Educated in the practice of architecture through 34 years of direct experience spanning a wide range of public and private work, Mr. Burnette’s self-taught curriculum includes a three-year period at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. Burnette’s eleven-year association with the studio of William Bruder culminated in a six-year design collaboration on the New Phoenix Central Library as co-designer, project architect, and field architect. He founded the studio of Wendell Burnette Architects in 1996. He is also a Professor of Practice at The Design School at Arizona State University where he has been teaching since 2000.

Burnette has traveled widely in Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas to assimilate a world perspective of architecture. In the United States and specifically in the American deserts he has absorbed a unique, regional understanding of place. His work has been presented in over 150 publications worldwide. Burnette’s architecture has received local and national awards, and due to this recognition, continues to be invited as a guest lecturer, teacher and critic at Universities and AIA events across North America.