Built in and of the desert, this adobe house has the natural desert as landscaping outside, but within its walls it discloses a delightful verdant contrast.
The center of the house is a classical enclosed patio, in the style that has come to be known as Arizona territorial. Paved with brick, furnished with a tiled fountain, and planted with colorful bloom, it is the focus of the house. The rooms grouped around it on three sides share its garden effect, and seem the larger for opening onto it with wide sliding glass doors.
On the south side, two of the bedrooms share another walled garden, planted with lawn. This provides a private sunning area and enlarges these rooms with a garden outlook.
Burnt adobe, left natural, is as satisfactory a complement for the patio garden as for the natural desert landscape you see when you approach the house. Inside, natural or painted, adobe is a friendly setting for materials, accessories the owners had collected from Mexico.
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source: Sunset Books - Sunset Homes 1967
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