Desert Architecture Series #8 | Mark Sever | Scottsdale, Arizona

It's referred to as North Scottsdale. Scottsdale actually runs up the entire east side of Phoenix. It's a much larger geographic area for a suburb than most people think. It's a vacation. Scott says, I have nothing to do and no time to do it. So that should describe our lifestyle. We just thought that the view was what we wanted and the atmosphere was what we wanted. Not being builders, you know, we thought, we've got to talk to somebody that knows whether or not it's a good lot to build on. We were very much in favor of finding someone, which we did at Mark, that is not only a builder, general contractor, but also the architect. To practice here, because it's so unique to the rest of the world, the designs are so incredibly cool. You know, they say there's a Chicago school of architecture. Well, I think there's an Arizona school of architecture and we are all practicing in a very unique vernacular. During programming, we had talked about taking advantage of everything this lot had to offer. Incredible long range mountain views. It's a large site. It's fairly flat. And in their programming, their wishlist, I really picked up on how much they truly wanted to entertain. When we designed the house with Mark, we were after a couple of things for first impression, as you pull up to it. When you pull in, you've got the portico shore out in front that is blocking a little bit of the view of the front door. You have to pull around it, which adds some privacy and it adds a little bit unique design. We wanted the entrance to the house to be warm, friendly, nicely done, but informal. As you enter the house, you are looking at the great room in front of you. I love to have the back wall open. I love to have all the windows open that I can. There's never enough glass in a house for me. Everything is natural. Everything's real wood, real stone. And for me, that's really important. The house is symmetrical about the center line of the front door and portico shear and the entry gates all the way through the pool, through the fire feature at the end. So there's a good strong axis running through the home and it leads straight out to a distant golf course fairway that goes up into the mountains. So I drew one line on paper and from that, the whole house evolved. I won't suggest to you that drinking is an important part of my life, but we're drinkers, we're not collectors. So I didn't need an 1800 bottle wine cellar. We just, we wanted a wine cellar that we can store a couple bottles. Well, it turned out that the inside of these pillars were perfect for it. Scott's very critical about being a collector versus a consumer. So the closet's just big enough to say that he's a consumer. I like that. One of the cool things that they did was they talk about their dinner parties that they have and they like to do two things. They like to put people that have never been together before along with a meal they've never made before. And I thought that was so cool. So I ended up being the very first dinner party part of that and we had a great time that night. He is an expert at breakfast. He's in the kitchen every morning with two or three pans going on the stove. We'll split up the recipes or say, here, you chop this or I'll chop that. And it's a great kitchen to work in because it has a lot of workspace. It's a great flow around the island, good placement of appliances and I love the kitchen window because I can see the mountains. It opens up on one side for fresh air and there's my sink right there looking out. As far as the theater goes, we're in there almost every night. We love being in the theater either to watch something we recorded or a movie or a series. Just for regular prime time. It turns a network prime time show into a movie. The right side of the house basically has our living space. Scott's man cave is to the left where he has his drum set and his desk and his easy chair and his large tv. Well, interestingly enough, I played at Belinda's Prom. We didn't know each other. I have a visual of him, yes, with long hair and suede boots, yes. When you open the door, you see a glass wall that has our sitting area, our two chaise lounges and that's where you'll find me when the weather is too cold or too hot to go outside. That is my reading area. As you turn left, you see the fireplace and there's a television along that wall also. Our bed is built in like all our bedrooms here. But the master, I wanted it to be another oasis away from the entire house. So the sitting room is focused due east, allows the morning sun in. They can block the sun when they don't want it in the morning where the bed is, but the sitting room absorbs it all day long, which is fantastic. We have over, I think, 90 lineal feet of full height, full depth cabinetry in there for the closets and the bathroom vanities. In this particular case, the closets become part of the bathroom. Even though they're separate spaces, they flow together and it really works. But as you go through that and turn into the open area, just like every place else in the house, we wanted to bring the outside in. So the back end of the room that handles an open shower and the bathtub, it's a solid wall of glass again. And that solid wall of glass opens to a private area that's been landscaped very nicely and contains an outdoor shower. What I was really trying to do is show off the materials, but I also wanted to instill a sense of informality. The second you walk in, you're greeted by the great room, a fireplace, a sitting room, a bar, the pool, an outdoor sitting area. It really instills a sense of informality. And so you have this indoor-outdoor living space, and this is Arizona living personified. Mark is a purist. He wants it done right, and he wants it done in a way that he's not only proud of, he wants you to be proud of. And you appreciate that about Mark. He is a perfectionist.