I was commissioned to design Michael's Ranch subdivision in Sedona Arizona.

A 40-acre parcel was to be subdivided into 41 building sites. My duties to the project included subdivision master planning, grading plans, hydrology studies, septic feasibility studies, the design of eight homes and variations on the eight homes, entry wall and gate design, landscape design, and preparation of the sales materials.

After the first two homes were constructed, I was responsible for the design and execution of full interiors and landscape for the model homes.

The homes were all to be under 2000 ft., plus two-car garage. Since each of the sites is nearly an acre in size, such small residences posed a problem. As the lots would dwarf the structures, I decided to create rather long buildings, by placing the garage doors off the end of the buildings and adding windows to the front facing garage walls, therefore the buildings appeared to be larger and much more in proportion to the sites.

All the homes are three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Two of the homes provide split bedroom plans. All of the residences feature high ceilings in the public rooms, open floor plans and large expanses of glass on the view sides of the home, as well as 10' sliding glass doors in the bedrooms.

Many higher end features have been used in these homes such as the use of glass block, thick wall treatments, round windows, tile roofs, walk-in closets, fireplaces, curved walls, round kitchen, covered patios, overhead vegas, designer styled entries etc.

The 8 building designs are scattered throughout the subdivision in various colors to conceal repetition. The vistas from the subdivision take in the famous red rocks of Sedona. From the subdivision, the views occur in two ways; some of the homes take their views from the front of the house while others take their views from the back.

Four of the homes are designed for rear views and four of the homes are designed for front views. Styling of the residences intentionally varies, however southwestern contemporary was my primary focus.

The homes were designed for production. The roof systems are of prefabricated trusses of my specification, and oversized sliding glass doors were used throughout for ease of construction. Although my specifications were geared to a tight budget, from a design standpoint I have brought to the project many skills from my experience with very high budget residences.

Under the selected residential link, three of my favorite Michael's Ranch homes are shown in more detail; "The Rose" "The Gardenia" and "The Sycamore".