At press time, Judith Chafee’s landmark Ramada House (1971, above) in Tucson, Ariz., was for sale.
Bill Timmerman, Courtesy Princeton Architectural Press At press time, Judith Chafee’s landmark Ramada House (1971, above) in Tucson, Ariz., was for sale.

Judith Chafee (1932–1998) had impeccable credentials, as a Yale School of Architecture alumna and employee of Edward Larrabe Barnes, Walter Gropius, Paul Rudolph, and Eero Saarinen, before opening her own office in Tucson, Ariz. Architect Annie Rockfellow (1866–1954) had established a formidable precedent for women in practice there, and in turn Chafee spent her time in the sun on experiments in Desert Modernism. The results, including the landmark Ramada House (1975, shown), appear in Powerhouse: The Life and Work of Architect Judith Chafee (Princeton Architectural Press), by Christopher Domin and Kathryn McGuire.

Judith Chafee's clients for the Ramada House (above) hired her in part because of a recommendation from a mutual friend, architect Robert A.M. Stern, and in part because, unlike other architects they interviewed, she directed her attention to both the husband and the wife, not just the husband.
Bill Timmerman, Courtesy Princeton Architectural Press Judith Chafee's clients for the Ramada House (above) hired her in part because of a recommendation from a mutual friend, architect Robert A.M. Stern, and in part because, unlike other architects they interviewed, she directed her attention to both the husband and the wife, not just the husband.
Judith Chafee conducted solar studies to help determine the configuration of the Ramada House (above), and positioned timber shade canopies over much of it.
Bill Timmerman, Courtesy Princeton Architectural Press Judith Chafee conducted solar studies to help determine the configuration of the Ramada House (above), and positioned timber shade canopies over much of it.

This article appears in the Feb. 2020 issue of ARCHITECT, under the title “A Desert Pioneer.”