Ghost Wash House

With the design of the Ghost Wash House in Paradise Valley—a wealthy Phoenix community on the north side of Camelback Mountain—architect Darren Petrucci, AIA, wants to bring what he calls “amenity infrastructure” from the urban to the domestic scale. The house forms a “third wash” between two existing desert dry streambeds that accept seasonal runoff from the mountain. It also channels the rainwater from infrequent storms via a butterfly roof—which Petrucci compares to a “nurse tree” that shades smaller plants and cacti—to the house’s strip of courtyards, lawns, and living spaces. These cool and protected spaces, which run in sequence from north to south, are buttressed on both sides by stretches of bedrooms and service areas that offer a layer of protection from the harshness of the morning and afternoon sun.

“Ever since I was in architecture school, I have been interested in the notion that infrastructure elements can be used for recreation and open space,” Petrucci says. “One of the first places to do so, back in the 1990s, was the Hayden Wash in Scottsdale, Ariz., which is the site of a miles-long ribbon of parks and open spaces. When I saw this house’s site, I thought I could apply the same thinking here.”

Petrucci met client Eric Termansen when the latter was still a bachelor, and in fact introduced him to his wife Lauri. Petrucci remodeled the couple’s first house, and, when they found this “lot in the valley’s sweet spot, in the shadow of Camelback,” as he puts it, he was happy to design the 8,500-square-foot house for them and their nine-year-old daughter.

The central volume consists of one large 16-foot-tall living space, its 100- by 60-foot ceiling held above wraparound clerestory windows by four corner posts. Looking up to the mountain and across the North Valley, it presents the Sonoran Desert as a place of beauty and refuge. Reflections in the house’s clear insulated glass and in the dark glass of the 1,000-square-foot pool house further down the site multiply reflections of the mountain and desert scene, bringing that far landscape into frame.

On either side of this artificial oasis, Petrucci designed the bedroom wing to the west and the kitchen and service areas to the east to appear as monolithic blocks, covered in brick of different shades that mimic the colors of the nearby rocks. Windows open out to small courtyards sheltered from direct sun.

“Most modernist houses in the valley are beautifully tuned boxes standing in the landscape,” Petrucci says. “I wanted to make a house that was more of the landscape.” For all the grandeur of the Ghost Wash House, the architect has succeeded in making it both a mirror and a microcosm of its site.

Project Credits
Project: Ghost Wash House, Paradise Valley, Ariz.
Client: Eric and Lauri Termansen Architect: Architecture-Infrastructure-Research (A-I-R), Scottsdale, Ariz. . Darren Petrucci, AIA (lead designer, principal); Phil Horton, Assoc. AIA, Joe Pritchard, AIA (project assistants)
Interior Design: Darren Petrucci, AIA
Mechanical Engineer: Kunka Engineering
Structural Engineer: JT Engineering
Electrical Engineer: Woodward Engineering
Civil Engineer: Fleet-Fisher Civil Engineering
Construction Manager: Mark Allen
General Contractor: Build Inc.
Landscape Architect: Colwell/Shelor Landscape Architects
Lighting Designer: Creative Designs in Lighting
Size: 8,500 square feet (main house), 1,000 square feet (pool house)
Cost: Withheld