Published on Sunday, August 29, 1993
© 1993 The Arizona Republic

Byline: By Judy Walker, The Arizona Republic

Desert communities such as ours long have sprouted structures with secret centers.

All across the Valley, you can find buildings wrapped around the enchanting spaces we call courtyards: the Westward Ho in downtown Phoenix, Biltmore Fashion Park, classroom buildings at Arizona State University and apartment buildings in Chandler, to name a few.

A recent informal survey of residential courtyards found only one point of similarity: The owners said they spend as much time in their shaded enclaves as they do indoors.

One courtyard was full of colorful desert plants -- cactus-free, because the owners have many grandchildren. One home in a historic Phoenix neighborhood has an interior courtyard that can be screened in to make another entire room, or opened for parties, plus two gorgeous exterior courtyards within a wall that fences the property.

Another courtyard around the main entrance of a central Phoenix estate has access through old Mexican doors. Lushly planted with giant bird of paradise, grape ivy, exotic palms and colorful blooms, it looks more like San Diego's Balboa Park than Arizona.

Newcomers to the Valley often are shocked to find high walls instead of the low suburban streetscapes familiar in the rest of the country. But desert communities always have used walls to create shade and dust barriers. Courtyards came to the Southwest, as did many other things, with the Spaniards, via Mexico.

''The courtyard is one of the oldest transitional indoor-outdoor living spaces known to humans,'' said Professor Beverly Brandt, director of the Herberger Center for Design Excellence at Arizona State University's College of Architecture and Environmental Design. She is an interior-design historian.

''When you look at southern cultures, or those lying around the equator, the gathering space for the household was always the courtyard. It has a lot to do with the climate. If you look at northern climates, you find the great hall is the central communal space.

''Look at Roman culture, Greek culture, Mesopotamian culture. That courtyard space goes way back.''

Southwestern specialties
The fountain in a courtyard is also a longtime feature. It helps create a microclimate, Brandt explained, giving a cool impression in a hot climate.

''There's something about that tinkling-water sound that's so marvelous,'' she said.

''As a designer working here, we're always thinking about what draws people to the Southwest. We don't have some of those wonderful buildings like they do in Boston, the great old urban fabric in older cities. People come here for the climate, the environment, the incredible canopy of blue overhead, the palm trees, the sunsets.

''They really want these sort of transitional living spaces, that are neither indoors or outdoors. The courtyard is kind of that private space that gives you the blue sky overhead, a center for activity, for reading the paper with your coffee in the morning, with the kids playing outside, or for outdoor dining.''

Courtyards most often can be found in old adobes or larger homes built before the 1960s, when air conditioning came into its own. Nowadays, landscape architects and designers are carving courtyard spaces out of yards, often with a pool at one end.

In the case of many older structures, courtyards disappeared in remodelings, roofed over and enclosed to form new rooms. Monti's La Casa Vieja, the 1871 adobe that is Tempe's oldest and most historically significant building, has a dining room that was originally a courtyard. The fountain remains, and it still works.

The owner of one home in a Phoenix historic neighborhood, Country Club Park, believes that the large central room in his 2,300-square-foot house was first a courtyard. The builder was faced with wartime restrictions on construction materials, and probably planned to roof it over as soon as shortages eased.

In the case of the central Phoenix courtyard that is reminiscent of San Diego, the homeowner likes exotic plants and was willing to try things not usually found here, said Patrick Barnes, horticulturist and co-owner of J. Patrick Landscape & Design.

A fountain and shade screens add humidity, and wintertime heaters help keep it tropical. Fishtail palms, sago palms, a loquat tree and New Zealand tree ferns grow here, along with colorful agapanthus, crotons, two colors of cannas and a standard gardenia taller than most people.

Delicate Bougainvillea brasiliensis, grape ivy from South America (Cissus rhombifolia) and creeping fig climb across the shade screen. Abyssinian bananas press against it. Sweet olive bushes are just one of the many plants grown here for fragrance.

Barnes and his partner, Robert Wertz, specialize in color and large estates, but install all kinds of landscapes. Right outside this courtyard, the xeriscape design won a first-place award and trophy in the Arizona Municipal Water Users Association's annual competition.

Almost all the courtyards we surveyed were water-thrifty, on drip-irrigation systems. Every single one was popular with butterflies and hummingbirds, too. And most had plenty of color pots, for seasonal changes.

From grass to garden
In one courtyard, installed two years ago behind a 1936 Monterey-style adobe in the historic Encanto-Palmcroft area, the homeowner leaves three market umbrellas open over the fountain and potted geraniums to extend the blooming season into summer. She maintains the large courtyard, designed by landscape architect Greg Trutza of New Directions in Landscape Architecture, herself.

''This was all grass,'' she said. ''We thought that it would be nice for the yard to be more useful in terms of entertaining and family. The children are grown,'' so they didn't need as much play space.

Basically, the back yard was removed and replaced by an outdoor living space floored in brick. The crescent-shaped house has five sets of French doors that open onto the area, along with second-floor balconies.

A raised ramada provides a large dining area, and bougainvillea that already existed was trained across the top. The back of the space was defined by existing oleanders. To add interest and to cover an adjacent wall, Trutza designed a trellis. Queen's wreath grows up it and over the oleanders, dripping pink summer blooms.

