08 design and architecture oct 2003 east meets west contemporary contemporary beach house dmma

7/29/2019 08 Design and Architecture Oct 2003 East Meets West Contemporary Contemporary Beach House DMMA

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eartland America is at the heart of David Michael Miller interiors.Add Wright, Sullivan, Adler, Jenney, the prairie, the grassy plains,and the rolling hills of his native Midwest. Add a middle-classCatholic upbringing that nurtured introspection, reliance on

higher standards, and honesty."My background caused me to relate strongly to real imagery rather than

simply gravitate toward elements of design that conform to standards of classstructure," says Miller, whose rm is one of the most respected in Phoenix indeed, throughout the West and Southwest.

"I did not grow up with luxury or very ne things," he explains, "so when Iwas nally exposed to them they meant something different to me."

His simple, elegant and artful interiors manifest this rejection of classi-cism as well as his well-honed standards of good taste and materials selec-tion. What "ne things" artifacts, art, objects d'art, furnishings, and otherdetails mean in a David Michael Miller Associates (DMMA) design is thatthey serve as vital, interconnected elements in crisply articulated space: "I ammore inclined to step out of the norm when it comes to trends and fashionwhen used only for fashion's sake."

{ writer David M. Brown and photographer Bi

Wesbyidwest

U sed w i t hou t sc r u t iny o r r es t r a in t , f ash ion and

t rend are enemies of good design. They t r i v ia l i ze

i t and exp lo i t t he va lue o f t r ue and a r t f u l in t e r io r s .

David Michael Mil ler

H

'

*Millers interior design of a Newport Beach house invo lved a c lose co l labora tion

with Ca l i fo rn ia a rch itec t T revor Abramson : The th ree-bedroom, 3 ,500 square -

foo t home, rep l ica ting the shape o f a sa i l , s i ts snug ly on the beach a t the harbor

en trance to the Ba lboa Pen insu la . Accord ingly , Mi l le rs b righ t, l igh t, ye t e legan t

in te rio r is o rien ted fo r a l i fes ty le o f sea , sun , w ind , and fr iends .


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"Miller energy is pure and it doesn'tmiss a detail,"says Walter Spitz, owner ofCreative Designs in Lighting of Phoenix, afrequent vendor to Miller. "He's got the jobgured outfrom the start and alwayswith his clients' interests in mind."

For Miller, designed space, howeverbeautiful to owners and guests or worthyof accolades by peers and press, mustultimately be functional space. It must,for one, be livable for people, notmuseums, for experiencing, not gawking.It must also evoke an emotional response not be cold but be vibrant and t hrobwith energy:"Architecture and interiors

have emotionality;designers should beconcerned about how spaces make us feel."Finally, interiors must be streamlined andclean: "I am not a minimalist, but I dolike simplicity.

David Michael Miller Associates, basedin the well-known two-story studio thathe and Phoenix architect Wendell Burnettecreated in Old Town Scottsdale, neverforgets these roots and the dedication tointeriors that are honest, organic, and true.The connection to the earth is apparent

in Miller's allegiance to organic materi-als, monochromatic colors, and naturalforms: "Wright's romantic writings of theprairie and of nature resonated with me,"he recalls, tracing the origins of his designsensibilities.

So, although Miller is now one of themost requested luxury-home designersin the West, he has never really left hishomespun, formative years in Chicago the heartland of modern Americanarchitecture, with its genesis more thana century ago by architects such as LouisSullivan, Dankmar Adler, William Jenney,and Frank Lloyd Wright.

Born in Wisconsin (site of Wright'sTaliesin), Miller grew up in Chicago andstudied at the Ray College of Design, anarts trade school on the city's "magnicentmile." After completing his education, heworked for a design rm in downtownChicago but found that its work was anti-thetical to his view of truthful, unadorneddesign and the philosophical roots ofthe Chicago School: clarity, honesty inmaterials, minimal decoration, decorationthat tells in the total design. "I don't like

to get caught up in the whimsical aspectsof interior design," he says, "so I strive forhonesty and simplicity for interiors thatare sensible and sensuously restrained."

This truthfulness is central to the Millermetier and morals from overall designto materials selection to business relation-ships with clients and project participants."Design," he has written, "does not existto support the business structure; the busi-ness structure exists to support the effortsof design."

