Beautiful Virgin Islands

Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

An Architect Builds a Monumental Cor-Ten Steel Prefab for His Family in Arizona

An Architect Builds a Monumental Cor-Ten Steel Prefab for His Family in Arizona

This 5,000-square-foot home made from steel, concrete, and glass took less than five months to build-but it’ll last forever.

Architect David Hovey Jr. has been finessing his prefabrication system since graduate school. When it came to building his own home, which he shares with his wife Misty Hyman and their two-year-old daughter, prefab design was the obvious choice. The home occupies an acre of arid Arizona land in Paradise Valley, with serene views of the mountains to the west.



The perforated steel roof, made from Cor-Ten steel, offers much-needed shade for the house and courtyard.



Sun loungers by Italian brand Emu stand under the shade of the perforated steel roof.

The house is a rectangular pavilion, constructed with a system of standardized steel components and set on a concrete slab raised 18 inches above the ground. The corrosion-resistant Cor-Ten steel elements, which have a warm reddish hue, were manufactured in two nearby factories in Phoenix.



The study has a Nakashima table, MR chairs by Knoll and a Robert Rauschenberg print.

"The Arizona Courtyard House was our fifth project [using this system]. It was a great opportunity to continue to refine and develop it," explains the architect. The steel beams and roof panels are left exposed, and their perforations gently filter in light from the desert sun. "And the flat steel roof has a nice pitter patter to it when it rains," says Hovey.



A LC4 Chaise by Le Corbusier sits in the study, where wrestling mats cover the polished concrete floors.

Although the shell of the house is made of laminated glass, sunscreens have been added to provide additional privacy and shade. The grid beams define the ceiling and flow beyond the glass walls to the inner courtyard, interconnecting inside and out. The private interior courtyard, planted with drought-tolerant indigenous grass and shrubs, is where the family like to gather around a fire pit or on sun loungers.



The large pool-looking into the fitness area-is used by Misty to train her clients.

Linked to the house is a gym and an Olympic-sized swimming pool, where Misty, a former Olympic gold medalist, coaches her swimming clients. The edges of the interiors are softened by headboards by renowned woodworker Mira Nakashima and plenty of furniture in natural cherry, European oak, and walnut. The polished concrete floors, which proved a little too hard and slippery for their young daughter, have been covered by squishy red mats, typically used in wrestling.



The master bedroom features a Nakashima bed, bench, and coffee table with a Lauki bedside table.

Drapes in the four south-facing bedrooms, the kitchen, and the dining space add extra softness to the house. "There are several different spaces that have their own unique feel to them," says Hovey.



The kitchen features cabinetry by bulthaup and a walnut extendable bar.

The black walnut bar in the kitchen is a particular favorite. Comprised of four removable pieces that are held together by magnets, its length can be adjusted according to occasion-18 people can fit around it at most. "There’s a TV that comes down from the ceiling too," says Hovey. "It took a little bit of convincing my wife, but it ended up working out great."

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
Tens of Thousands of Young Chinese Get Up Every Morning and Go to Work Where They Do Nothing
×