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| Historic North Central Restoration - Nance Construction, Berghoff Design, Vallone Design |
I cannot believe this month is already half over. This is
going to be another busy year. You can feel it in the air and the way this
month has started. Wow – what a start. I hope you all saw our intro Episode 1 of Architainment at http://www.thedesignnetwork.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=477
We have received over 77,000 views so far! Episode 2 - Designing Fantasies - will launch on The Design Network at www.thedesignnetwork.com on Tuesday, February 4th! Stay tuned for an amazing Architainment launch party at two $9 million Candelaria Design ~ MRA Custom Homes estates in Paradise Valley featured in Episode 1. See our Candelaria Design Events tab for details.
First and foremost we are excited to be retained to design
the residential portion of the new Mountain Shadows Resort in Paradise Valley.
What an opportunity to bring our thirty plus year history of designing
residences in Paradise Valley to such a marquis property.
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| Enchantment Resort - Sedona |
And so that’s the perfect segue to looking back at an
Arizona classic I was fortunate to be a part of and that’s the Enchantment
Resort in Sedona, Arizona http://enchantmentresort.com. It was 30 years ago when we started our initial
design work for this truly spectacular place while I was a Project Manager with
Christensen-Miller & Associates. The resort sits on 80 acres in the
gorgeous Boynton Canyon which is the birthplace of the ancient ancestors of the
Yavapai Tribe whereupon they emanated from the earth. When you visit this canyon you feel the
energy or the “vortex” of the canyon.
I was fortunate to be assigned this project by my mentor and
amazing architect, the late George W. Christensen. I was 23 years old – hard to
imagine! I remember my first visit there and was in awe of the challenge of
first having to rezone this property for the use as a resort. It involved
gaining the acceptance of the Yavapai Tribe, Sierra Club, the National Forest,
and the public in general. After a year of designs, sketches, hearings,
meetings, etc., we were ready go.
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| Left to right - John Gardiner, Merv Griffin, George Christensen and Mark Candelaria |
Our client was the late John Gardiner of the famed John
Gardnier’s Tennis Ranch in Paradise Valley and his team, primarily my good
friend and fellow Charro Grande, Clayton McKnight! Add the construction team of
the Phil W. Morris Company and their Project Manager, Larry Peery. Larry,
Clayton and I are all still great friends some 30 years later – but this is
where that friendship started.
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| Enchantment Resort Clubhouse |
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| Croquet Lawn at the Enchantment Clubhouse |
The project involved remodeling and adding to an existing
fired adobe house and turning that into the Clubhouse. The guest house would
become the Spa. Then we would add some 50 casitas which we walked every spot
and determined exactly where we would nestle them in and save trees going as
far as to have them grow right through the decks. We master planned and
designed some 30 patio homes and then laid out all of the single family lots of
which we were fortunate to design several custom homes including a fun Pueblo
style casa for the Hall of Fame quarterback, Y.A. Tittle.
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| Enchantment Casita Exterior |
So many people contributed to the beauty of Enchantment.
From Clayton McKnight’s wife and John Gardiner’s daughter, Tricia McKnight, who
did all of the interiors, Dan Richardson from Security Savings who spearheaded
the project, and many of my teammates at Christensen-Miller, especially Craig
Stoffel who built an amazing model of the whole canyon!
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| Enchantment Casita Interior |
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| Enchantment Clubhouse Pool Terrace |
Some 30 years later, the Enchantment Resort is still one of
my crowning achievements and is one of my favorite places to go, escape and
look back at some amazing times and memories. I encourage you to take someone
special and go enjoy a romantic escape.
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| Enchantment Resort Aerial - Boynton Canyon - Sedona |