Project: Rove House
Architects: The Ranch Mine
Builder: Boxwell Homes
Location: Paradise Valley, Arizona, United States
Area: 5460 ft2
Year: 2022
Photographs: Roehner + Ryan
The Ranch Mine has completed the Rove House, a family home in Paradise Valley, a town that sits within the metropolitan region of Phoenix.
“Dark and cramped with low ceilings” was the description the homeowners gave of their existing 1970s house in Paradise Valley, Arizona when they reached out to The Ranch Mine with hopes of completely renovating it while adding additional space. The architects focused the redesign on providing a new, indoor/outdoor living area with ample natural light, adding spaces that were lacking to accommodate their growing family, and reconfiguring the original home to make the most of the existing space.
The first design move was running a majority of the additional parallel to the existing house, connecting them with a singular linking element containing a new mudroom, powder room, and hall. This strategy separates the new and old, allowing the original house to be completely reused while providing the addition with ample natural light and cross-ventilation opportunities.
It also creates a courtyard in the in-between space, a time-tested way of living in the American Southwest. The addition is anchored on both ends by a new guest suite and primary suite rendered in white stucco with regularly spaced columns in the middle supporting a pavilion-like roof. The roof covers both the indoor and outdoor living areas with large overhangs that shade the glass and patio during the summer. Operable windows on both sides of the living space allow for cross ventilation like the breezeway-inspired design of the patio.
On the interior, floor-to-ceiling glass in the new living room takes in views of the mountains to the north, views that didn’t exist previously. Pocketing glass doors can be hidden behind the plastered fireplace, creating a seamless connection to the patio. Hemlock slats start as a backlit lantern welcoming guests at the front of the house and flow all the way through to the new addition, concealing hidden doors to the powder room and mudroom on the way, while the tongue and groove hemlock is applied to the ceiling adding an organic touch to the interior.
