kitchen offers a plethora of storage and wonderful natural light, a gift from the round skylight details found throughout this home.
The plan is generous, flexible and perfectly sized; including a great room anchored by the circular masonry fireplace. Sheltered and serene, the home is very quiet and elevated well above street level to capture a view corridor that looks across the valley, from Mummy Mountain to Piestewa Peak and beyond! Behind is the glorious rock and desert of Echo Canyon, easily enjoyed poolside or at the private entertaining patio below. You’ll find an enclosed glass solarium that is a perfect place for morning coffee, complete with private side patio with a zen-like water feature.
This is a rare opportunity that cannot be duplicated. Pride of continuous ownership is evident in this home and un-replicated at anywhere near the asking price.
Coming Soon, this award-winning home will be shown strictly by appointment and is offered at $3,400,000. Contact Scott Jarson for a personal tour.
“Any work of architecture which does not express serenity is a mistake.”
– Luis BarragánIN
Susan was a person committed to promoting Organic Architecture and who dedicated herself to living, enriching, and preserving the legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright. Her history in the Fellowship is a virtual lifetime joining the Fellowship in 1957 where she became an active part of life at Taliesin. She and her second husband Ken Lockhart built one of the finest structures on the grounds where she lived until she left in 2003.
At a mere age of 3 years old, Susan became acquainted with Frank Lloyd Wright when her parents first approached him to build their home, Usonia No. 1 also known as Jacobs House 1 now on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The second Jacobs
house was equally impressive and considered a precursor of sustainable design. You could say that architecture was part of her overall existence from a young age on.
Susan’s involvement at Taliesin included teaching on the Fellowship’s senior teaching faculty as well as numerous cultural involvements such as directing the bi-annual Taliesin Day Symposium, acting as Program Coordinator for arts and cultural events, pianist for the Taliesin chamber group and lead dancer in the Taliesin festival of Music and Dance. In 1980 she became the senior graphic designer for Taliesin Architects. In addition to all of her work within Taliesin, her reach to bring Taliesin to the world was extensive. This included an impressive range of design for the Arizona Biltmore Hotel as well as porcelain and stoneware settings for Edith Heath and Tampopo.
In 2003, after 45 years of life at Taliesin West in Arizona and Taliesin in Spring Green Wisconsin Susan left the Fellowship to join her new husband Neil Levine, an architecture scholar as well, and forge a fabulous life together in Paris and Cambridge, MA.
Our friendship with Susan and Neil was a source of delightful companionship, learning and discovery, something I am certain was simply part of Susan’s DNA. Gracious, elegant and patient, Susan possessed a certain quality that made you feel welcomed and included. When she was with you, she not only readily shared her experiences and knowledge, but listened intently to you as well.
When they say the mold was broken, it certainly was with Susan’s passing. I know of no other more generous, humble, creative forces in the architectural community. We will miss her tremendously, but I am grateful to have her example to follow.
It is with a sad and heavy heart that we announce that our beloved Managing Broker, associate, mentor, colleague and dear friend, Don Hammer, passed away this summer a few days shy of his birthday celebration. Don was at place of comfort, surrounded with care; his transition was swift and encircled by love.
When we had the opportunity to include Don in our company family, we were overjoyed at the possibility to have his expertise and wisdom available for all of us. Selfishly, Debbie and I were just so pleased that we could spend more time with him.
Debbie and I have known both Don and his Jane for well over thirty years. To say that Don was a true Gentlemen is spot on but is not enough.
Meeting Don was an instruction for anyone in just “how to be”. When Debbie and I were new in real estate, and we shared a room with Don, we were in awe at the force he exuded. In observing the nature of this man, the quiet accomplished sense of self he displayed, with no need for display of ego: we both knew that this was a person to emulate, not just in our career, but personally as well.
