A multifaceted career, and Haver Hoods, brought midcentury modern to Phoenix Through his incredibly prolific practice, Ralph Haver may have been responsible for introducing everyday Phoenix to the bold profiles and optimistic look of modernist design. Though many architects get the opportunity to put their mark on their hometown, Haver is a legend in Arizona architectural circles for his residential work alone, which covered entire swaths of the city and suburbia with midcentury modern verve.
His firm designed more than 20,000 dwellings, including entire neighborhoods of low-sloping tract homes that are still known as Haver Hoods. But he also put his touch on schools, churches, inns, and civic buildings. His work wasn?t necessarily grandiose or headline-grabbing, but it was impactful, shaping a particularly modern Arizona aesthetic.
Haver?s desire to create bold, modern, and, above all, attainable and affordable homes for Phoenix families may have stemmed from his own family-oriented outlook on life. Inspired by his father, a mason, to pursue architecture, he later worked with his brother, a building contractor, as he built out his vision of contemporary design in the Valley of the Sun.

HKR via the Modern Phoenix Archive
Kon Tiki Motor Hotel

Biography
Born in Pasadena, California, and educated at the nearby University of Southern California, Ralph Haver arrived in Arizona in 1946, after serving in the Army Corp of Engineers during World...