One of the most striking aspects of this influence is its impact on the interior spaces of homes and buildings across the state. In this article, we’ll take a casual yet informative journey through time to explore how Spanish colonial design, known for its distinctive use of glass doors and windows, has left an indelible mark on the interiors of Arizona’s structures.

A Blend of History and Culture

To understand the influence of Spanish colonial design on Arizona’s interior spaces, it’s essential to delve into the historical and cultural context. Arizona was part of the vast region once known as New Spain, a Spanish colonial territory that stretched across much of the Americas for several centuries.

The Spanish colonizers brought their architectural traditions, merging European styles with indigenous influences. This fusion of cultures resulted in a unique architectural aesthetic that is now synonymous with the American Southwest. One hallmark of Spanish colonial design is glass doors and windows.

Letting in the Arizona Sunshine

The desert landscape of Arizona is defined by its abundant sunshine, and Spanish colonial design cleverly incorporates this natural resource into its interior spaces. The use of large glass doors and windows is a defining feature of this architectural style.

These elements serve a dual purpose: they allow abundant natural light to flood the rooms and provide breathtaking views of the surrounding landscape.

“bringing the outdoors in” is at the heart of Spanish colonial interior design. It seamlessly transitions between the interior and exterior spaces, connecting residents with the stunning desert vistas and temperate climate. The ample use of glass doors and windows encourages a sense of openness, airiness, and appreciation for Arizona’s scenic beauty.

Courtyards and Patios

One of Arizona’s most iconic elements of Spanish colonial design is the central courtyard or patio. These outdoor spaces are often enclosed by the structure or surrounded by thick adobe walls, ensuring privacy and providing a sheltered oasis from the desert heat. Glass doors. Windows are crucial in connecting these courtyards to the interior of homes and buildings.

Typically, homes designed in this style have rooms that open directly onto the central courtyard. These rooms feature large glass doors that can be flung open to blur the line between indoor and outdoor living. This design allows for easy access to the courtyard and invites the refreshing breezes and the scent of desert flora inside, creating a harmonious and comfortable living environment.

Incorporating Nature’s Palette

Spanish colonial design embraces the colors and textures of the natural world, and this philosophy extends to interior spaces. Earthy tones such as terracotta, rich browns, and warm yellows dominate the color palette, reflecting the hues of the surrounding desert landscape. This color scheme evokes a sense of warmth and coziness, counterbalancing the harsh desert environment outside.

Many Spanish colonial interiors feature handcrafted wooden furniture and rustic decor elements to enhance this connection to nature. Wooden beams and vigas (wooden ceiling beams) are often exposed to add depth and character to the space. These elements, along with the use of glass doors and windows, create an atmosphere that is inviting and grounded in the natural beauty of Arizona.

Modern Interpretations

While the influence of Spanish colonial design on Arizona’s interior spaces is undeniable, it has also evolved to meet the demands of contemporary living. Today, architects and interior designers often blend traditional elements with modern sensibilities, creating spaces that pay homage to the past while embracing the present.

For instance, modern homes in Arizona may incorporate energy-efficient glass doors and windows that help to manage the desert’s extreme temperatures. These innovations maintain the connection with the outdoors while providing comfort and sustainability.

Furthermore, Spanish colonial design principles have influenced various architectural styles across the state, including Southwestern, Mediterranean, and even modernist aesthetics. These diverse interpretations continue to shape the interior spaces of Arizona, offering homeowners a range of options to express their style while staying rooted in the region’s architectural heritage.

Conclusion

The influence of Spanish colonial design on Arizona’s interior spaces speaks to the lasting impact of architecture in reflecting culture, history, and environment. This style seamlessly connects the stunning desert landscapes with Arizona’s homes and buildings by embracing glass doors and windows, creating a unique atmosphere.

