“Arizona is at the leading edge of states making mobile IDs available to the public, and we are pleased to work with Apple and give Arizonans the choice, convenience, and security of adding their driver’s license to their Apple Wallet,” says Eric Jorgensen, director of the Arizona Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Division. “Beyond being innovative and exciting, a digital version of a driver’s license offers increased security and privacy for our residents, making it something everyone should consider.”

“We’re thrilled to bring the first driver’s license and state ID in Wallet to Arizona today, and provide Arizonans with an easy, secure, and private way to present their ID when traveling, through just a tap of their iPhone or Apple Watch,” adds Jennifer Bailey, Apple’s Vice President of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet in a statement. “We look forward to working with many more states and the TSA to bring IDs in Wallet to users across the US.”

To utilize this secure and time-saving feature, Apple users simply open the Wallet on their iPhone and tap the + button at the top of the screen. Then they select “Driver’s License or State ID” and follow the easy on-screen instructions. This involves uploading the front and back of the driver’s license or state ID card, which is then sent securely to the state. The user will also be prompted to take a selfie so the state can verify that the person adding the card is the same one on the ID. One extra step for fraud prevention requires users to make a series of facial and head movements for authentication. It is the responsibility of the authorizing state to verify and approve all digital IDs in Wallet.

Going digital with Apple Wallet provides greater privacy and protection, as it uses biometric verification using Face ID or Touch ID, ensuring that only the person who added the card to the device can view or present it. When going through airport security, these users can digitally send their ID information through encrypted communication to the identity reader, without having to unlock or even show their device.

The Travel Security Administration applauds the beginning of the digital ID shift. “This new and innovative mobile driver’s license and state ID initiative with Apple and states around the country will enable a more seamless airport security screening experience for travelers,” says David Pekoske, TSA Administrator. “This initiative marks a major milestone by TSA to provide an additional level of convenience for the traveler by enabling more opportunities for touchless TSA airport security screening.”

As announced last September, other states in the first roll-out phase will be Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma, and Utah. Colorado, Hawaii, Mississippi, Ohio, and the territory of Puerto Rico are also set to approve this feature in the near future, as well.

The driver’s license and state ID in Wallet feature is currently available for iPhone 8 models or later running iOS 15.4, and Apple Watch Series 4 or later running watchOS 8.4 or newer. Not all airports allow digital IDs at their TSA checkpoints. Apple advises travelers to confirm program availability before flying.

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It’s a loss for Wright’s legacy, for the school’s 30 current students, and for the world of architecture, particularly considering how interesting Taliesin student creations tend to be. Incorporating key elements like sustainability, natural materials, and harmony with the surrounding landscape, these temporary structures — particularly those in the Sonoran Desert at Taliesin West — are anything but typical. Here are a few of the students’ standout structures.

Simon de Aguero created this unusual wide-open desert home almost entirely from found scraps and local materials, with a core structure built out of rammed earth. The core design is an abstracted tribute to the way boulders jut out of the earth in the desert, with a stretched vinyl shade hovering like clouds overhead. And since the climate in question precludes the need for full walls, windows, or doors, the design really enables a refreshing level of interaction with nature. The ability to build a fire beneath the bed platform is a particularly cool feature.

“Little Shelters” is a collaborative student project built with a $2,000 budget using as many on-site resources as possible. Daniel Chapman, Mark-Thomas Cordova, Jaime Inostroza, Dylan Kessler, Pablo Moncayo, Natasha Vemulkonda, and Pierre Verbruggen spent 12 weeks constructing two shared shelters and a gathering space that could be used and maintained by future students, as well.

Student Jaime Inostroza also created the Atalaya Shelter, which is rooted in a desire to deeply understand the landscape itself. The design sprang into his mind when he first encountered the perfect site for it. He explains: “It was like secret place hidden in the wash, covered by the shadows of the trees and looking out at the wash and the desert. The entrance to the site is shaped by the Alameda of Palos Verdes. This creates the aperture to the site, and at sunset the site becomes a distiller of the light. The mountains are now with purple in color. The landscape is an opera of colors.”

