05 Mar RENDERING: BUILT TO BELONG

Arizona may have its fair share of Taliesin educated or inspired architects, but you’d be hard-pressed to find any more dedicated to the design philosophy of Frank Lloyd Wright than founder Ron Brissette and partner Jeff Kamtz of Phoenix, Arizona-based Brissette Architects.

That’s not to imply they’re designing Wright clones — far from it. But they hold firmly to Wright’s core belief of “organic architecture.” He believed a house should appear so much a part of its site that it seems to rise from it. Wright was a proponent of honesty in materials, a unity between indoors and outdoors, and the idea that a house must be a serene retreat. Of course, this wasn’t possible in a densely populated city, but Arizona was perfectly suited.

The primary bedroom’s floating glass windows unite the room with the desert hillside.

The copper and glass used in the entry are carried through in the interior and exterior cladding. The interior maintains a copper sheen, while the exterior was gently aged to brown. Photos: Alex Vertikoff

In 1932, short of money, Wright opened the Taliesin Fellowship in his Wisconsin home of the same name, which he followed in 1937 with Taliesin West in northern Scottsdale. His apprentices divided their time between the two. A number of notable modern architects spent time at Taliesin — including Rudolph Schindler, Richard Neutra, John Lautner, and Paolo Soleri — which contributed to the allure, even after Wright died in 1959. Generations of American architects continue to hold Wright in awe.

A view from below reveals the house perched over the former quarry. Photo: Extreme Aerial Productions

Brissette and Kamtz met at Taliesin West in 1979. By then, Brissette had been at Taliesin for a year, following a circuitous route from a degree in English to a few years building sets for theaters in Hartford, Connecticut. But he’d read books by Wright, and as a teenager, he’d been excited by the architect’s Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Following a leg injury at work, Brissette began to consider that architecture might be more satisfying than building sets which lasted only the run of a play. At 27, he began applying to architecture schools, but after Wright’s formidable widow, Olgivanna, invited him for an interview at Taliesin West, Brissette was sold. To his surprise, she accepted him.

In Wrightian fashion, the modest front entry opens to an immense great room with motorized glass doors on one side and clerestory windows on the other. Elizabeth Rosensteel designed the interiors. Photo: Alex Vertikoff

Kamtz, on the other hand, grew up in Colorado with a father and four older brothers who were in construction. He loved to draw but worked on construction sites throughout childhood and assumed he’d join the family profession. Then, once he’d graduated from high school, his mother pulled him aside and suggested he just might do something else. One of his brothers was working with an architect who had attended Taliesin and showed Kamtz some of his architectural drawings. “The minute I saw the drawings, I said, ‘Wow, this is what I want to do,’” Kamtz says.

Visible from the driveway, a copper prow extends from the entry-level guest suite as an eye-catching design element. Photo: Alex Vertikoff

His parents offered to send him to visit Taliesin for an interview with Olgivanna. The endless stark desert surroundings confounded Kamtz, and Taliesin didn’t exactly look like the place that had been described to him, but in he went. “She asked me a lot of questions,” Kamtz recalls, “some of which made me uncomfortable.” But Olgivanna turned abruptly to her assistant and said, “I want him here as soon as possible.” Two weeks later, Kamtz was an architecture student. His experience with construction was a factor, but more than that, Olgivanna preferred non-college-educated students whom she could more easily mold to Wright’s philosophy.

Brissette Architects designed this home, titled Desert Grove. Rows of clerestory windows draw light into the house. Photo courtesy of Brissette Architects

Both men soon discovered they’d entered an eccentric communal existence, where they did everything from drafting and construction to working in the kitchen, folding laundry, collecting trash, and attending obligatory Saturday night black-tie dinners. More than students, they were apprentices working on real Taliesin projects. But it suited them both. Neither was interested in a conventional experience.

“It was a perfect fit for me,” Kamtz says. “Because the best way to learn is doing, really.”

Desert Grove was designed for a couple who were downsizing. The great room incorporates the firm’s trademark organic elements, uniting the interior with its location. Photo courtesy of Brissette Architects

Kamtz left after a few years to work in a succession of firms as far away as Hawaii, with a brief side-step studying structural engineering. Brissette stayed longer, from 1982 through 1984, working with the Associated Architects of Taliesin, which formed upon Wright’s death to renovate, expand, or complete his projects.

The custom-patterned entry wall continues in the kitchen. Photo courtesy of Brissette Architects

When Brissette talks about his apprenticeship at Taliesin, he — perhaps unintentionally — uses the word indoctrination before adding, “We were taught architecture is an immersive, complete experience that starts not only with how do you live with and be inspired by nature, but how do you articulate a structure that accommodates protection, convenience, and lifestyle,” he says. “We’ve tried to sculpt a practice that embraced those principles. Things like the honest expression of structure, truth in materials, erasing the lines between indoor and outdoor spaces, and looking at architecture as Wright portrayed it, as frozen music where you have a theme line and it’s embraced by all different kinds of instruments creating a symphony of space. So it’s a living experience rather than a static experience.”

