Five years ago, you would have walked right by this home, designed by the late architect Alfred Newman Beadle, assuming it was just another Santa Fean monstrosity. But underneath it all, was a great home screaming for air. It was liberated by design + build firm, 180 degrees. (By David Tyda/Photography by Michael Baxter)
Restoring an architecturally significant home that’s suffered from years of neglect is nothing new. Having to delete layers of design kitsch from an Al Beadle home … now that’s a rare occasion. “I’ve seen a lot of Beadle homes go into disrepair, and then we have to clean them up,” says John Anderson, a project manager with design + build firm, 180 Degrees. “But I’ve never seen one so badly mutilated. It’s as if the previous owners were ashamed to live in architecture.” Ashamed, or unaware.
Al Beadle practiced architecture in the Valley between 60s and 90s, and most of his Modernist buildings have come to define a unique typology of design for the desert. The home in question was originally commissioned by the Shoen family, founders of the Phoenix-based
U-Haul, around 1963. Clean lines, a blend of indoors and outdoors, and simple materials were hallmarks of Beadle’s aesthetic, including the rooms, and logs. They painted, added, removed, and altered. When the current owners purchased the home, they knew exactly what they were buying and immediately began dreaming of potential. Research led them to local architect Ned Sawyer, who worked with Beadle on the original design. Although Sawyer was able to help piece together some of the puzzle and offer insight into the original architectural moves, the owners landed on 180 Degrees for the remodel work.
“As you can imagine, the deletion process took quite some time,” says Anderson. “But we knew there were good bones underneath it all, so once we got down to the original building, we could update it to today’s standards while incorporating Al’s architecture.” The home is entered through a partially enclosed walkway, framed by exterior walls of the living room to the left, and garage to the right. Arches and log beams had defi ned the entry before – but now clean, white stucco and orderly rows of barrel cacti set the tone. A massive, custom metal pivot door also hints at the open and airy layout within. The moment that door is open, Camelback Mountain is framed in almost surreal perfection.
The living room to the left and kitchen to the right are practically one space, with the pool and patio just beyond the sliding glass doors. Head toward the kitchen, and a compressed dining area feels more intimate with lowered ceilings, but an outdoor courtyard of desert plants is set beyond one wall of glass. And beyond that is a play room for the children. So while sitting in the dining room, the owners can keep an eye on the kids, while giving them privacy in their own, separate room. People living in these compressed layers of angles, like Modernist dioramas, is a quintessentially Beadle characteristic.
One thing that wasn’t: a gratuitously large living room. It was added on by the previous owners along with a kitty-corner fireplace totally out-of-scale windows, and a makeshift log shade structure. The fi replace was retained but now it’s clad in heavily grained oak panels, adding texture to the otherwise white space. The small window cutouts have become a wall of sliding glass, revealing Camelback Mountain beyond. And outside, the long shade structure idea remains, but now it’s comprised of thin, metal beams that extend from the kitchen, past the living room, and out to the front of the home, over a raised area of grass that overlooks the lengthy pool.
“The basic program was to reveal the surroundings whenever possible,” says Anderson. “Most of our time was spent simply opening things up and letting Al’s design breathe.” A master bedroom had been added on by the previous owners, having dry-walled over the old exterior walls. 180 removed the layers of material to reveal a gorgeous bank of grey, concrete block which now anchors the master bed. That wall also separates the bedroom from the master bathroom, which has been reconfi gured and expanded to accommodate generous separation between spaces. For example, the vanity and the “wet zone” – a frosted glass “box” that holds the toilet and large shower – are many steps apart, so the owners are never fi ghting for bathroom space. Skylights illuminate these frosted glass walls and emphasize the texture of the block. On the other side, a custom, oak storage cabinet appears to fl oat and jut out from this wall to frame one side of the bedroom.
Although, not all areas of the home were so budget liberal. “There’s a lot of IKEA in the kids’ bedrooms,” says Anderson. “And the kitchen was sourced in L.A. because nobody in Arizona could beat the price. They defi nitely shopped around to keeps costs in line.”
Something about this house, though, makes you wonder less about how much it all cost, and more about the importance of good architecture. The owners let the design sing every day, avoiding clutter and embracing minimalism. “They didn’t even have to prepare for this photo shoot,” says Anderson. “They really live like this, and that’s a good thing.”
“As you can imagine, the deletion process took quite some time,” says Anderson. “But we knew there were good bones underneath it all, so once we got down to the original building, we could update it to today’s standards while incorporating Al’s architecture.” The home is entered through a partially enclosed walkway, framed by exterior walls of the living room to the left, and garage to the right. Arches and log beams had defi ned the entry before – but now clean, white stucco and orderly rows of barrel cacti set the tone. A massive, custom metal pivot door also hints at the open and airy layout within. The moment that door is open, Camelback Mountain is framed in almost surreal perfection.
The living room to the left and kitchen to the right are practically one space, with the pool and patio just beyond the sliding glass doors. Head toward the kitchen, and a compressed dining area feels more intimate with lowered ceilings, but an outdoor courtyard of desert plants is set beyond one wall of glass. And beyond that is a play room for the children. So while sitting in the dining room, the owners can keep an eye on the kids, while giving them privacy in their own, separate room. People living in these compressed layers of angles, like Modernist dioramas, is a quintessentially Beadle characteristic.
One thing that wasn’t: a gratuitously large living room. It was added on by the previous owners along with a kitty-corner fireplace totally out-of-scale windows, and a makeshift log shade structure. The fi replace was retained but now it’s clad in heavily grained oak panels, adding texture to the otherwise white space. The small window cutouts have become a wall of sliding glass, revealing Camelback Mountain beyond. And outside, the long shade structure idea remains, but now it’s comprised of thin, metal beams that extend from the kitchen, past the living room, and out to the front of the home, over a raised area of grass that overlooks the lengthy pool.
“The basic program was to reveal the surroundings whenever possible,” says Anderson. “Most of our time was spent simply opening things up and letting Al’s design breathe.” A master bedroom had been added on by the previous owners, having dry-walled over the old exterior walls. 180 removed the layers of material to reveal a gorgeous bank of grey, concrete block which now anchors the master bed. That wall also separates the bedroom from the master bathroom, which has been reconfi gured and expanded to accommodate generous separation between spaces. For example, the vanity and the “wet zone” – a frosted glass “box” that holds the toilet and large shower – are many steps apart, so the owners are never fi ghting for bathroom space. Skylights illuminate these frosted glass walls and emphasize the texture of the block. On the other side, a custom, oak storage cabinet appears to fl oat and jut out from this wall to frame one side of the bedroom.
Although, not all areas of the home were so budget liberal. “There’s a lot of IKEA in the kids’ bedrooms,” says Anderson. “And the kitchen was sourced in L.A. because nobody in Arizona could beat the price. They defi nitely shopped around to keeps costs in line.”
Something about this house, though, makes you wonder less about how much it all cost, and more about the importance of good architecture. The owners let the design sing every day, avoiding clutter and embracing minimalism. “They didn’t even have to prepare for this photo shoot,” says Anderson. “They really live like this, and that’s a good thing.”
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Five years ago, you would have walked right by this home, designed by the late architect Alfred Newman Beadle, assuming it was just another Santa Fean monstrosity. But underneath it all, was a great home screaming for air. It was liberated by design + build firm, 180 degrees. (By David Tyda/Photography by Michael Baxter)
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