Dominius, a glass door company in Norway, understands the importance of blending indoor and outdoor living spaces. Their commitment to quality glass doors and windows aligns perfectly with the principles of Spanish colonial design, enhancing the beauty of Arizona’s architecture.

Looking ahead, it’s evident that this architectural style will continue to shape and inspire interior spaces throughout the state. It celebrates the American Southwest’s rich history and the region’s natural beauty with the support of companies like Dominius, dedicated to delivering exceptional glass solutions.

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Mesa is a suburb located about 32 km east of Phoenix, Arizona. Two airports, Phoenix Sky Harbour International Phoenix-Mesa Gateway, are not far from Mesa. Several local highways serve the area, such as US Route 60, which can connect Apache Junction and Phoenix. Also SR 87 and Bypass Loop 101, which skirts the western edge of the city as Price Highway, and Bypass Loop 202, which bypasses the city from the north and east. The main east-west thoroughfare in Mesa, Main Street, serves the downtown area.

The history of Mesa begins with the Hohokam culture, which existed between 300 and 1500. Peaceful Native American farmers transformed the desert into an oasis of green land by building an intricate network of canals over 200 km long (in use today). They would disappear from the area but leave a legacy of enriched soil that would sustain agriculture centuries later.

When the Spaniards crossed the Salt River intending to settle in southwestern Arizona, the Apache Indians met them quite unfriendly and drove them out, continuing to live in the region until the 18th century. During the Civil War the government seized parts of Arizona after widespread clashes between natives and European settlers.

The 85 brave Latter-day Saints from Utah and Idaho, discovering the irrigation canals left by the Hohokam culture, cleared them, settled on the fertile land and began to breed and multiply.

The mesa was founded in 1878 and registered in 1883. In Spanish “mesa” means “plateau”, which of course does not connect the name with the computer game Black Mesa. The first settlers built houses on the plateau above the surrounding area.

In 1891, veterinary surgeon Alexander John Chandler bought 80 acres of land south of Mesa in the Salt River Valley and used heavy machinery to clear and widen irrigation canals so they could be used more efficiently. By the turn of the century, Chandler had increased the area by a factor of 100 and was already sitting on 18,000 acres of land.

When restrictions were announced that each landowner could only irrigate 160 acres, Chandler enlisted the support of his ranch units and sold the plots. It was Chandler who introduced the first power plant, and in 1917, when the municipal government bought it, Arizona and Mesa became one of the first places to have such a utility. By 1940, Mesa was already a bustling and lively town.

By now there were 7,000 Tohono-O’odam Indians settled in Mesa. Hispanics, Chinese and Japanese have brought their cultures with them, built businesses and started farming the land. With a population of over 508,000 people, Mesa may be the 37th largest city in the USA.

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The area, now known as Sedona, was inhabited for hundreds of years by a group of Vipukepa from north-east Yavapai before their forced removal in 1875. The Yavapai called it Vipuk, the Middle Earth, where the first humans appeared. To the first Spanish travellers who crossed the high-mountain desert, it appeared as a barren wasteland, merely a natural obstacle to the Californian gold. Conceded by Mexico in the early nineteenth century, there were few white settlers until the end of that century. Then the Southwest became ‘charmland’, a resort and tourist attraction for wealthy coastal urban centres whose residents flocked here for respite, first to health resorts offering dry air to reduce consumption, then to hotels and golf courses offering year-round relaxation. sun and expanses of empty space.

The rocky deserts and parched plateaus of the Southwest have given rise to fantastic legends of humans and other creatures. Alien mythology has its roots in the Southwest; New Mexico is home to Roswell, from Nevada to Area 51, Arizona to the mysterious lights in the sky above Phoenix. Arizona is also rich in frontier mythology as the final battlefield of ‘cowboys and Indians’. It is still home to the largest indigenous reservation in the continental US; the forced relocations and marches of former occupiers are a recent historical memory. It has served as a cinematic backdrop for westerns, living as a frontier in imaginary Hollywood. Sedona was founded in the late nineteenth century after the forced removal of the Yavapai.

