Location - Pinal County, Arizona

The Master Plan for a significant Desert Wash in the Arizona Basin is inspired by the long-forgotten history of this specific place and the simple fact that the wash is the lifeblood of our Sonoran Desert. It is where life is and has always been. The program / layout incorporates the many thoughts of our client about the past and present rhythms of life here as well as my readings of this basin over 39 years including the canonical book The Desert Smells Like Rain. It is a kind of anti-subdivision, driven by principles of sustainable desert living along its lifeline (the wash) preserved as community open space and most importantly engaged by public and private community-centric program along its entire length. Public program at each end and the middle will link together private Integra Block “long courtyard houses” and “multi-family casita courtyard houses” which will engage either side of the wash upon check dams with family and community farms in between and behind respectively. A Town Square “with a wash running through it” will recreate programmatically speaking the old Maricopa Wells with community services, refreshment, lodging and stories of the Desert.