“From that observation of the site, my principle was to develop an entrance procession that would let me dwell within the horizon of the Alameda of the Palos Verdes. Because of that the name of the project is ‘Atalaya,’ which means crow’s nest. It is the highest point from the boat where you can see the horizon across the ocean. I used the existing concrete pad like a plinth that holds this structure and continued the procession with a combination wall-stair. The shelter will be covered with fabric panels that will amplify the colors of the desert.”

Taliesin West also inspired architects and designers who weren’t students there, including Kate Brown, who created the sculptural Etazin Chair specifically for the school. Made of steel, the circular eight-foot lounger features an inner ring that can spin to face any direction the user desires. It’s on permanent installation at the school, placed among the student shelters in the desert.

You can read more about what it was like for students to live and work at Taliesin West, in their own words, at ArchDaily.

The post Standout Projects from Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright’s School of Architecture first appeared on Dornob.

Gamers familiar with the original releases of Donkey Kong, Asteroids, Pac-Man, and Centipede will revel in the atmosphere of the new hotels, the first of which is set to break ground in Phoenix, Arizona this year. Its construction is expected to take 18 to 24 months, with the other seven hotels in Las Vegas, Denver, Chicago, Austin, Seattle, San Francisco, and San Jose already in the planning stages.

While artists’ renderings of the first hotel make extensive use of classic lines and recognizable Atari branding, it’s important to note that each Atari hotel will have a different aesthetic, though all of them will generally be centered around a “nostalgic and retro meets modern” appeal. In-room consoles — as well as immersive interactions for every type of gamer — will be standard, with the combined vintage draw and new-age virtual and augmented reality systems yielding a wide variety of gaming options. A few locations will also host esports events in modern venues where guests can participate without even leaving the building.

“We’ll build a space that will be much more than just a place to stay,” Atari CEO Fred Chesnais said in a recent statement. “Atari is an iconic global brand that resonates with people of all ages, countries, cultures, and ethnic backgrounds, and we cannot wait for our fans and their families to enjoy this new hotel concept.”

Based on the unwavering growth within the gaming industry, destination hotels seem to be a good fit for both the nostalgic type and the newest esports enthusiast. According to the Atari press release, “more than 2.5 billion gamers across the world spent more than $152.1 billion (US) on games in 2019 alone; an increase of +9.6 percent year on year.”

This newest addition to the growing Atari dynasty comes as a result of a partnership with Shelly Murphy, founder of the innovative strategy group at GSD Group, and Napoleon Smith III, himself known for his work as a producer for the most recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot. Together, the two brainstormed the idea for the hotels, devising a plan that Atari readily accepted. Today, a local Arizona real estate developer called True North Studio is also working alongside GSD to develop the first hotel.

Atari began in 1972 and has been a central figure in the video game universe ever since, with out-of-this-world classics like Missile Command, Moon Patrol, Doom, and Star Wars, along with the more down-to-earth selections like Q-Bert, Test Drive Unlimited, and Roller Coaster Tycoon. In all, Atari owns or manages more than 200 games and franchises.

Fans who are eager to get in on the action can already sign up to be an Atari Hotel Member, a perk that will provide exclusive offers on stays, events, apparel, and more. Just see AtariHotels.com for more information.

The post Atari-Themed Hotels Set to Up the Video Game Experience first appeared on Dornob.

Formal entryways may have been très chic just a few decades ago, but these days, trends lean in the direction of more casual open spaces that interplay with the outdoors. For Red Rocks, architects Claire and Calvin Costello found a clever way to expand shaded outdoor spaces by as much as 2,000 square feet (186 square meters) while opening up the heart of the home, all without expanding beyond the original footprint to avoid disturbing the natural landscape.

“It was clear very quickly to [us] that although the Spanish Colonial Revival style can be beautiful in the right situations, the style of this home was repressing the potential of the site, or more simply put, the house was style over substance,” they explain.

The Spanish Colonial facade, along with its view-blocking columns, was removed altogether. The architects then stripped the home down to its core: a simple, two-story stucco box. They then stacked a larger volume right on top of it, stretching a Juliet-style balcony over the mountainside, itself adjacent to a brand new master suite. This addition is wrapped in vein-cut Veracruz limestone to mimic the natural calcite veins that often appear in the red rocks of the surrounding landscape.