From the primary bath, the homeowners can access a private courtyard hidden behind the entry wall and visible through the bathroom window. Photo courtesy of Brissette Architects

Brissette opened his firm in 1994, and Kamtz joined as partner in 1995. Over the years, Brissette Architects has designed more than 200 homes. They’re on top of new materials and computer programs, although Brissette continues to sketch every design, which Kamtz and an assistant feed into computer programs. They pride themselves on working to elevate designs that fulfill their clients’ desires, but then surprise them by going a step further.

“We listen to our clients,” Kamtz explains. “We’re not in it to win awards. We’re in it to satisfy the client.”

Estancia 262 is another hillside project by Brissette Architects. Despite its sloped site, the home is on one story, including its casita.

The great room flows into the kitchen, with spectacular views of the hillside boulders and cacti. The glass walls are motorized to open the house to desert breezes. The ceiling is hickory. Photos courtesy of Brissette Architects

Among their services is helping potential clients find the right plot. This is complimentary whether they end up with the commission or not. They’ve also worked with developments to formulate their style regulations.

“One of the most significant things that we do is deal with very difficult lots in terms of property slopes, topography, big rocks, drainage conditions, things like that,” Brissette says. “And trying to create the practical solution for getting a custom home on a lot and making it as artful as possible.”

One such project is the much-photographed Top of the Mountain Organic, a pretty-near-perfect summary of the firm’s philosophy and aspirations. “That was a postage stamp-sized, flat lot on the side of a mountain, and it’s the highest lot in that part of Desert Mountain [a Scottsdale development with seven golf courses], so the views are to kill for. We had to build it over an old quartz mine, which we had to respect. There were all kinds of specific restrictions beyond the physical. I let the client know going in that it was going to be tough to do this. It was going to be an uphill fight with the HOA, and it was going to be expensive to build. They said, ‘Let’s go for it.’”

The home’s materials reflect the landscape, while a pool and sheltered patio offer reprieve from the desert sun. Photo courtesy of Brissette Architects

“We went around and looked at lots with them before they bought it,” Kamtz says. “It was a very, very difficult lot. No one would touch it, but they wanted that lot.”

The hickory ceiling continues outdoors to create an overhang, uniting the interior with its site. Photo courtesy of Brissette Architects

Brissette and Kamtz designed a striking semi-circular house that fits seamlessly into its site, appearing as though it has always been there, with 70 feet of curved glass doors in the open living space — itself an engineering feat — that are motorized to open the interior to the exterior. They even managed to add a cantilevered infinity-edged swimming pool, which no one had believed possible. Fellow Taliesin-trained designer Elizabeth Rosensteel designed the interiors.

Top of the Mountain Organic’s airy custom stairway is composed of steel, wood, and glass, with plenty of natural light streaming into the space. Photo: Alex Vertikoff

Desert Grove, a 3,000-square-foot house in Scottsdale’s Sincuidados development, was designed for a couple who were downsizing. The clients wanted a rammed earth building until they discovered the cost. Instead, Brissette and Kamtz designed a feature wall that extends along the entrance, cleverly hiding an indoor-outdoor bathroom, borders the fireplace, and continues outdoors. It incorporates concrete blocks that vary in size and texture for an eye-catching design element. “We used different sizes, different shapes, and different finishes, and carried it from the outside to the inside,” Kamtz says. “It was really important because we wanted the people to have the feeling of being both inside and outside. We do a lot of floor finishes that carry through to the outside.”

The great room in the Top of the Mountain Organic residence incorporates a curved wall of glass that follows the topography of the site. The architects added a 70-foot motorized system that hides the glass and opens the entire room to the rear patio, pool, and surrounding desert views. Photo: Alex Vertikoff

At the moment, the firm has numerous projects around Prescott, a former mining town in the mountains of Central Arizona. Brissette is threatening to slow down a bit, just not quite yet. With a portfolio that spans decades and landscapes, Brissette Architects remains dedicated to designing homes that don’t just sit on the land but belong to it. Whether crafting a sleek desert retreat on a near-impossible lot or blending indoor and outdoor spaces with seamless elegance, Brissette and Kamtz continue to push the boundaries of organic architecture while staying true to the philosophies that first brought them together.

Laurel Delp is a frequent contributor to Western Art & Architecture and other magazines and websites, including Town & Country, Departures, Sunset, and A Rare World.