< Private - David Michael Miller Associates
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Location - Scottsdale, Arizona, USA


A 20’ high x 14’ wide vitrine is center stage providing a room within an urban room, a showcase for the client’s interior design vignettes. A single sheet of glass, just shy of a stoche [the maximum size available] minimizes the number of joints / interruptions between the passerby and the room display. A private patio is carved out allowing an existing mesquite, “the tree from sleepy hollow”, to remain. The backdrop to the vitrine houses services and a staircase. The stair climb involves multiple turns, at once part of the vitrine, at another turn focusing on a cluster of “liquid mercury” head joints sneaking in slivers of light through the adjoining fire wall. Interior and exterior read together through light, materiality, and transparency. The urban room created by the vitrine, canopy, and garden setting contribute to the vitality of the street life in this pedestrian friendly cultural arts district of downtown Scottsdale.

Location - Scottsdale, Arizona, USA


A 20’ high x 14’ wide vitrine is center stage providing a room within an urban room, a showcase for the client’s interior design vignettes. A single sheet of glass, just shy of a stoche [the maximum size available] minimizes the number of joints / interruptions between the passerby and the room display. A private patio is carved out allowing an existing mesquite, “the tree from sleepy hollow”, to remain. The backdrop to the vitrine houses services and a staircase. The stair climb involves multiple turns, at once part of the vitrine, at another turn focusing on a cluster of “liquid mercury” head joints sneaking in slivers of light through the adjoining fire wall. Interior and exterior read together through light, materiality, and transparency. The urban room created by the vitrine, canopy, and garden setting contribute to the vitality of the street life in this pedestrian friendly cultural arts district of downtown Scottsdale.

The project brief was less than the maximum allowed affording a unique opportunity for the site as 1/2 building and 1/2 garden. The exterior presence of a wall in a garden engages the street with a quiet strength with little or no indication of the generous volume within. The building’s interior studio space is fundamentally defined by the structural envelope – wall, canopy and plinth. Elements of the small 1800 square foot program suspend within this space. The building and specifically the quality of its interior spaces evidences a successful collaboration between architect and interior designer, one that has allowed David Michael Miller to evolve his interior design language within an anonymous space of light, proportion and scale.