Arizona Architecture from the Archives

Architect Blaine Drake (1911-1993) was one of Frank Lloyd Wright's original apprentices at Taliesin, Wisconsin, in 1933, and went on to establish his Arizona practice in 1945. He designed approximately two hundred projects during his long career, nearly two-thirds of which were built. Most of his work was in the Phoenix area and focused on residential architecture, though he also designed office, medical, and apartment buildings and churches. One of the few Wright apprentices to pursue a successful independent practice, Drake was an advocate of energy-efficient design in the desert. He received national and international recognition for his work. Blaine Drake retired from architectural practice in 1985.

Collection holdings include a wide variety of drawings as well as job files containing materials such as correspondence, specifications, financial and legal documents, miscellaneous printed materials, and photographs. Oversize materials are generally organized by project sets (arranged sequentially by project number) that may include perspectives, floor plans, site plans, elevations, sections, and detail drawings. Original drawings on tracing paper and presentation drawings comprise the bulk of oversize materials.

Click here to view collection finding aid (pdf)

Drake, Blaine. Blaine Drake: 40 years of architecture in Arizona. Tempe, AZ: Arizona State University, 1992. Print.
NA 737.D69 A4x 1992, Design and the Arts Library Stacks  and Special Collections

Ford, Katherine Morrow. The American house today; 85 notable examples selected and evaluated by Katherine Morrow Ford and Thomas H. Creighton.  New York: Reinhold Pub. Corp., 1951. Print. NA 7127 .F58, Design and the Arts Library Stacks and Special Collections

Graf, Jean.  Practical houses for contemporary living. New York: F.W. Dodge Corp., 1953. Print. NA 7127 .G65, Design and the Arts Library Stacks

Harold Housley
Assistant Archivist (Architecture, Arts and Design)

Harold.Housley@asu.edu 
(480) 965-6370