When he migrated to Arizona, the

Frank Lloyd Wright Fellowship at TaliesinWest in Scottsdale offered him its pres-

tigious membership (from Mrs. Wrightherself), but Miller declined, more intenton setting his own standards rather thanon aligning with those of others, howeveraugust.

Created in 1989, David Michael MillerAssociates specializes in residential interiordesign (in new construction, he prefersto be involved from the conceptual stageof architectural design) as well as cus-tom-furniture design and manufacture.With Miller as the sole designer, the rmincludes professional support staff ShelleyBehrhorst, purchasing/expediting; BrianWieberg, CADD and technical support;and Audra Harvey, business and nancialadministration.

The company has been regularlyhonored by peers, including these recentawards: First Place, American Society of

Interior Designers (ASID), Arizona NorthChapter; Residential Space Between 3,000-and 6,000-square-feet; 2003 First Place,ASID Arizona North Chapter; ResidentialSpace Under 3,000-square feet; and the2002 Ashley Group Best in Show from theNational Design and Architecture Com-petition. In addition, Miller's work hasappeared in a number of books on interiordesign. Most recently, he was named oneof a handful of designers to receive thisyear's National Design Excellence Awardfrom the National Society of InteriorDesigners in Washington, D.C.

His simple, unadorned, elegant designshave been celebrated nationally and lo-cally in Arizona Foothills, Coastal Living,House Beautiful, Interior Design, Metro-politan Home, Objekt, Phoenix Magazine,

Phoenix Home & Garden, RenovationStyle, and Sources & Design and The NewYork Times.

*David Michael Miller's 1,680-square-foot Scottsdale studio

is a collaboration with Phoenix architect Wendell Burnette,

who ingeniously placed the tall, narrow building amidst

existing structures, parking, and the garden streetscape of

First Avenue in downtown Scottsdale.

Building the Relationship BetweenArchitect and Designer

For Miller, a successful design requiresa closely coordinated relationship betweenits architecture and its interior. Miller isannoyed by the snobbery regularly echoedin architectural halls: that interior design-ers are not equal participants in the overallbuilding process.

In contrast, he feels the relationshipbetween architect and designer shouldbe symbiotic, creating a nal work thatis vibrant with life and energy. "The bestscenario is when the architect and theinterior designer work in concert to createcontinuity, not monotony," Miller says."Each discipline needs to acknowledge andrespect the other." In this ideal dynamic,the project and the client benet from thishybrid creation.

For Miller, the relationships thatfacilitate good interiors are representedby a triangle with vertices of architecturalcontext, geographical/cultural inuence,and the client's own style and color sen-sibilities. Similarly, architects and interiordesigners must work in harmony: "I likeinteriors that live with the architecture andare fused to it or are another expression ofthe building itself," he says.

Some designers exceed their primarycharge to design honestly: They stuffinteriors, setting the designed spaceagainst the built space by overwhelmingit prioritizing the contained space overthe container. Conversely, some architectswant to do everything including thechairs and the rugs. "Egos," Miller says,"sometimes get in the way."

But egos need to meld for an ideal

project: "Architect and interiorshould have a shared concept fbeginning about what the builwhat the building should expresays. "This is the common groessential for a cohesion betweeture and interiors."

A Study in a StudioThis tension and cohesion i

essence and philosophy of the studio, which has been praisedous publications for its innovaative tension resulted in a bettesays Miller, as he and architect Burnette worked together on, abattled about, the studio projeconception. Burnette agrees: "Twent places we wouldn't have pendently. It was a great collab

M i l le r energy is pu r e and i t doesn t m iss a de t a i l , says Wa l t e r Sp i t z , He s go t t he job f igu r ed ou t f r om t he s t a r t a n d a l w a

his c l ients interests in mind .


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After meeting with other architects,Miller approached Burnette to design thestudio. He liked the way Burnette hadused a similarly narrow site in buildinghis modernistic, minimalist studio home,which had appeared in Phoenix Magazineand brought him widespread recognition.To complete the team, Miller chose Con-struction Zone of Phoenix as the builder,Creative Designs in Lighting for the light-ing plan, and Christy Ten Eyck of Ten EyckLandscape Architects for landscape design.

Burnette had primarily worked onpublic projects with architect William P.Bruder Ltd. in Phoenix from 1985 until

opening his rm in 1996. After just a fewmeetings, it was clear that Burnette oftenwanted to travel one path, Miller another."Wendell loves inventions and innovationsin his building designs," Miller says. "I sawmy studio interiors as more of a passivecontainer. I wanted to edit the building de-tails down and have the building interiorsrecede in the building's composition."

