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Different too is the blend of strict design standards with an effort to promote diversity of architecture. The development takes on a distinctly Southwestern theme through building materials (adobe, tile, heavy timber), architectural forms, and landscaping. This theme also characterizes bridges, signage, fences, and gatehouses.

The diversity comes through the residential building types, from custom-designed detached houses to attached villas, condominiums, and rentals. These are carefully dispersed within neighborhoods to reduce any impression of repetition. The eight represented homebuilders were selected for their design excellence and sensitivity to regional design characteristics.

Also different is the high-tech infrastructure which delivers high-speed Internet access to every resident. This receives consistently the highest ratings in homeowner satisfaction polls.

Curiously, in a region of perpetual sunshine, the developers have made no push toward exploitation of solar energy. Even though solar collectors for domestic hot water heating have been economically viable in much cloudier climates for years, only a handful of DC Ranch homeowners to date have opted for the technology, and that only to heat their swimming pools.

Nevertheless, the DC Ranch developers are proud of their attention to the natural environment. Their construction techniques and landscape material choices show the greatest respect to the fragile desert ecosystems.

A Bridge Over Desert Plants

For example, the Thompson Peak Parkway Bridge was recently completed as an entryway to the next phase of development. The rustic 398-foot- (121-meter-) long structure, built in part from locally collected stone, spans the Reatte Pass Wash.

The concrete piers were sandblasted to create a rough, weathered texture, and native trees and saguaros run along the wash, helping the structure blend with the desert. It not only provides road access during flash floods, but it separates road traffic from the delicate desert floor.

During bridge construction, says Terry DeQuina, director of development for DC Ranch, "we made major-league attempts at minimizing disturbance to the ecosystems below. We want to make sure that our children do not have to go to a preserve to witness the joy of the unique and fragile Sonoran desert."

For one thing, the developers pay close attention to how plant materials are associated with each other and where they occur. "So many plants in the desert are dependent on one another to thrive," says DeQuina.

During construction, they took special care to temporarily relocate plant life for its own protection. They made note, for example, of which side of the saguaro originally faced south. If they didn't replace the cacti in the same orientation, they would suffer fatal sunburn.

They also track the predominant wind direction so that when they reassemble the desert after construction, they place the natural mulch material around plants and trees as if the wind had blown it there. DeQuina adds: "The top surface of the desert contains many of the nutrients the plants need for survival, and we therefore have preserved it as well."

Laura Bowden, owner of Bowden Design Group, explains that choices of planting materials at DC Ranch required a detailed understanding of the desert landscape.

"There were nine naturally occurring vegetation associations on the property before development," she says. "The variations in elevation, soil, and topographic conditions over the site offered a unique opportunity to establish a landscape philosophy and approach."

The different plant communities, including chaparral, grassland, lower and upper desert, riparian, and desert wash, were preserved or recreated and overlaid across the site to respond to the natural environmental conditions.

The landscape architects then developed plant palettes to support each of those ecological niches. Each palette includes both native plants and species from other desert regions around the world. The broader spectrum of plants is introduced in the more urban areas of the development.

"Our goal," says Bowden, "was to create a community that celebrates the natural Sonoran desert environment through appropriate arid-region plant species. The added challenge was to also create variety and interest in the manmade landscape that meets the needs of the proposed land use."

B.J. Novitski is managing editor of ArchitectureWeek.

The rustic Thompson Peak Parkway Bridge forms an entryway to DC Ranch, near Scottsdale, Arizona, passing over the Reatte Pass Wash. Photo: DC Ranch The master plan for DC Ranch leaves more than half the property as a wild desert preserve. Image: DC Ranch Kitchell Custom Homes is one of the eight custom homebuilders invited to contribute to DC Ranch. Image: DC Ranch Columbia Communities is a guard-gated country-club neighborhood of attached villas. Image: DC Ranch High Desert Village consists of 129 rental apartments designed around shared courtyards. Photo: DC Ranch Attached villas by the builder Camelot Homes. Image: DC Ranch An upscale kitchen designed by Wall St. West Custom Homes. Photo: DC Ranch   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.