[empowerlocal_ad large-leaderboard]

EmpowerLocal leadertop ad

[empowerlocal_ad leadertop]

EmpowerLocal large-leaderboard ad

Nestled into a native Sonoran Desert landscape, a hillside property is a showcase for sustainability, diversity and pure visual delight.

Before Lauri and Eric Termansen moved to Phoenix 25 years ago, both envisioned the city as a brown, dry landscape filled with dirt and rocks.  “I grew up in Houston, worked in New York and Eric was raised in Vancouver, so we weren’t sure what to expect,” Lauri says. “It took us a while to acclimate, but then we began to realize there really is a lushness to the desert.”

[empowerlocal_ad video]

EmpowerLocal video ad

Although their previous house on the south side of Camelback Mountain in Paradise Valley was void of native plantings, the couple chose to revegetate the grounds at their new home on the north side of the mountain. “When Lauri and Eric bought the lot, it was surrounded by aging oleanders and brimming with non-native, water-intensive shrubs and grass,” says landscape architect Michele Shelor, who redesigned the grounds. “They wanted the property to reflect their deep appreciation for desert plant life and advocacy for conservation and sustainability.”

Shelor, a Phoenix Home & Garden Masters of the Southwest award winner—an honor shares with her business partner, Allison Colwell— took the Termansens to the Desert Botanical Garden early in the design process. “We selected plants that were rare, visually delicious and easy to maintain,” Shelor recalls. “We wanted the landscape to be just as unique as the architecture of the home, yet complement its architectural, bold forms without competing with it.”

Nicknamed the “Ghost Wash” property by architect Darren Petrucci, who designed what he refers to as a climatically responsive modern house, the site is flanked by two desert washes that move stormwater from the top of the mountain and to a valley below. A third conceptual wash—the ghost wash—runs down the center of the site. “The ghost wash is an architectural landscape that starts at the auto entry court on the north side and passes through the residence, culminating at the pool house on the south side,” he explains. It is made up of cascading terraces of alternating patios and garden planters, notes Shelor. “The last terrace is a steel box cistern capturing all of the roof water and storing the runoff,” she says.

Nicknamed the “Ghost Wash” property by architect Darren Petrucci, who designed what he refers to as a climatically responsive modern house, the site is flanked by two desert washes that move stormwater from the top of the mountain and to a valley below. A third conceptual wash—the ghost wash—runs down the center of the site. “The ghost wash is an architectural landscape that starts at the auto entry court on the north side and passes through the residence, culminating at the pool house on the south side,” he explains. It is made up of cascading terraces of alternating patios and garden planters, notes Shelor. “The last terrace is a steel box cistern capturing all of the roof water and storing the runoff,” she says.

Nicknamed the “Ghost Wash” property by architect Darren Petrucci, who designed what he refers to as a climatically responsive modern house, the site is flanked by two desert washes that move stormwater from the top of the mountain and to a valley below. A third conceptual wash—the ghost wash—runs down the center of the site. “The ghost wash is an architectural landscape that starts at the auto entry court on the north side and passes through the residence, culminating at the pool house on the south side,” he explains. It is made up of cascading terraces of alternating patios and garden planters, notes Shelor. “The last terrace is a steel box cistern capturing all of the roof water and storing the runoff,” she says.

[empowerlocal_ad skyscraper]

EmpowerLocal skyscraper ad

[empowerlocal_ad leader]

EmpowerLocal leader ad

[empowerlocal_ad super-leader]

EmpowerLocal super-leader ad

[empowerlocal_ad med-rectangle]

EmpowerLocal med-rectangle ad

[empowerlocal_ad large-rectangle]

EmpowerLocal large-rectangle ad

[empowerlocal_ad half-page]

EmpowerLocal half-page ad

[empowerlocal_ad anchor]

EmpowerLocal anchor ad