Still, the 1,680-square-foot DMMAstudio is a successful collaboration ofdesign disciplines, and the outcome is aninnovative container, as it were. Complet-ed in 1999, the building rises on a narrowlot 50 feet wide and 125 feet deep, withan extended offset from the street, whichhighlights its more horizontal neighboringstructures. Burnette has placed it inge-niously amidst existing structures, park-ing, and the garden streetscape of First

Avenue, creating what he describes as "abuilding carefully placed in a garden as opposed to one set in a parking lot."

The north and south extremes ofthe building are glass walls, bringing innatural light. On the north side, Burnettecreated a courtyard for the studio, includ-ing saving an old mesquite Burnette's"tree from Sleepy Hollow": This courtyard,which also serves as the staff entrance,becomes a focal point for Miller's second-story ofce window-wall.

Burnette and Miller agreed that12-inch Integra masonry blocks wouldform the building skeleton, which runsfrom the concrete oor to the ceiling onthe east and west sides. Within this solidframe, the studio working space seems toll the building, to oat in the masonry

shell rather than attach to it. It is, as perMiller's desire, space that seems uid, thatis visually light and luminous, and spacethat seems capable of evolving, allowingMiller's own professional and creativeevolution.

At the same time, building toleranceswere very precise, as the architectural ele-ments are extremely cohesive, explains DJFernandes, project manager for Construc-

*below:Asymmetrically confgured

balustrades, white oak treads, and Aaron

Fink monoprints highlight the elegant

stairway of the Newport Beach house.

*left: Miller's design fora 5,600 square-

foot Desert Mountain home is a showcase

for the owners' collection of 400

wood-block prints by the 19th-century

Japanese master Ando Hiroshige and

their collection of artifacts from South-

east Asia. Four corridors displaying most

of the black-framed prints surround the

beckoning entryway courtyard.

o get to the work area where David

Michael Miller creates many of his

award-winning interiors, you take a

tour of the Zenlike studio created by himand architect Wendell Burnette. As Miller

describes it, the studio is designed so that

"every somewhere is everywhere."

Off the reception area, you climb a

stairwell, past a thinly cut white Indian-onyx

stairway window that draws natural light into

the stairwell, then to a half-story landing

with artifacts lit by halogen lighting (created

by Phoenix' Creative Designs in Lighting),

and up to a work area with a thick-planked bookcase that seems to oat but that actually serves as

an architectural truss. The bookcase, in fact, is the wall - "a friction piece" Burnette has called it.

Then, to get to Miller's ofce on the north side, you trek by the library/conference area across

a 30-foot catwalk that Burnette has suspended on stainless-steel cables. The hollow metallic

sound of shoes or heels reverberates against the block walls, signaling not so much the instability

of the engineering but its oating, detached, and mysterious character - themes of the building.

Above, a series of banks containing ve halogen pin spots are slit into the ceiling -illuminating

your journey as well as individual work areas and artworks

Two pieces of artwork - one synthetic, one natural - serve as focal points for the ofce, where

Miller meets with clients at an unobtrusive cast-concrete conference table.Above his subdued whitewashed plank work-area oor, a bright abstract painting by Janis

Provisor (an untitled oil and metal leaf on canvas) foregrounds itself against the white drywall

backdrop. During the day, the painting is illuminated in two ways: by a oor-height cutout created

by Burnette in the eastern wall to infuse natural light and by a northern window-wall that displays

the second piece of artwork, a mature mesquite tree that rises from the courtyard, contrasting

against the block wall of the studio that extends beyond the window ten yards or so north.

Transparency, honesty, comfort, lightness, sunlight-and a venerable mesquite rescued from

razing: This is the studio built about, for, and by David Michael Miller, who says, simply, "It makes

me feel good.

