CUSTOM HOMES
I N V E S T W I S E L Y I N B E A U T Y, I T W I L L S E R V E Y O U A L L T H E D AY S O F YO U R L I F E . Frank Lloyd Wright
THE SWABACK STUDIO SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA SWABACK’s award winning office, The Studio on Cattletrack, is a series of highly individualized suites arranged around a central garden. Among the design honors was the top AIA award in the state.
ABOUT SWA BACK S WA B A C K is a team of dedicated professionals providing comprehensive architectural design, interior design, and environmental design services for extraordinary properties and clients expecting the highest level of personalized service and design creativity. A growing portfolio of repeat clients is a testament to a consistently rewarding and enjoyable co-design process. Since it’s inception in 1978, and inspired by an uncommon association with Frank Lloyd Wright, the firm’s custom home experience spans from Connecticut to Hawaii and from Lake Michigan to Lake Tahoe. International work has been provided for notable clients in the Middle East and throughout Mexico. Headquartered in Scottsdale, the majority of our designs are prepared for the desert environment, and this experience has resulted in an appreciation for the opportunities that the desert environment offers, including effective use of natural light, colorful landscapes, breezes and abundant indoor-outdoor living accommodations. Good design has an influential power much more than simple stylistic reference. Well designed spaces have the ability to shape behavior. SWABACK has a design record based strongly in sustainable building practices. In addition to design for custom homes, this unique design approach has been applied to numerous resorts, resort residential developments, hotels, golf clubhouses, private clubs and spas.
RESPONSIVE DESIGN When designing a custom home we consider our clients as “co-designers” to guide the design objectives. This collaboration is an effective tool to create and elevate the homeowner’s vision. The range of designs in SWABACK’s portfolio illustrates the effectiveness of this approach to design. The most exciting architect/client relationships push away all preconceived notions while exploring a richness of possibilities. Both client and architect dream of something neither has yet seen. Rather than starting out with “answers”, the goal of this process of discovery is to create something special and settle for nothing less.
ON TIME AND ON BUDGET SWABACK has an extensive list of satisfied clients. Meeting or exceeding schedule and budget expectations is a factor in this success. The general contractor selected for construction has a primary role in successfully achieving this objective, and as such, SWABACK likes to participate in this process. We develop a process early in design involving the general contractor which has been an effective tool to reinforce the schedule and budget goal.
CO-CREATING IS A DIALOGUE OF SHARED DREAMS BET WEEN ARCHITECT AND CLIENT
T H E R E WA R D S
OF ARCHITECTURE ARE
NEVER
G R E AT E R T H A N
IN THE DESIGN
OF ONE’S
OWN HOME.
DESIGN GUIDELINES Having authorized and represented several high-end community Design Guidelines and Design Review processes there is a great deal of respect for how these tools can benefit you and your neighbors. This process will be enthusiastically pursued on a technical basis while addressing the specific sensitivities of the community as well as the Design Review Board members.
HILLSIDE DEVELOPMENT The beauty of the natural desert encourages sensitivity to hillside disturbance and the environments that can be created among undisturbed natural landscapes. These environments can range from outdoor living rooms with kitchens/ bars, sofa seating and television viewing for large and small groups, to intimate outdoor personal “spa� type environments with sound and sight of fire, water and panoramic views of the mountain vista and city lights.
A R T F U L L I V I N G B Y W AY O F D E S I G N I S T H E H I G H E S T FORM OF LUXURY
THERE IS A M AGIC IN
BEAUTIFUL BUILDINGS
WHICH EXERCISES AN
IRRESISTIBLE INFLUENCE
OVER THE MIND OF M AN.
T H O S E W H O E X P E R I E N C E T H E T H R I L L O F PA R T I C I PAT I N G I N T H E C R E AT I O N O F A T R U LY C U S T O M H O M E ARE AMONG THE WORLD’S ELITE. No architect, worthy of the name, ever loses the thrill of imagining dreams into reality. The same is true of the best client. Children know the feeling of losing themselves in the fascination of making drawings and models. This sense of wonder is felt by client and architect alike, the difference being, that we get to one day walk through full-scale versions of our dreams. It would be difficult to think of anything more enjoyable than the opportunity to bring feelings to life, in support of life itself.