Sedona sits in a network of red-rock canyons and along the banks of Oak Creek, one of the few sources of fresh water in Northern Arizona. The contrast of bright sandstone against the open blue Arizona sky and growing green trees creates a breathtaking view, especially when approached from the surrounding barren desert landscape. Sedona is a sacred site of new age spirituality. Its centrality is evidenced by comparisons in literature to Mecca.

The notion that Sedona is a vortex of invisible but powerful spiritual energy is relatively recent, and can be traced back to the second half of the twentieth century in historical accounts. It became known for ‘vortices’, red rock formations that are said to have spirals of special energy flowing through them. Since the 1980s it has attracted people involved in new age spirituality who claim it is a sacred place. Locals claim that the vortices were known to Native Americans, who considered the whole area sacred. Ayres describes the emergence of new age events in Sedona as due to the support of a realtor named Mary Lou Keller, who in the 1960s had a building on the hillside where she allowed people to hold spiritual events for free. According to Keller himself, the vortexes were known to Native Americans and then Ruby Focus, a group now called Rainbow Ray Focus, which still has a presence in Sedona, came with channelling information about the vortexes and bought property next to the Airport Mesa vortex through Keller. in 1963. she says this originated, despite other claims.

Vortex guides usually credit Dick Sutphen and Page Bryant, a pair of psychics who claimed to have sensed vortices in the 1980s. Sutphen has made a career out of psychic seminars held on Sedona vortices, aimed at developing psychic abilities, and publishing books on vortices and their powers. According to Ayres, Sutphen and Bryant were only “spreading” the vortices along with Pete Saunders, another famous Sedona psychic. The claim that Native Americans knew about the vortices is part of a strategy of legitimisation. If the special energy is an inherent property of the earth, then it would have been known to previous inhabitants, who are considered more spiritual by New Age people.

Tourism has long replaced the three s’s in Arizona: cattle, copper and cotton. Sedona is a shining jewel in the industry, attracting 3,000,000 4,000,000 XNUMX-XNUMX XNUMX XNUMX visitors a year. New Age spirituality is an important part of this tourist attraction. At first, the Sedona City Council and Chamber of Commerce neglected the influx of spiritual seekers, for example, by banning camping within the city limits to drive wandering newcomers out of town. Now the Chamber of Commerce gives out maps of the location of the vortexes. Sedona’s reputation as a metaphysical or spiritual destination is part of its appeal to visitors, and the eddies play a role alongside spas, spas and hotels offering massage, meditation and yoga during wellness holidays. Uptown’s affluent shopping district is dotted with shops offering crystals, psychic readings and healing techniques. [Image right] Guides offer trips around the vortexes, UFO sighting tours and nature hikes. This is part of a well-established overlap between new age spirituality and business.

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The Hohokam lived in the area and built canals to support their agriculture. They left their settlements in the 15th century and a few individuals and families stayed nearby.

Fort McDowell was established about 25 miles (40 km) northeast of the current centre of Tempe in the upper Salt River in 1865, allowing new towns to be built further up the Salt River. US servicemen and Hispanic labourers were hired to grow food and animal feed to supply the fort, and in less than a year they set up small camps by the river, which became the first permanent settlements in the Valley after the fall of Hohokam. (Phoenix was settled shortly thereafter, by 1867-1868.) Two settlements were “Hayden’s Ferry”, named after the ferry service operated by Charles T. Hayden, and “San Pablo”, and were located to the west and east of Hayden Butte respectively. . Ferry became a key river crossing in the area. The Tempe Irrigating Canal Company was soon founded by William Kirkland and James McKinney to provide water for alfalfa, wheat, barley, oats and cotton.

Pioneer Darrell Duppa suggested the name Tempe, adopted in 1879, after comparing the Salt River Valley near the 300 ft (91 m) high hill with the Tempe Valley near Mount Olympus in Greece.