Five spathulata trees, from the eucalyptus family, were planted on the perimeter of the courtyard. Their canopies eventually will knit together into fine-leafed shade. An orchid tree blooms twice a year.

Periwinkles, iris, sunflowerlike rudbeckias, lobelia, variegated hibiscus and Mexican heather are just a few of the plantings in the many beds. In the planters around the grill are white, purple and pink pentas, all in bloom in the summer. Five different types of jasmine lend fragrance.

The courtyard ''has become so important to us that we spend all our evenings outside that we can, except in the hottest summer,'' the owner said.

One of her big containers is a potful of parsley right outside the kitchen door.

Going native
Herbs are also tucked into a corner of a courtyard with a completely different feel 50 miles away, in far-north Scottsdale. But again, it has a planned tree canopy -- this one designed to feel like a mesquite bosque.

''If you really want to make courtyards comfortable, use a lot of canopy trees,'' said Jeff Franklin, of Water Features/Desarroyo, who specializes in desert landscapes and indigenous materials. ''Even in the afternoon, it's comfortable to sit under a tree. And it draws people into the whole thing.''

This courtyard is encircled by a pool and an 8,000-square-foot Santa Fe adobe. Wings of the home embrace the courtyard on two sides, and a hexagonal all-glass breakfast room projects out into the space. Even the pantry has a window view of the courtyard.

Random-pattern flagstone paves the courtyard, and all the plantings are natives except a few of the flowers. Mexican primrose; ice plant; showy red salvia; verbena in deep purple, pink and white; chuparosa; and desert honeysuckle ( Anisacanthus thurberi ) are some of the bloomers. Again, queen's wreath makes an appearance, this time growing up and into a paloverde.

Herbs grow in an area that is down a couple of steps beside the breakfast room; tucked into a hidden bed beside the pool is a vegetable garden.

This is one of the few courtyards we found that doesn't have a fountain, but it still has moving water. Franklin built a small, streamlike water feature beside the pathway to the pool, surrounded by a few handpicked boulders Franklin found in Congress, Ariz.

And because homeowners Mary Jane and Jim Luterbach have 18 grandchildren, no cactus or agave or anything prickly was planted in the courtyard.

Small and screened
By contrast, Cindy McCook's 1937 house (it has about 1,400 square feet) in the historic Willo neighborhood has a tiny courtyard, with French doors opening into it from the dining room and master bedroom, and one door from the kitchen.

It is floored in sisal and furnished with a queen-size futon on a frame and a portable bar rolled poolside for parties. Screens can be pulled down to enclose the room, and a screen door that exits to an outdoor shower becomes the entrance. When it is enclosed, McCook uses it for a guest room.

But the entire exterior of the house is enclosed by high walls and is also outdoor living space. Richard Fox was the horticulture designer for most of the landscape before McCook bought the house last year. She has added a tall Mexican fountain, with multicolored tile surrounding its interior basin.

Columns and an overhead trellis canopy the side of the house. Wisteria grows across the painted aluminum slats overhead. Wedelia, with its yellow blooms, is part of the ground cover, along with strawberries.

Something is in bloom all year long, with bougainvillea, paloverde trees, calla lilies, primroses, roses, Mexican primroses, fortnight lilies, coreopsis and ruellia, to name just a few of the flowers. On the other side of the house, where the space is much more narrow, iris and vegetables grow.

''When it's 103 outside, it's 90 degrees on the patio,'' McCook said. A misting system adds to the comfort level. And, Fox added, all the greenery takes less water than a lawn.

Part of a lawn was eliminated when Trutza designed an inviting enclosure for a young family in an area of east Phoenix the homeowners call ''lower Arcadia.''

''I wanted to sit out in the front in the winter and watch the sunset with my cup of tea and a sweater,'' the homeowner said. ''I also like to watch the summer storms come in.''

The homeowners first envisioned a high fence, but Trutza talked them into a brick one 32 inches high, with Mondale pines for privacy, planted on the street side. The lower wall zigzags across and encompasses about half the front yard.

Joining it on the driveway side are a redwood gate and fence Trutza designed in a clean, geometric style.

A large square planter, centered with two Brazilian pepper trees, is the focal point of the area inside, hidden from the street. It is planted in strong color blocks with zinnias, whiterobe and purplerobe.

Golden bougainvillea in the corners will spill across the front of the wall when grown. A portable, woklike metal outdoor fireplace will be used this winter.

Color photos (4) by Suzanne Starr/The Arizona Republic

1) This small interior courtyard in Cindy McCook's Willo neighborhood home is open to the pool area; screened off, it becomes a guest room. 2) In the former back yard of this Encanto-Palmcroft home, a raised dining pavilion now overlooks a seating area and a fountain under a trio of market umbrellas that keep potted geraniums blooming into summer. 3) Two wings of Mary Jane and Jim Luterbach's Santa Fe-style home in north Scottsdale embrace a mesquite-shaded flagstone courtyard. A small stream provides the moving water. 4) A zigzag brick wall encloses a courtyard in east Phoenix. Brazilian pepper trees are centered in large color blocks of flowers; cement bowls hold Zen arrangements of rocks and flowers.