mention modern minimalism and most golfers know what you are getting at. The term describes lightweight models on the ground that move with the terrain rather than riding on it. It has been the dominant aesthetic in golf course architecture for decades. But it is also evident in the design of the club.
Consider Desert Mountain Club.
north Scottsdale landmark, which awaits this week’s US Amateur Four-Ball Championshipit has seven clubs, one for each of its courses. But its sound structure—and the central weave in the club’s social fabric—is the Cochise-Geronimo Club: a 72,000-square-foot space that’s as subtle as it is sublime.
On a recent visit, GOLF.com got a guided tour from architect Bob Bacon, who set out to create something functional, durable and understated. According to him, the desert is “a visually fragile environment” where the trees reach about 20 meters. “If you’re not careful,” Bacon said, “the buildings can overwhelm it in an instant.” So he designed a structure that does not jump off the mountain. It grows out of it. The walls reach into the landscape, anchoring the building to the ground, passing through the ground rather than bouncing off it.
“It looks like it belongs there,” Bacon said.
The stonework deepens that sense of rootedness. Bacon described the materials as an homage to the Anasazi ruins in Chaco Canyon, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in New Mexico. This is a cultural reference as much as an aesthetic one, giving the building “an eternal anchor”.
“This is the Southwest,” Bacon said. “It has to be durable. It has to look like it’s been here forever.”
The features of the building are dual and fluid. The interior gives way seamlessly to the exterior, allowing for an interaction that Bacon said is only possible in the Southwest. Even the views are carefully managed: the clubhouse offers 360-degree views across the desert and peaks, but Bacon resisted the temptation of frameless panoramas, which he believes are almost numbing in their lack of nuance. Thus, he designed columns and rooflines to frame the views, reproportioning the sky and land to keep the emphasis on the horizon creating multiple intriguing views rather than a single, uninterrupted view.
He wasn’t following any particular architectural style, he said. The goal was something functional, beautiful and unobtrusive. Which means, both simple and complex.
Minimalist? Sounds about right. You can watch the entire club tour below.
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