The interiors got a whole new layout that placed more importance on the connection between the living spaces and views of the city in the distance. Now measuring 4,490 square feet (417 square meters) inside, the home boasts plenty of glazing to open lines of sight in all directions. In the common spaces, these windows look out onto cacti, sage, marigold, and palm trees, while the more intimate spaces gaze directly onto the rocky crags of Camelback Mountain for plenty of natural light and privacy.

Concrete flooring, walnut wood, white walls, quartz counters, marble tiling, and a constrained color palette modernize the interiors and complement the color of the rocks, but it’s the outdoor spaces that really make the new version of the Red Rocks residence shine. The architects created a covered patio on the first level, which gazes down at the shimmering turquoise pool in the stepped backyard, along with a fire pit and a hot tub.

On the second floor, sliding glass doors open the bedrooms to a long elevated terrace that’s shielded from the penetrating Arizona sun by an overhanging roof and the addition of perforated folding metal screens. The residents can close the screens by day to keep the rooms cool and open them at dusk to watch the sun set.

The change may be striking, but the home is now more beautiful than ever before, and more importantly, it’s actually serving the needs of the people who live there.

The post Red Rocks Residence in Arizona Undergoes Modern Transformation first appeared on Dornob.

The project, which Mt. Lemmon Holdings (an investment firm associated with Gates) has already poured $80 million into, will take advantage of a new highway in the area, the Interstate 11. The highway is slated to run through the purchased property, connecting the Arizona capital to Las Vegas and automatically turning Belmont into a hotbed for construction. Located near the suburban development of Buckeye, this land of subdivisions and agricultural plots has seen its population grow tenfold since the 1990s, when the first plans for the expanding the local settlements were unveiled.

Rumors have been circulating about Gates’ involvement with the project, with many people attaching the billionaire directly to Belmont’s development. Others have speculated that it’s merely being done by a subsidiary company of his — which deals with lower-profile projects such as agricultural equipment manufacturing and waste refuse processing — as a way to increase and diversify its own portfolio and that it has little to do with Gates himself, despite multiple sources having tied him personally to the project.

While much has been made of the development, including a statement by Belmont Partners that reads: “comparable in square miles and projected population to Tempe, Arizona, Belmont will transform a raw, blank slate into a purpose-built edge city built around a flexible infrastructure model. Belmont will create a forward-thinking community with a communication and infrastructure spine that embraces cutting-edge technology, designed around high-speed digital networks, data centers, new manufacturing technologies and distribution models, autonomous vehicles, and autonomous logistics hubs,” there’s not a whole lot of evidence to suggest that the city will offer anything revolutionary in the way of a futuristic smart utopia. Technological buzzwords like “urban community,” “driverless cars,” “high-speed internet,” and “connected infrastructure” have all surrounded the project, but many of these elements are just facets of contemporary life in the 21st century.

Details of the development have yet to be revealed, but so far it’s been reported that office and retail spaces will be created on approximately 3,800 acres of the land. Another 500 acres will be dedicated to educational facilities like public schools, which will aim to serve the estimated population of 182,000 people living in Belmont’s 80,000 residences. An official timeline for the project has not yet been announced, but be sure to check back with us for any updates.

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The post Metal Mesh-Clad Desert Home is a Castle Fit for the Sun King first appeared on Dornob.

Like the majestic Saguaro cacti that surround the site, this Scottsdale, Arizona courtyard house rises from the earth and meets the sky gracefully and with perfect style. It was designed by Wendell Burnette Architects to perfectly tuck into a clearing amongst granite outcroppings in the lovely desert setting.

The Desert Courtyard House is so named thanks to its most impressive feature: a glass-wrapped courtyard that offers the resident a serene space. The protected space provides privacy, tranquility, fresh air, and a fire pit that lights up even the darkest of desert nights.

Tranquil Monolithic Design

The home really did evolve and grow from the site on which it stands; it was built using the rammed-earth method using soil excavated directly from the building site. The home is meant to be viewed as one continuous line: a serene monument in the middle of this truly incredible setting.