S W A B A C K | C u stom Homes
The process of design is a sequential pattern of steps, beginning with architect and client, followed by the addition of new participants, each one responsible for specific tasks within an overall framework. When done right, the process of design is every bit as exciting as the ultimate reality. Architecture is a deeper sense of design, that goes beyond the arrangement of rooms , spaces, and things, to the choices made when shaping personal environments. It is the pursuit of a personal ideal made real.
SEDONA MOONGATE Sedona, Arizona The house—two half circle wings joined by a rectangular entryway and gallery—includes swooping roof overhangs, canted just so to shade windows and balconies during the summer while allowing winter sun to flood the interior. Elegant stonework and cabinetry enrich the interior, but the foyer’s glass staircase, suspended by steel rods, is the home’s pièce de résistance—an engineering feat that seemingly makes the crystalline treads appear as though they are floating up past a wall of windows.
COPPER SKY Paradise Valley, Arizona Steel frame construction accommodates expansive spans and deep cantilevers. Roof lines follow the slope of the mountain, providing solar shading and pay respect to the steep hillside. Large spans of retractable glass and clerestory windows offer natural daylight throughout every room in the home. Floor to ceiling glass and the avoidance of finish material changes at exterior wall lines provide expansive indoor-outdoor living environments.
S W A B A C K | C u stom Homes
S W A B A C K | C u stom Homes
ESTATE H Summerlin, Nevada The overall architectural character is defined by a series of radial sweeping copper roof arcs. This strong design element establishes the architectural proportions and overall massing.
S W A B A C K | C u stom Homes
S W A B A C K | C u stom Homes
EAGLE’S NEST ESTATE Fountain Hills, Arizona Contemporary southwest home with 8,200 spacious square feet. Expansive walls of disappearing windows showcase the unparalleled views and maximize indoor/outdoor living. Outdoor living amenities include a 25’ pool with retractable TV and swim up bar with seating. The open floor plan combines all the spaces to recreate a seamless integration.
S W A B A C K | C u stom Homes
S W A B A C K | C u stom Homes
ROYAL PALMS RESIDENCE Paradise Valley, Arizona The Contemporary one-level home is set sensitively on 1.06 acres of Mummy Mountain Norte. The 3,843-square-foot single-level includes two bedrooms and a convertible third, her study; four bathrooms; an aviation-themed poolside study for him; a work-out room adjacent to the three-car garage; and an integral one-bedroom guest house, also poolside.
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YIN & YANG RESIDENCE Paradise Valley, Arizona Built into the mountain (not on the mountain), on a staggeringly vertical site, this home achieved a harmonizing oneness with its environment and the Owners.
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WATER’S EDGE Lake Las Vegas, Nevada The home features a layered roof, large overhangs, and clerestory windows which maximize natural lighting. The great room, entertainment/game room and master suite all open to the raised four-sided negative edge spa and a 37-foot-wide negative edge pool with large sliding glass doors to expand into an indoor/outdoor living experience like no other.
S W A B A C K | C u stom Homes
ASCAYA RESIDENCE Henderson, Nevada This desert contemporary architectural estate features floor-to-ceiling windows, oversized wooden doors, natural stone finishes and earthy palette, as well as a vanishing pool and spa.
S W A B A C K | C u stom Homes
S W A B A C K | C u stom Homes
FIREROCK RESIDENCE Fountain Hills, Arizona
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KAISER RESIDENCE Prescott, Arizona
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THE PRIVATE VILLAS Scottsdale, Arizona
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S W A B A C K | C u stom Homes
YUCCA MOUNTAIN Paradise Valley, Arizona The arching forms of the home revolve around a single point at the main entry. These forms are a product of natural surroundings and set the home harmoniously into the contours of the mountain.
S W A B A C K | C u stom Homes
TO D E S I G N , B U I L D, A N D L I V E IN THE AUTHENTIC SPLENDOR OF BEAUTY I S T O TA K E A P O S I T I V E H A N D I N C R E AT I O N . The beginning process of design is a time of bringing forth feelings that will eventually evolve into thoughts, which then become words and ideas. With as accurate a translation as possible, what begins as a sense of something desired becomes a place that shapes and nurtures the original feelings. Home and the life within become a living system.
I BELIEVE A HOUSE IS MORE A HOME BY BEING A WORK OF ART Frank Lloyd Wright
SKYFIRE Scottsdale, Arizona The personal residence of Vernon D. Swaback, “Skyfire” was named for its designed interplay with Arizona’s atmospheric effects. The house extends across its site like a knife, opening up the interiors to the valley below while minimizing the east and west exposure.
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