Wendell Burnette Architects

Wendell Burnette Architects is an internationally recognized architectural practice based in Phoenix, Arizona. Our portfolio of work includes a wide range of private and public projects. The specific focus of the practice is concerned with space and light, context and place, and with the environment and landscapes in which we live. The architecture of the firm responds to the specifics of site and client needs, is resourceful in regards to budget, takes a pro-active approach to the craft of building, and strives to create spaces that engage people. The recent public and private commissions of the studio evidence our desire to be an active member of the communities in which we work and the physical shaping of those places regardless of locale. “Architecture is a process of distillation.” Wendell Burnette Architects’ design philosophy is grounded in listening and distilling the very essence of a project to create highly specific architecture that is at once functional and poetic. Our design approach is to listen to all aspects of a particular building program and develop a consensus of approach with client, design team members, and potential contractors. Through the integration of this process, Wendell Burnette Architects delivers architecture that is both uniquely appropriate and timelessly valuable to the client and/or user. Projects include custom residences located locally and nationally, public commissions in our community such as the Palo Verde Library / Maryvale Community Center, the Children’s Museum of Phoenix, and the Scottsdale Teen Center, and Resorts/Spas worldwide including the much acclaimed Amangiri Resort*. The work of Wendell Burnette Architects has earned numerous honors, including a 1990 Young Architects Award from Progressive Architecture magazine, a 1999 “Emerging Voices Award” from the Architectural League of New York, a 1999 P/A Design Award from Architecture magazine, three “Record House” Awards in 1996, 2000 and 2006 from Architectural Record Magazine, an AIA Western Mountain Region Merit Award for The Field House, and a 2007 National AIA Honor Award and 2009 National AIA/ALA Honor Award for the Palo Verde Library/Maryvale Community Center. Exhibitions in the last decade include “Design Culture Now” at the SMITHSONIAN Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum in New York, “SouthwestNET” for the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art in Scottsdale, Arizona, “Dialogues in Space”, a solo exhibit at the Arizona State University’s former College of Design and “Architecture in the Sonoran Desert: Phoenix – Barcelona” an exhibit and symposium in Barcelona, Spain. Most recently, Burnette received the 2009 Academy Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters recognizing an “American architect whose work is characterized by a strong personal direction” which was accompanied by an exhibition of this work in NYC. * with I-10 Studio, LLC