A primordial connection with the desert landscape means that this unique home looks like it belongs here and only here. At one entrance, a Zen garden-like expanse of clean, light sand welcomes residents and visitors to this singularly spectacular home.

Luxury Desert Style

Inside, a clean and modern interior with recessed track lighting and rounded lines softens and provides a contrast to the earth, concrete, and sand exterior.

Finally, a “hat” on the building protects it from wind, sun, rain, and erosion. It also serves to help the home melt into its surroundings almost seamlessly. Land and sky are united in a perfect marriage of materials and location, with the home paying due tribute to the extraordinary landscape it occupies.

Learn more about the 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.”

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Mummy Mountain in Paradise Valley, Arizona may one day have an architectural halo around its peak. Architect Nick Tsontakis has revealed his plans for a stunning manta ray-shaped home that he has dubbed Mummy House.

Per Arizona’s building codes, the house is not allowed to surpass the peak of the mountain. Tsontakis gets around this in his design by wrapping the home around the mountain.

The “head” of the manta ray design makes up the home’s entrance. An access road leads up to the front door, inside of which is a ten car garage. A spectacular swimming pool hugs one side of the home and the mountain provides the residents with privacy.

Inside the home, the floor plan includes a 2,000 square foot entertainment room carved into the side of the mountain. Access to the two offshoot wings of the home is partially via tunnels cut into the mountain to minimize the home’s height.

Eight bedrooms and eight bathrooms occupy various parts of the home. Floor to ceiling glass walls bring in abundant natural light and open to allow the fresh mountain air to swirl through the home’s interior.

The home’s wrap-around decks provide the perfect place from which to gaze down on the city below. In a spectacular setting like Mummy Mountain, it would take a truly magnificent home to both blend in and stand out from the mountain – and this nature-based design absolutely fits the bill.

“Joffe asked Scottsdale-based architect Nick Tsontakis to come up with a home concept that would illustrate the full potential of the property on a ridge of Mummy Mountain. What he conjured up is a 16,370-square-foot mansion that could pass for Bruce Wayne’s Western estate. Click the image above to see a slide show of Tsontakis’ renderings.”

“The two wings of the house would encircle the mountain ridge and offer panoramic views from the north and south faces. Underneath the ridge, a cavernous entertainment hall would connect the wings. The 2,000-square-foot hall, which would stand at one and a half stories, would be incorporated into the mountain to form ‘exposed rock walls‘ throughout the house.”

Read more about this unusual Arizona home at BizJournals.

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The post Rammed-Earth Retreat: Modern Home Made of Local Soil first appeared on Dornob.

That idea of using mud straight from the Earth – rammed into brick shapes or layered in rows – is one of the oldest building techniques known to humanity. The recent resurgence of interest in red-and-brown ‘rammed-earth‘ building designs may be a ‘green’ trend … but it is also a brilliant (and beautiful) way to save money by factoring local materials, and cheap construction techniques older than written history into even simple home plans.

Whether formed first into clay bricks or layered within forms (often used for on-site concrete construction), the naturally variegated textures and local earthen colors in rammed earth buildings become a core part of the aesthetic when a structure is finished.

In areas like Arizona where dirt and mud are far more plentiful than wood or stone, people turn to this classic building method out of necessity but also find that the designs can blend in remarkable ways with their surrounding environments. The Kendle Designs residence pictured here, for example, shows how creative use of sweeping planes and thin horizontals can tie architecture to the landscape in evocative ways.

Inside of this home, the thick walls provide natural insulation and thermal energy storage – absorbing heat from the sun during the day to be released slowly at night in the summer and keeping the inside warmth from leaving in cold winter months.

More from the architects

“A tremendous site paired with a contemporary minimalist vision with high regard for the native desert inspire the design of this home. Oriented on an axis to maximize the lake views and careful screening of neighbors concentrates one’s full attention to the natural environment.”

“Landscaped courtyards provide further privacy to this ‘see-through’ home while encouraging outdoor living. A soaring copper roof floats above the thick rammed-earth walls to draw in additional light and catch glimpses of the sky.”

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