The renowned Arizona architect ?smoked, drank, cursed, and built houses.? Judith Chafee did not suffer fools. When discussing the modern desert homes she designed for her hometown of Tucson, streamlined and uniquely suited as refuges from the harsh terrain, Chafee didn?t mince words: ?We like to say they have balls.?
In short, Chafee was a badass, known for beautiful designs and blunt language. Graduating from Yale in the ?60s as the only woman in her class, she went on to work in the studios of legends like Eero Saarinen, Paul Rudolph, and Edward Larrabee Barnes. The first home she ever designed by herself, the Ruth Merrill Residence in Guilford, Connecticut, landed on the cover of Architectural Record magazine.

But she turned away from the architectural world on the East Coast and found inspiration in her home in the high desert, a place she called a ?region of the mindful heart.? It was there she found her true self?as her many friends recall in a documentary about her life, ?she smoked, drank, cursed, and she built houses.? While Chafee wasn?t offered any large-scale public commissions?and saw one of her designs, the Blackwell House, demolished during her lifetime?she didn?t let the setbacks stop her from creating some of the Southwest?s most respected modern homes. She simply did what she knew. "My perception of what should be built in the desert stems from having grown up in the desert,? Chafee once told a reporter for the Arizona Star.
Biography
Chaf...