Dialogue House – Wendell Burnette Architects

Phoenix offers a handful of signature designs that define contemporary Desert Modern Architecture; this home designed by Wendell Burnette is one of the finest! A piece of contemporary modern architecture newly offered with a price adjustment!

A superb balance of mass, materials, light, scale and perforation perfectly placed on a native landscaped, gentle hillside slope. Wonderfully executed details; a wealth of minutiae to delight the connoisseur in a simple design that offers a carefree and comfortable plan that defines our desert-lifestyle.

Stunning City-views anchor you to the urban hub; 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 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.

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.

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The Following description was provided by 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, specifically “colored air” and “reflected light” in his 1901 book titled The Desert – Further Studies in Natural Appearances, … 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.

At the base of Echo Mountain (amidst an eclectic jumble of 1950’s-60’s ranch bungalows), the main living volume is elevated above work, guest, and the car, furthest from the street on a lateral pinwheel brace of charcoal masonry walls that extend cardinally capturing the site. This well-shaded volume is projected south toward the South Mountain and Sierra Estrella mountain ranges far across the Phoenix basin and downtown skyline.

The exterior surfaces of the pinwheel walls as well as the main volume absorb and reflect light akin to the “desert varnish” that coats the volcanic geology of the Phoenix Mountains turning silver, red, purple-brown-black during the day only to collapse into silhouettes at night. Thus, “life after work” is simultaneously supported by the apparent thickness and thinness of light.
The interior of the street volume is plastered cool white, half terrace – half cool water as a retreat from the city within the city where one can only see sky. Wind and water activated light is refracted onto the interior surfaces by day and most dramatically at night, which provides an animated foreground to the skyline and distant horizon beyond.

NOTE: Company relocation, some REQUIRED special forms and terms apply, please inquire for more details. Sellers Relocating- This is your chance to get your clients into this one of a kind Modern piece of ART. Natco, Title will serve as escrow agent as per RELO.