*The primacy of art, order, and life permeated s the design of the Desert Mo

fr om t he f irst step . At t he ent ryw ay, own ers an d gue sts pa ss thr ough a 5-

foo t p ivo t-ac tion mahogany door. A s isa l runner, manufac tured by Dav id MAssociates, welcomes them on finished concrete. A trio of Asian sculptur

console on one s ide o f the room, wh ile a l i v ing p lan t a ff irms l i f e o


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tion Zone on the project. Miller was alsoattuned to this: "He possesses a keen sen-sibility of the detailing and compositional

quality of the building" Fernandes says.For strength, Burnette reinforced the

walls with rebar-like steel rods. On thestudio's western wall, he added a series ofpolished, 12-inch long, one-quarter inch-thick Plexiglas plates that sit at randomintervals between the vertical joints in theconcrete blocks. These plates, especiallyat varying hours in the afternoon, areprismatic, bringing color and natural lightinto the studio. In addition, they drawattention to the very essence of the blocks,making them perform as well. This use ofbasic block afrms Miller's design philoso-phy: "They are truthful and unveneered.They are what they are." During the rstfour years, in fact, the force of the wall hasextruded the plates, so that their prowsfrom the wall vary. Miller: "We talkedabout adjusting them back to their origi-nal positions, but Wendell and I agreednot to." This materials migration evidencesthe building's growth.

Miller and Burnette disagreed aboutthe reception area on a variety of details including the composition of thepartitions between spaces and the worksurfaces. For the latter, Burnette wanted amedium-density berboard (MDF) with

expressed hardware. Miller said no to thetectonics and the material. He wanted thehardware seen and not heard and he

preferred the use of natural white oak tothe synthetic berboard. "I wanted thesurfaces to provide a natural touchstone,"he says. "'I wanted them to say, 'This

was a tree.'"Burnette also wanted to trowel Vene-

tian plaster on the wall behind the recep-tionist desk in a brilliant red to highlightit and draw attention to it as a work area.Miller demurred. Always looking to pullback the environment, he declined onVenice and chose the relatively anonymousmaterial of white wallboard.

The neutral background of white wall-board allows for three Timothy McDowellpanels that appear on the wall: "Anthropo-morphic Study," a 1996 encaustic on 3/4"birch; "Ever Serene I," a 1997 bees wax onwood; and "Ever Serene II," also a 1997

bees wax on wood.Creative Designs in Lighting installedhalogen accent lighting on the works tofurther highlight them. This is familiarMiller lighting, Spitz says. "We call it 'burnit dark' or 'slash and run,'" he says, explain-ing that Miller prefers to hot-spot objects letting the surrounding areas recedeinto an elegant darkness that containthe objects.

Sailing onto Newport BeachMiller's design of a Newport Beach

house (2000-2002) required a particularly

close relationship with Trevor Abramsonof Culver City, Calif.-based AbramsonTeiger Architects. The three-bedroom,3,500-square-foot home, built by the GalloCorporation of Laguna Beach, Calif., on asnug lot at the harbor entrance to the Bal-boa Peninsula, was designed by Abramsonas a billowing sail, following the clients'brief. "The sail form rises to cradle theroof terrace and gave us the opportunityto bring some of the grace from the waterinto the home," he says.

As a result, its owing structure(including a sail of white mosaic tile thatripples light) involves exterior and interiordetails such as radiused walls that seemuid like its environment of sea, wind, andsail. The beach facade is all glass, open-ing to the beach with large sliding panels

almost boatlike in its closeness tothe water."The clients wanted a low-maintenance

home that would be light and bright, withinfused color," Miller says. "They wantedthe space to be carefree and uncluttered."

In accordance with Abramson's desireto keep the ceiling clean, much of thelighting in the home is set into the oorwith ceiling lighting as unobtrusive as

possible, Spitz says. "It keeps the paletteclean," he says. The success of the design isin its simplicity apparent in the com-puter-controlled lighting system, whichminimizes the visual acne of switches.

Throughout the home, Miller main-tains this cleanliness in his pulled-backdetailing and millwork. This is a lifestylehome a place to be enjoyed, not ashowplace. As with all Miller interiors, thisis a container for life, hence a "receding de-sign": "It's a place for people's experiences."

The stairway is particularly well con-ceived, with its wirebrushed white-oaktreads and asymmetrical balustrades: onewith thin cables and one with temperedglass. Set against a canted, citrus-col-ored Venetian-plaster wall, the riserlessstairway leads to the landing with twonature-themed monoprints by Aaron Fink

- "Blue Grapes" and "Red Berries." Alsoproviding natural contrast is a hand-hewnMexican Cantara stone container and aliving plant.

The stairway leads guests and own-ers to both the pleasures of art and sleepas well as suffused light. A skylight sitsabove the second-oor one way inwhich Abramson was able to ll thehouse with light while complying withthe required zoning setbacks. Still anotheright ascends to a roof deck with a curv-ing parapet: "It's like the deck of a boat,"Abramson says, adding that this deck alsoincludes amenities such as a Jacuzzi, a

repit, and 360-degree views of the marinaenvironment.