At any meeting, we all would cherish Don at the table. The admiration and attention that even our youngest agents held for Don was astounding. Like me, they all hung on his word; and his inclusive and generous nature made them all acolytes! To this day it warms our hearts to think of how he connected with everyone at the firm. They intuitively knew that Don was a very special man.
We knew him as a man of beautiful demeanor, brilliant, inquisitive and with a sharp mind. Professional, strong and steady in business, but always calm and fair. Don held all the attributes of a Renaissance Man.
I will remember him always for living well because, well frankly, I lived vicariously through his many achievements. Business success, aviation skills that included jets and a small private squadron…and so much more. Best hair in the business, always a damn cool car too… Who would not want to be Don Hammer?
Don joined us at the brokerage and from day one we connected again with ease. We will always remain grateful for his contributions that were many indeed. We will always remember him most for his kind, patient, gentle and humanist approach to life.
Many cultures hold the belief that when one leaves us, as long as they are held in remembrance and in name, they live on. Given the thousands of lives that Don touched so profoundly, he will be with us for a long, long time. Farewell Don, and thank you.
Have you noticed that in the last thirty-plus years, Real Estate posts and signs have not changed much? Typically, you see splintered old 4x4 wood posts with slap-dash paint, or landfill busting PVC tubes cluttering the “for sale” landscape. Not to mention damaged signs, wind-mangled or warped by our harsh sun, or just blown off into the roadways and washes.
We thought it was time for something new, bold, elegant, efficient and yes, eco-sensitive too. So along with our strategic design partners we decided it was time for a refresh. Together we brainstormed an entire new system and process!
We are pleased and proud to announce that as part of a subsidiary, Becon Post LLC, we have been awarded Design and Utility Patents for our modular signage system. We could not be more thrilled!
We wanted something more for the very special properties we represent. These last three years our firm has been partnered with our friends and partners at Juggernaut Design, to create a new complete signage system for Real Estate and more. After a series of prototyping and field testing, you’ll now see our system exclusively used in Arizona by azarchitecture/Jarson & Jarson Real Estate.
We love the clean informational graphics that are configurable to visually highlight the best features of the homes we represent, but the QR code panel can be customized for each and every home thanks to a subscription based QR image generator. The posts are designed to accommodate a proximity transmitter that can broadcast details of the home to people passing by the sign as well.
As designed, the system is 99% recyclable and all prototypes were made in the USA! Materials are simple; aluminum and steel. The sign panels are wrapped in vinyl so they have a very long shelf life, and are reconfigurable and reusable. The Patent extends to our custom installation tool as well.
Installation in normal soil takes under five minutes from stake to sign. To hang the panels no hooks, clips or connectors are needed. The panels are crisp and stable. In all of our testing, which included the Arizona Monsoon storms and high winds, the panels never bent or dislocated. The post is designed to modestly rotate in storm conditions; a little turn and it’s back to normal in seconds.
When you see our new sign around town, send us your picture with it! Share your feedback. We think you’ll love it as much as we do!
azarchitecture/Jarson & Jarson is the only Real Estate firm in Arizona that specializes in the sales and marketing of Architecturally Unique Homes.©
Since 1990, Scott & Debbie Jarson, have stood by their original mission to celebrate and honor design & architecture. They remain devoted to adding value to architect-designed properties and are committed to celebrating, encouraging and promoting good design.
Over many years, azarchitecture/Jarson & Jarson have been defining desert living by searching out homes, from modern to historic, that add enjoyment and harmony to our clients’ lives. A keen aesthetic sense and a deep appreciation for the Valley’s rare and diverse architecture define their commitment to marketing unique properties like no other firm. azarchitecture/Jarson & Jarson remains deeply committed to historic preservation and are proud EcoBroker ® Affiliates.
Whether you are buying, selling, or are just an enthusiast of architecture, remember to contact azarchitecture/ Jarson & Jarson — the Valley’s true expert in Architecturally Unique Homes.©
azarchitecture.com 480.425.9300
