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>>> meet the designers behind projects featured in this issue

Ken Allen, AIA, ISHC
Mark Philp, AIA
Allen + Philp Architects/Interiors

Ken Allen and Mark Philp were intern draftsmen at a Phoenix architectural firm during the 1970s, while they were both architectural students at Arizona State University. "That was back in the days before computers, when we actually had to know how to draw," recalls Allen. The two hit it off and, by 1976, had launched their own firm, now located in Scottsdale. "We did anything at first," Allen says, "but in 1980, we got a lucky break." That lucky break was landing The Boulders Resort project in Carefree, Arizona, which went on to win numerous awards for its sensitive-to-the-desert adobe design. Allen was 29, Philp was 32. Since then, the two and their team of 30 have gone on to do numerous high-profile resort, spa, hotel, mixed-use and commercial projects around the world, including The Fairmont Scottsdale Princess, the Salobre in Spain and Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain, a resort in Paradise Valley, Arizona. Their Trader Vic's restaurant project, at the Hotel Valley Ho in Scottsdale (also their project), is featured in this issue.

Joe Herzog
Chris Nieto
merzproject

Joe Herzog and Chris Nieto met as neighbors in downtown Phoenix. Herzog, an architect, had recently completed his master's in architecture at Arizona State University and was working for Phoenix architect Will Bruder. Nieto was involved in his family's plumbing business. Over beers, the two discussed design, urban renewal, city living and changing the world one building at a time. Those discussions led to merzproject, the architectural firm they founded in 2003 when Nieto was 24 and Herzog was 27. Their first project was their own office, located in a 1940s grocery store-turned-junkyard near downtown that they gutted and turned into an edgy, warehouse-style setting. Now, with a crew of eight, Herzog and Nieto remain dedicated to downtown Phoenix. Their latest project, The Roosevelt, is featured in this issue's restaurant-design feature.

Rick McLain
Repp Design + Construction

"I've always been interested in design/build," says architectural designer Rick McLain. "I like the idea of closing the gap between how things are designed and how things are constructed." In 2002, while he was still in architecture school at the University of Arizona, McLain met Tucson designer/builder Page Repp of Design + Construction, legendary among U of A architecture students as the guy who designed and built his own house for his senior project. "I jumped at the chance to work with Page," says McLain. It was part time at first, then full time after McLain completed his education, which included a master's degree in architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. There were no thoughts of remaining in the Boston area, McLain points out. "I knew I would be bringing the knowledge back to the Tucson desert," he says. "I'm very happy to be back here for the winters." A modernist addition by McLain and Repp is this issue's Residential Walk-Through.