This same simplicity inspires the clean-edge design of the bedroom interiors: Inthe master bedroom, Miller provides twoheadboards: the larger of curving white-mosaic tile and the second of white oakwrapped with simple cotton webbing.Adjoining the tile headboard are night-stands to both sides of the bed: These arein a white satin-lacquer nish over MDF.Here Miller continues a theme of thehouse: fusing the interiors with some ofthe furnishings and the architecture itself.Twin sand-toned white ottomans edge thebase of the king-size bed. Their pow-der-coated steel legs sit on wire-brushed5-inch white-oak planking.

As with the interiors throughout, themaster bedroom is an uncluttered, elegantspace for that best of rest: from the pleas-ant weariness of sand, sun, family, friends and sailing without leaving shore.

East Meets Western Desert Home

In a 2002 new build in north Scotts-dale's Desert Mountain, Miller coordinat-ed with Scottsdale-based Rick Daugherty,builder Paul Lovato Homes Inc., also of

Scottsdale, and the home-owners, a retiredcouple from Manhattan, N.Y., to create ahome that exemplies the close connec-tion between art, architecture, and design.The ASID Arizona North chapter thoughtso, too, recently awarding it rst place forhomes from 3,000- to 6,000-square-feet.

The 5,600-square-foot, two-level three-bedroom home sits on a knoll with unob-structed views of surrounding mountains.The owners wanted the house to showcasetheir collection of 400 woodblock printsby the 19th-century Japanese master AndoHiroshige as well as their artifacts fromSoutheast Asia. "The house is a canvas forthe art," Miller says.

Following in Eastern tradition, thecentral courtyard features a koi pond sur-rounded by four corridors to display mostof the block prints, all in simple blackframes. Smaller groupings of the prints oc-cur throughout the house. The challengewas the quantity of the block prints, andthe gallery was the best way to achieve thedisplay of so many of them.

The house reects a philosophy oforder and Zen. The simple grid massing ofthe prints draws viewers in to the corri-dor to participate in their art's individualstorylines. Many of Hiroshige's print seriestell a sequential story. The presentationof this art, as conceived by Miller, allowsguest to participate actively in this energy.

From this entry courtyard, the successof the project the interconnected-

ness of art, architecture, and design isparticularly evident. Large glass expansesdeliver the artwork to even those outsidethe home expressing the theme ofthe building from the initial entry to thecourtyard. Similarly, natural light from theoutside lls the interior space. Coloradosandstone forms the front-entry area: low-keyed but rugged and unadorned.

Phoenix' Creative Designs in Light-ing, led by project manager Chris Wild,installed an unobtrusive ceiling system ofdirectional halogen lights to highlight theworks. "On this project, David said simply,'Light the art,'" company owner WalterSpitz says. At the hallway ends are mirrors,which extend and bounce back the effectof the massed woodprints.

Miller's design for the corridors andthroughout the home makes the artworkcentral. Colors and nishes are passive,resulting in simplicity, tranquility, andcomfort. "I didn't want trickery," he says."I wanted to subdue the interiors so thattheir occupants could appreciate the naldetail of the art."

Floors, for instance, are integrally col-ored concrete with long runners designedand manufactured by DMMA for textural

and color contrast as well as coWalls and ceilings are khaki; thand structural piers are faced wColorado sandstone; and the fuare nished or upholstered in kand ivory. Miller-designed millconsole for the entryway, and cpedestals by Tempe's Kornegaysimilarly executed to step backlight the artwork.

As with all Miller interiors,for the home recedes into simpwhile remaining provocative anative: This is the David Michaedox. "We can't forget that goodsign should create an emotionahe says. "Interiors are not just to impress people with. They shyou feel good as living environ

Interiors are spaces to live life."

Be Relevant: in thecontext in which it is presenteusers, to the geographical en

which it l ives.

Be Innovative: soelements that are invent ive,

Be Rigorous: so theexecut ion of the design are of

h igh qua l i t y .

Be Evocative: so thbring you somewhere or move

way, through color, texture, s

composit ion, etc.

Be Real so interiors

truthful, not a lot of gimmickstrend. And,

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08 design and architecture oct 2003 east meets west contemporary contemporary beach house dmma

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