Email
steve@secrestarchitecture.com
Phone
(520) 742-3847
profile
I moved out west with my family from Southern Indiana in 1974. I have fond memories of running barefoot through the rolling hills and skipping rocks on the banks of the Ohio. At a young age, I was transported to this strange and foreign land called the desert; a place filled with rattlesnakes, sweltering temperatures, spiny cactus thorns and stickers. My barefoot Tom Sawyer existence had come to an end. Through the years, I have developed a strong love and appreciation for the stark and beautiful Sonoran desert and its relation to the built environment. The rugged desert landscape, under a searing display of light, shade and shadow, I can think of no other place that can complement, or be a better back drop, for the clean lines of modern architecture.
I attended the University of Arizona and graduated with a Bachelors of Architecture in 1991. For the 18 years prior to launching Secrest Architecture, I worked for, and acted as a design consultant in, several well-known firms in Southern Arizona, gaining experience in a large variety of building types.
Secrest Architecture is an award-winning design studio, seeking projects of any scale that present an opportunity to bring value and innovation to our client. We provide full services, from schematic design through final completion. Our architecture embraces the desert lifestyle and its warm climate, while being sensitive to the harshness of our unique environment. Each project is unique, sculpted to the needs and requirements of its users and responding to its own individual sense of place.
We are committed to architecture that not only satisfies users’ needs and fulfills functional aspects, but architecture that inspires and enriches the lives of its occupants; architecture that has a strong connection with the spirit of place; architecture that learns from the practical solutions of our past, but doesn’t try to mimic historical styles; architecture that strives for a bold new direction.
The Silvertree Residence — Tucson, Arizona
2008 Merit Award from AIA Southern Arizona
2008 Home of the year award in remodel category from AIA Southern Arizona and Tucson Lifestyle Home & Garden Magazine
Desert Garden Ramada — Tucson, Arizona
2003 American Institute of Steel I.D.E.A.S. merit award (Innovative Design and Excellence In Steel) & acted as lead design architect on residences as a consultant for Seaver Franks Architects
featured projects
Desert H House - Marana, Arizona
Desert H House embraces mountain views and the area’s warm climate, encouraging indoor-outdoor living. The house is a study of taking a small residence and creating outdoor rooms that become extensions of both the surrounding desert and the interior spaces. The outdoor spaces add to the livable square footage of the house and connect the house to the landscape and the desert lifestyle.
Cloud Catcher Residence - The Residences at Ritz Carlton
The Cloud Catcher residence is a unique 5,000 s.f. custom designed home in Marana, Arizona, at the base of the Tortolita Mountains. The house sits softly into its .85 acre site with wonderful mountain and city views. The house is a site specific design sculpted to its own unique location and its own individual spirit of place. The design takes full advantage of the site’s attributes and solar orientation, responding to lower distant city views towards the south as well as beautiful views upward into the mountains towards the north. The roof-line of the house responds to both views and the solar path. Toward the north, the roof rises to allow views into the mountains and sky above, as well as capture northern light. The deep cantilevered roof toward the south protects the glass from direct sunlight throughout the summer. Private and public functions are separated by an indigenous stone wall that starts at the guest parking area and extends up and through the house, creating an entry sequence and terminating into the hillside, anchoring the house into its landscape. The house embraces the desert lifestyle taking advantage of the warm climate and the opportunity for indoor-outdoor living and connectivity with the desert. Retracting doors along the north can fully open letting the terrace and the interior of the house flow together, breaking the conventional opaque boundary between interior and exterior. Cloud Catcher draws from the traditional ranch house of the southwest. Indigenous stone, adobe masonry walls, Douglas fir wood detailing and rusted patina roof are sculpted into a timeless modern expression.
Silvertree Residence – Tucson, AZ
The Silvertree residence is a study in how an existing, small, dated, closed-in and inwardly focused residence can be revived into an inspiring modern space that interacts with the outdoors.
