Calm, refined, reserved, educated, knowledgeable and
super nice are just a few of the qualities of Juan Sandoval
which is why Juan is one of those truly amazing people
that I really look up to with humbled admiration. Thus
the photo (above), that I snapped as Juan stands on the top
landing of the 50,000 square foot home he designed and is now
building.
Passionate
Juan is passionate about his work and
it shows - everywhere! Juan is far from what you might
consider your "typical" custom home builder. His clientele tend
to be sophisticated and experienced having built one or more
custom homes in their past. They are looking for a home like no
other and that's why they seek him out. To underscore this there are
many custom home builders but very few building 50,000 square
foot homes! Juan is more than a cut above and you will soon
discover why.
Not Just Another Custom Home Builder
It's impossible to understand the scope of
Juan's work without an on site tour but I will do my best by
sharing his unique back ground and a few photos of his grandest
custom home to date.
Juan is single (once you are on the sites of
the five custom homes he is currently building simultaneously in the
Town of Paradise Valley you will understand why) and third generation
Arizonan. Schooled at Arizona State University's (ASU) School of
Architecture and Design Sciences Juan built his first custom home at
the age of 17. To date he has designed more than 50 homes
but he has not always designed homes.
After graduating from ASU Juan spent
his next three years building custom homes when he was
offered a unique position as Design Consultant for a publishing
company. The publishing company owned it's own art studio
and art gallery that both published others art work as well as it's own
original works. Juan spent ten years as their liaison
between the publisher and the builders. He was the Design
Consultant for art collections, commercial buildings, and the
hospitality industry.
As Design Consultant Juan designed the Motif
for about 80% of the public space of Donald Trumps "Taj Mahal"
including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and art objects (the
collection as it's referred to in the trade) as well as the Players
Suites, Penthouses, and Restaurants. He also worked with Caesars'
Palace and Luxor on their designs and has even designed two art
galleries!
After ten years of commercial work
Juan returned to his love of the custom "carriage trade"
& spec home building.
Juan creates homes from the inside out.
He designs and develops structure with the lifestyle of his client
in mind, rather than have his clients adapt lifestyle to
structure.
Juan's hobbies will give you a clue to his
home designs and his passion which are one in the same. Juan
spends his spare time (does he sleep?) enjoying
archeology, anthropology, studying classical landscaping and
music. He applies his
love of historical adaptation and restoration (old world charm) to his
homes.
Juan being Juan.
To truly understand and appreciate Juan one must
ultimately experience what Juan does best and that's design and create
magnificient homes like none other. Juan's latest example of his
stunning skill and talents is a massive (not just square foot
but in scale) 50,000 square foot home that he has been building for the past
four years. Following are a few photos and narratives
describing the home.
Baron stands beside the massive front doors of the
50,000 square foot home Juan is building. Note the door within a
door for normal sized people. There are also speak easy
doors with iron bars built in that can be opened to interrogate guests for the
"password" before being allowed to enter.
Twenty three cement trucks drove through
these doors and into the the court yard to pour the massive
resort
size 60'x60' swimming pool.
There is also a cozy 10'x12' hot tub
just large enough for 25 of your closest friends!
Let's Soiree!!!
Below is
the covered (roof has not been added yet) court yard walk way that
separates the pool/hot tub area from the patio garden area. A
massive hand carved (from a single block of volcanic rock.
 Juan has a loyal
vertical studio team of skilled old world craftsman who follow him
from project to project. At it's high point his 50,000 square
foot home employed 75 of these skilled craftsman at any given
time. They included stone masons, cabinet makers, furniture
makers, iron forgers, and finishers. Much of the homes structure
is hand crafted on site and all I can say is you have to see it to
understand the difference between store
bought
View of 1/2 of the pool from atop the sun/party
deck gives you an idea of the scale of this home and the fireplace to
the left is large enough for an adult to stand up in! The pool/hot tub
area is only half of the court yard. The other half is
composed of gardens
Part of the 1,500 sq. ft. living room. At the
other end is a beautiful floor-to-ceiling hand crafted bar - note that
the beautiful marble is covered with construction dust. (The beautiful
girl in the photo does not come with the home!)
The
Red Dining room seats 26 guests and will sport a seven ton
chandelier. Walls are rubbed Venetian Bees Wax.
Unfortunately I do not have a photo of the floor which has the most
stunning marble you have ever seen. A real
master piece!
The beauiful
lush patio gardens (still being planted) benefit from their
own micro-climate. Included in the landscaping are 3,000
rose bushes and several varieties of banana trees. The home
even has it's own orchard that is fed at times from natural rainwater
Of interesting note is the winding stair case to the
sun/party deck that was orginally part of the clock
tower that fell during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
I've shared with you just a few photos from
the home that is still under construction. The home also includes
a 4,000 bottle under ground wine cellar complete with elevator access
and winding staircase access from the kitchen. Speaking
of kitchen, have you ever been in the kitchen of a home
this large? As you can imagine it's unique as well. We
all know that most parties end up in the kitchen so Juan designed this
kitchen to host a party! I've also left out the various
magnificent marbled guest bedrooms, underground theatre and shooting
range, nine car garage at one end of the home and two car garage at the
other and the magnificent master bedroom and it's facilities.
Juan can go on for hours about the homes operating systems
including the HVAC, plumbing - including water retention and
irrigation, electrical - including passive solar and other energy
conservation systems, lighting, sound systems, and security
systems. Speaking of security systems. The first line of
defense is to not let anyone know where your home is
located! So sorry but I am not at liberty to divulge location
other than to say it is in the Town of Paradise Valley. On top of
that I would add that the home is impregnable and even if
someone managed to get through the various security systems they
would be met by the owners dogs - friendly to guests but not
to strangers and you guessed it, the dogs are on scale with
the home - BIG!
It's been a pleasure getting to know Juan and
now it's your chance to get to know him as well as he joins us
at this weeks Soiree as my Special Guest!
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To contact Juan:
Office Studio:
480-948-4525
Cell Phone:
480-694-6672
Office
Studio Fax: 480-948-5007
It is with
great pleasure that Juan Sandoval, Custom Home Designer, will be
my Special Guest!
Please plan on
joining us to socialize and meet new friends.
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