Arizona Republic from Phoenix, Arizona • Page 124

ALL t'DifiONS Schools, Industry Are Varney's Field The Arizona Republic eal Estate ft Construction a 1 other real estate news and pictures may he found on this and following pages. By THOMAS KELLAND Business and Financial Editor Phoenix, Sunday, May 1962 24-G XL-- i 1 7 I pfy- (fa I 1IBJ counties that cost a total of $44 million. As competition has increased in the field of school design Varney has gone more and more into the industrial design field. In the past seven years he has done, among other industrial buildings, seven different projects for Motorola, three for Sperry Rand, two for General Electric, two for Goodyear, and one for Hughes Aircraft. With regard to increased competition, Varney points out that when he started designing schools in 1916 there was about a half column of architects listed in the yellow pages of the phone directory.

Now there are over fou: complete columns. -1 SUPPOSE our third big category is country clubs," Varney i-aid with a smile. "After all we've done the Paradise Valley Country Club, the Moon Valley Country Club and the new building at the Phoenix Country Club." The last residence Varney did was for John Jacobs, chairman of the board of Arizona Public Service, in 19,. "It was an expensive house and still we lost money on it," Varney said. "I found out an architect can't afford to design homes unless he does practically all the work himself.

The cost of individual work and design is too high to permit making profit." Varney pointed out that his office wasn't large when compared to some of the country's biggest. "I have 25 men against 400 for the really big ones," he said. "But even we are past the stage when we can do a small job economically. For us a job must be $100,000 or better." It was at this point that Varney said it was sad that so few residences were now being done by architects and remarked that "It's a sad thing that so many residences no longer are being designed by architects lie-cause it really shuns," Ed Var-ney said the other da. "Everybody in the profession is concerned about it VARNEY IS one of this area's top architects with a designing record that dates back to 1937.

1 talked at length with Varnoy tbout his history, his thoughts and his ideas of the future in his offices at 221 E. Camelbatk. The 47-ycar-old architect was educated in California, attending the University cf California and the University of Southern California. His father, who vvas a civil engineer, encouraged Varney to take up architecture and so, early in 1937, he arrived in Phoenix and went to work for Orville Bell, an architect vho has since departed this area. In 19-11 Varney was offered a junior partnership with Charles Gilmore and Harold Eckman.

They then had offices in the Security Building which they shared with a group of lawyers, among them being Ross Jones and Laurens Henderson, both now prominent in judicial circles. THE ARCHITECTS then moved to the Luhrs Tower, where they stayed until Gilmore died. In 1950 Varney moved to his present location at 221 E. Camelback, buying his lot for $1200. The other day he bought one next door for $80,000.

Until recently 75 per cent of Varney's work has been schools. That is, in the period since the end of World War II. During the war years, of course, there was almost no building of any kind except military construction so architects lived on that type of work. But with the end of the war, school construction began to boom. Between 1946 and 1962 Varney handled 234 school projects in 12 different Arizona CLEARWATER HILLS Sheltered by higner elevations to the south and west, this residence at 7336 Red Ledge Drive in the Clearwater Hills development faces east and overlooks a large portion of Paradise Valley.

It was custom designed and built by Young Construction Co. and has been sold to Mr. and Mrs. R. R.

Jackman, Richland, Kan. It has two bedrooms and three baths the third was put in with expectation that an addition to the home ill be made later. Balcony at the left is off master bedroom. "Many homes are just not attractive" Republic Photo he said, "is turned out by engineers; electrical, mechanical, to teams to design buildings." Varney also is against the idea of planned communities. "Look at some of those that have been done," he suggested.

"Take, for instance, Stuyvesant Town in New York. They become sterile. Of course part of this is because they are done under federal rules. Private capital is ruled out and they are done under socialistic-type planning." By integrated planning Varney says he means designing buildings to fit in with the other buildings of the area, not thinking of just the single unit. "And architects must take the lead in making people aware of their environment and making them want a better environment," Varney declared.

He said he was speaking of such things as the proposed power line through Paradise Valley and the abolition of telephone poles in subdivisions. "Architects should back action to clean up the messes that already have been made," he said, "and help stop the community from making more." Varney is a great believer in landscaping, in creation of streets with planting, vistas, fountains and so on, "INSTEAD," he said, "today Plan Before Yon Buy ED VARNEY now being built are just not attractive and well designed." His criticism, he said, did not include the mechanical setup of the houses. He said that through the consumer magazines the mechanics of home designing were pretty well worked out. "The average house today is very efficient and well planned from the standpoint of the way it works." Varney said. "My wife thinks I'm the worst in the world at mechanical planning because I always put switches where pictures should hang." How do you get an architect to design a house if it's uneconomical? "I'm somewhat at a loss," Varney said.

"I try to send people to a young fellow or a young firm that is just getting started." What's the function of an arch itect today? "Up to now architects have been mainly concerned with the design of individual buildings. Now we must be concerned with a broader aspect. We must be concerned with integrating groups of buildings and even communities." ARC1IITFXTURE, Varney says, has ceased to be design jobs turned out primarily by one man. "Better than half the work," neighborhood in town Republic Photo VAN BUREN AND 24TH STREET The South Pacific emphasis which appears in quite a few of the modern motels in Phoenix, appears to have reached its apex in the Kon Tiki Hotel, just opened at Van Buren and 24th Street. It was designed hj Ralph Haver and Associates, architects, and features a three-story section in the rear, right, with elevator service.

Erected by R. L. Bran-aman, it cost is owned by Wayne Romney and Charles Alexander. the architectural profession was worried. "I DON'T like to criticise," he said, "but many of the houses Do you entertain a little or a lot, formally or informally, buffet style, in the living, family or dining room.

What rooms need the most storage space? After you have done a little shopping to get an idea of the cost of various types of furniture, establish a budget. Within this framework, you can decide where to invest the most. Give first preference to the working pieces. The others can be bought gradually. Just don't you are in love with it, unless it will fit into the over-all plan and budget.

the nicest a few- select hints available BRAND NEW FURNISHED NEW! NEW! MODELS rooms we live almost entirely for the auto, completely forgetting the pedestrian and worrying about little except whether we have enough parking and does the traffic flow easily." Vamey also believes there is a movement back to the center of town. He doesn't believe in federal urban renewal but in jobs done by private capital. He believes the center of the city should be an area of governmental, business and legal activity with much of the shopping area outside except that required to service downtown workers. And he believes the center of the city should be ringed with apartments for people with medium incomes who work in town. Finally, he believes that in the future ways to mass produce buildings will be found, particularly school buildings.

And, increasingly, Varney said, the architect's prime function will be to work areas into homogeneous groups that will result in a happy environment in which the people of a community can live. 32nd EXPOSED Family Room 2 Baths A Paradise Throughout" on the beautiful Villa Monterey golf course Before you buy, plan for family comfort, whether you are planning a roomful of furniture or just one accent piece. Ask yourself a few leading questions and perhaps hold a family confab. Just how and where do you want to use the furniture? Is conversation and reading just as important as TV? Is the dining table just for eating? Is It to be used also as a place for studying, cutting dress pat-go out and buy a table because terns, games? and just L. I Block South of Priced from Shea Blvd.

This is the house the tvhole family loves. It speaks quir-lly of success. has a feeling of comfort, reflects charm and IKTsonal pleasure. There, is a convenience of livmt; electrically, of case in fairway Jiving at a Twin-Lake golf course-. There is pride in a home custom-built for you.

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