LaVonnes' Home

A retiring secretary, with limited funds for construction, employed us to design a home for simple living (practical, delightful, and green thinking) on her  5 acre desert site.

This project is built with panoramic views southward toward Black Mountain in Cave Creek, Arizona.

• Primary living spaces are arranged linearly east to west with primary light and distant view opportunities across her site to the distant Black Mountain.
• Masonry Walls are rhythmically spaced perpendicular to the north and south perimeter to frame views and manage the low harsh morning and end of day sun.
• Space is multi tasked where the hallway circulation becomes part of the space, when pocket doors are pulled across the hallway to the home’s perimeter walls.
• East and west ends of the home are reserved for sleeping and hobby uses with long cantilevered overhangs for outdoor enjoyment and desert access.
• A flat ceiling beneath pre manufactured roof trusses was located throughout the home. We introduced modernest architect Al Beadle's personal preference for 9 foot floor flat ceilings.
• Specifications for this home included extensive sustainable(green) thinking. This enviornmentally responsible design is inspired by material selections, that were specified and published for the Arizona Pubic Service Environmental Showcase Home (designed Jones Studio).
• We created a unique passive solution for energy efficiencey, that included cross ventilation drawn throughout most of the attic space (through a wall of mesh across the entire triangular attic area at the east and west ends of the home) to instantly cool attic space that is normally superheated during Arizona's warm months.