Until the early 1960s, Tempe was a sunset town where African Americans were allowed to work but encouraged to live elsewhere. In 1965 Warren and Carol Livingston were the first African Americans to buy property in Tempe.

In 1885, the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature chose Tempe to house the Territorial School of Education, which became the Arizona Teachers School, Arizona State Teachers College, Arizona State College and finally Arizona State University.

The Maricopa and Phoenix Railroad, built in 1887, crossed the Salt River into Tempe, connecting the city to the country’s growing transportation system. The Tempe Land and Improvement Company was established to sell plots in the rapidly growing city.

The completion of Roosevelt Dam in 1911 guaranteed enough water to meet the growing needs of the valley’s farmers. On the way to opening the dam, former President Theodore Roosevelt hailed the achievements of central Arizona and predicted that their towns would become thriving cities in the future.

A rare F2 tornado hit Tempe in 1971, injuring 41 people, the highest number of injuries recorded in an Arizona tornado, and causing more than $3 million in damage. One indirect fatality occurred when a man died of a heart attack during the storm.

In the 20th and 21st centuries, Tempe became a suburb of Phoenix, as well as a centre for education and commerce.

Tempe is an inner suburb located between the main city of Phoenix and the rest of the East Valley. Because of this, and because Tempe is home to the main campus of Arizona State University, Tempe has a fairly dense urbanised development pattern in the northern part of the city, especially in relation to the Valley metro line. Moving south, the development becomes less dense, consisting of lower-density single-family homes, shopping centres and office parks.

The Salt River flows west through the northern part of Tempe; part of the river is dammed in two places to form the city’s Tempe Lake.

According to the US Census Bureau, the landlocked city has a total area of 40.2 square miles (104 km2), of which 40.1 square miles (104 km2) is land and 0.1 square miles (0.26 km2) is water. The total area is 0.32% water, including the city’s Tempe Lake. The city of Tempe is bordered by Mesa to the east, Scottsdale and the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community to the north, Phoenix and Guadalupe to the west and Chandler to the south.

Tempe is generally flat, with the exception of Tempe Butte or Hayden Butte (commonly known as A-Mountain because of the Arizona State University “A” logo on its south side), located near Sun Devil Stadium, Twin Buttes and Bell Butte on the western edge. Tempe and the hills at Papago Park in the northwest corner of Tempe. Elevation ranges from 1,140 ft (350m) at Tempe Town Lake to 1,495 ft (456m) at the top of Hayden Butte.

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Yuma is the principal city of the metropolitan statistical area of Yuma, Arizona, which consists of Yuma County. According to the US Census Bureau, the estimated population of the Yuma MSA for 2020 is 203,247. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Yuma is “the sunniest city on earth”, promising sunshine and warm weather for at least 91% of the year.

Yuma’s weather also makes it an agricultural centre with over 175 types of crops, the largest of which is lettuce. Yuma County provides 90% of all leafy vegetables in the United States. Yuma is also known for its large military population because of several military bases, including a Marine Corps air base.

Yuma is located in the southwestern corner of the state, in the Sonora Desert, a sub-region of the Yuma Desert.

The area’s first settlers were Indian cultures and historical tribes for thousands of years. Their descendants now live on the Cocopa and Quechan reservations.

In 1540 Spanish colonial expeditions commanded by Hernando de Alarcón and Melchior Díaz visited the area and immediately recognized the natural crossing of the Colorado River as the ideal place for a town. The Colorado River narrows to a width of just under 1,000 feet (300 m) at one point. Military expeditions that crossed the Colorado River at Yuma Crossing include Juan Bautista de Anza (1774), the Mormon Battalion (1848) and the California Column (1862).

During and after the California gold rush until the late 1870s, Yuma Junction was known for its ferry crossings on the Southern Emigrant Trail. It was considered the gateway to California, as it was one of the few natural places where travellers could cross the very wide Colorado River.

