The studio of Debartolo Architects is a unique architectural design firm in that they are passionately committed to architectural excellence parallel with their commitment to serving clients and creating relevant and functionally-tuned environments for people. Founded in 1996 as a collaboration of the father-son team, the firm is built on the rich history of Jack Debartolo Jr. FAIA’s 22-year partnership with Anderson DeBartolo Pan, Inc. Through creativity, innovation and careful listening, their team has become one of the leading studios in creating highly-custom, well-tuned built-environments that respond to their client, context, culture and community.
In concept, the Roth House design is a response to the immediate and distant context. The ground floor of the house responds to the texture and fabric of the 1950’s University Terrace neighborhood, sitting contextually on the site – similar to all other houses in the neighborhood. Constructed in 4x8x16 sandblasted masonry block, the structure is articulated by custom steel ‘boxes’ that punctuate the wall planes taking in views and light. The upper level – much like a stacked block, is rotated 90° to respect the ideal climatic orientation and the distant views to the mountains and ASU campus beyond. This rotation is expressed in a material change, as well as a technically difficult, although seemingly simple, detail of providing no visual engagement between the upper and lower level – the boxes appear to be simply sitting one on top of the other.