2008 Merit Award from AIA Southern Arizona
2008 Home of the year award in remodel category from AIA Southern Arizona and Tucson Lifestyle Home & Garden Magazine
Dove Mountain Canyon Pass – Marana, Arizona
Acted as lead design architect on multiple residences as a consultant for Seaver Franks Architects.
Saguaro Ranch – Marana, Arizona
Acted as lead design architect on multiple residences as a consultant for Seaver Franks Architects
Pima Canyon Estates – Tucson, Arizona
Acted as lead design architect on residences as a consultant for Seaver Franks Architects, including the award winning Desert Garden and Ramada at the heart of the development.
2003 American Institute of Steel I.D.E.A.S. merit award (Innovative Design and Excellence In Steel)
Honey Bee Ridge Estates Residence, Oro Valley, Arizona
Converging perspective lines travel through house and culminate to spectacular sweeping views of Tucson’s Catalina Mountains…. Stay tuned for photo shoot of this house this summer
Sky Court Residence
The heart of the house opens and allows the exterior courtyards to transect completely through the house. Large retractable sliders retract on both sides of the great room blurring the line between interior and exterior, and connecting the house to mountain views above to the north and 180 degrees city views below to the south Completion date Summer 2019
Wild Burro Ranch
More about this project coming soon!
North Restaurant – Tucson & Scottsdale, Arizona
Lead Design Architect, as consultant for Seaver Franks Architects.
Montana Avenue Restaurant – Tucson, Arizona
Lead Design Architect, as consultant for Seaver Franks Architects.
Bloom Restaurant – Scottsdale, Arizona & Broomfield, Colorado
Lead Designer and Project Architect as consultant for Seaver Franks Architects.
Metro Grill Park Place – Tucson, Arizona
Lead Designer and Project Architect as consultant for Seaver Franks Architects.
City Park Mixed Use
Secrest Architecture LLC – Design Architect
SBBL Architects -Architect of Record
40 E. Congress – City Park is a mixed-use transit-oriented development, located in the heart of downtown Tucson. It is a project that incorporates the historic Indian Trading post to the east, and 20 E. Congress to the west. Large urban parks/courtyards connect the three buildings. The lower floor of 40 E. Congress, which is planned for a food hall opens almost entirely to these patios with the use of large glass overhead doors, that allow the exterior spaces to flow and morph into the interior spaces. The upper floors are offices and home to the new North American headquarters for Hexagon Mining, an international mining tech company. The fifth-floor shares space with Hexagon Mining’s auditorium and Experience Center and available flex space for event type uses including a 2,600 s.f. sky deck that has sweeping views of the Catalina mountains and downtown Tucson. The City Park was designed as a beacon of activity. The north façade was designed to be as transparent as possible to showcase the excitement of the lower floor’s planned food hall and entertainment/bar areas with Congress Street. The material palette and color scheme was kept minimal and spare, concrete, glass and metal panels. The palette was intended to not compete with the excitement of the planned interior spaces on the lower floors, exterior signage and other amenities along Congress Street. The colors and materials where also selected to bridge the 3 buildings that make up this development. Each building has its own character yet complements each other tying the whole development together.
Design Architect – City Park Mixed Use Tucson 2018 See more at www.facebook.com/SecrestArchitectureLLC
Hexagon Mining - North American International Headquarters
More about this project coming soon!
Hexagon Mining Auditorium and Experience Center
More about this project coming soon
Rural Metro Fire Station – Tucson, Arizona
Lead Design Architect as consultant for Seaver Franks Architects.
Karp Heurlin Weiss Law Offices – Tucson, Arizona
Lead Design Architect as employee of Gromatzky Dupree and Associates.
America Online Offices – Broadway & Rosemont, Tucson, Arizona
Lead Design Architect as employee of Gromatzky Dupree and Associates.
SensoryCLUB plaza Tucson, Arizona
Coming soon new entertainment and support center for special needs children. See more at www.facebook.com/SecrestArchitectureLLC
Broadway Scott - Mixed Use
More about this project coming soon!