The first settlements
After the United States established Fort Yuma, two towns sprang up one mile down the river. The one on the California side was called Jaeger City after the owner of Jaeger’s Crossing, which crossed the river there. For a while it was the larger of the two, with a Butterfield Land Post Office and station, two blacksmith shops, an inn, two shops, and other living quarters.

The other was called Colorado City. Developed on the south bank of the river in what is now Arizona by speculator Charles Poston, it was the site of a customs house. When it began, it was north of the border between Sonora, Mexico and California. After the purchase of Gadsden by the United States, the town bordered New Mexico territory. The area was designated as Arizona Territory in 1863. The Colorado City section was then properly incorporated in San Diego; both banks of the Colorado River just below its confluence with the Hila River were recognised as being under the jurisdiction of California. The County of San Diego collected taxes from there for many years.

From 1853 a small settlement of Arizona City grew up on the upland opposite the fort, which in 1858 was organised under the name of the post office. It had earthen houses, two shops and two saloons. Colorado City and Jager City were almost completely destroyed by the Great Flood of 1862 and had to be rebuilt on higher ground. At that time, Colorado City became part of Arizona City. In 1873, it was named Yuma.

Early development.
From 1854, Colorado City was a major steamboat stop for traffic up and down the Colorado River. After the 1862 flood, it became part of Arizona City. Steamboats carried passengers and equipment for various mines and military outposts along the Colorado River; Colorado City was the terminus for wagon traffic up the Hila River into New Mexico territory. They unloaded cargo from ships at the mouth of the Colorado River at Robinson’s Wharf, and from 1864 at Port Isabel. From 1864, the Yuma Intendant Depot, now a state historic park, supplied all the forts in present-day Arizona, as well as most of Colorado and New Mexico. After Arizona became a separate territory, Yuma became the administrative centre of Yuma County in 1871, replacing La Paz, the first place.

The Southern Pacific Railroad bridged the river in 1877 and acquired George Alonzo Johnson’s Colorado Steam Navigation Company, the only steamboat company on the river. Yuma became the new shipping base on the river, eliminating the need for Port Isabel, which had been abandoned in 1879. The warehouses and shipyard were moved to Yuma.

Geography
Yuma is near the borders of California to the west and Mexico to the south, and west of the confluence of the Hila River with the Colorado River. The city is about 60 miles (100 km) from the Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez), an offshoot of the Pacific Ocean.

According to the US Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 106.7 square miles (276 km2), of which 106.6 square miles (276 km2) is land and 0.1 square miles (0.26 km2) (0.07%) is water.

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Jesuit missionary Eusebio Francisco Quinault founded the San Xavier d el Bac mission in 1700. During the 1700s, Spanish missionaries tried to persuade Native Americans to convert to Catholicism and live the Spanish way of life. The Spanish built a fort at Tubac in 1751. It was moved to Tucson in 1775, where Hugo O’Conor, an Irishman working for the Spanish Crown, formally founded Presidio San Augustin del Tucson.

The Spaniards remained in the area repelling repeated attacks on the fort by Apache warriors. In 1821 Tucson became part of the new state of Sonora in Mexico, which gained independence from Spain. In 1854 Tucson, along with much of the surrounding territory, was purchased from Mexico by the United States as part of the Hudsden Purchase and became part of New Mexico Territory. President Lincoln created the Arizona Territory in 1863, and Tucson was named the capital from 1867 to 1877. On 14 February 1912, Arizona became the 48th state in the United States.

Tucson was probably first visited by Paleo-Indians, who are known to have lived in southern Arizona about 12,000 years ago. Recent archaeological excavations near the Santa Cruz River have uncovered a village dating back to 2100 B.C. The Santa Cruz River floodplain was intensively farmed during the early agricultural period, from about 1200 B.C. to 150 A.D. These people built irrigation canals and grew corn, beans and other crops while gathering wild plants and hunting. The early pottery period saw the first widespread use of ceramic vessels for cooking and storage in Tucson. The groups, designated Hohokam , lived in the area from 600 to 1450 AD and are known for their extensive irrigation canal system and their red-brown pottery.

Jesuit missionary Eusebio Francisco Quinault visited the Santa Cruz Valley in 1692 and founded the mission of San Xavier del Bac in 1700, about 7 miles (11 km) upstream from the Tucson settlement. A separate Convento settlement was established downstream of the Santa Cruz River, at the foot of what is now Mt. “A” . Hugo O’Conor , the founding father of Tucson, Arizona, authorized the construction of a military fort at this location Presidio San Agustin del Tucson on August 20, 1775 (next to the current downtown Pima County Courthouse). During the Spanish period, Presidio attacks, such as the Second Battle of Tucson, were carried out repeatedly by Apaches. The town eventually became known as “Tucson” and became part of the state of Sonora after Mexico gained its independence from the Kingdom of Spain and its Spanish Empire in 1821.

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It is believed that since the early 19th century, American and European explorers and hunters began to enter the area. Their targets were Mexican wolves and deer, as well as beaver and otter pelts. After the end of the American-Mexican War in 1848 the territory of modern Phoenix became part of the United States. Since 1860, in Arizona, several cities and military forts are founded and active development of the territory begins. Phoenix also waited for its time.

John “Jack” Swilling, a veteran of the American Civil War, went west in search of wealth in the 1850s. In 1867 he stopped to rest at the foot of the mountains and surveyed the area. Swilling immediately appreciated the potential of a valley with clearly distinguishable abandoned irrigation canals. That same year a settlement was established 6 km east of present-day Phoenix . A small group of men led by Jack Swilling began building the first irrigation canal in the Salt River Valley. The following summer the first crops of wheat, corn, and barley were harvested. Within a short time the settlement changed several names. Initially it was called Pumpkinville ( literary for “Pumpkinville”), because of the huge number of pumpkins that grew on the banks of the canal. Then came Swilling’s Mill, Helling Mill, and Mill City. Philip Darrel Duppa (often Lord Darrel Duppa) gave the modern name to the city. He suggested the word “Phoenix,” representing the rebirth of the city, on the ruins of past civilizations.

In May 1868 Phoenix was officially recognized as a settlement. In 1868 the first post office was opened in Phoenix, and the first postmaster was the same Jack Swilling. By 1870 the population of Salt River Valley already numbered 240. The growth of the settlement required a clear definition of urban area, and in 1872 320 acres of land (today part of Downtown Phoenix) were designated for that purpose. In 1871 the first church and the first city store were opened.

A key event in the active development of Phoenix was the opening of the railroad. Products produced in the city were now easily accessible to markets in the western and eastern United States. By 1911, Theodore Roosevelt Dam, a 109-meter high dam named after Theodore Roosevelt, was opened northeast of Phoenix. The $10 million project solved the problem of irrigation and flooding in the surrounding area, as well as generating the electricity needed for the city’s growth. In 1912, Phoenix became the capital of the newly formed state of Arizona.

Significant changes in the city’s economy occurred during World War II. During this period, Phoenix became an industrial city with many factories producing military products. The opening of military training centers brought thousands of new people to the city. The city also became an important transportation hub. By 1950, Phoenix’s population was more than 100,000. In the decades that followed, Phoenix continued to grow rapidly, spurred on by the development of the tourism business. In 1968 the newly formed Phoenix Suns basketball team was included in the NBA league.

In the 1980s, the city’s crime rate reached serious proportions. The drug trade became a major problem. By now the crime rate has declined, but remains above the U.S. average.

Since the 2000s, the city’s significant growth has continued. Phoenix and its suburbs are second only to Las Vegas in terms of population growth.

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