Desert Modern
Architecture
A boutique architecture and interior design studio in Sedona, designing homes and buildings that sit quietly in the red-rock landscape and hold the desert light.
First, we read the land.
Every project begins on site, with its contours, its access, the way water and wind move across it. We design nothing until we understand where the building wants to sit.
Then, we shape the light.
In Sedona the light is the material that changes hour to hour. We place walls, apertures, and overhangs to catch the low morning sun and soften the hard glare of afternoon on red rock.
Last, we build with restraint.
The best buildings don't compete with the desert, they complete it. Founded in 2016 by Marcus Reyes, AIA, our studio makes spaces that feel inevitable, as though the site had asked for them.
First, we read the land.
Every project begins on site, with its contours, its access, the way water and wind move across it. We design nothing until we understand where the building wants to sit.
Then, we shape the light.
In Sedona the light is the material that changes hour to hour. We place walls, apertures, and overhangs to catch the low morning sun and soften the hard glare of afternoon on red rock.
Last, we build with restraint.
The best buildings don't compete with the desert, they complete it. Founded in 2016 by Marcus Reyes, AIA, our studio makes spaces that feel inevitable, as though the site had asked for them.
Selected work
Residential 3,200 SF Sedona, AZ 2023
Red Rock Residence
A private residence carved into the Sedona hillside, its sculptural form drawn from desert modernism, with floor-to-ceiling glass framing Cathedral Rock.
View ProjectHospitality 5,800 SF Scottsdale, AZ 2024
Desert Bloom Retreat
A boutique wellness retreat where rammed earth walls and clerestory windows create ever-shifting interior landscapes of light and shadow.
View Project
Residential 6,400 SF Flagstaff, AZ 2024
Canyon View Estate
Where indoor and outdoor dissolve. A courtyard estate organized around a central water feature, with weathered copper cladding that deepens with the Arizona sun.
View Project“Architecture should speak of its place, its time, and yet be timeless.”
Three disciplines at the core, and a handful more that travel with them.
Residential Architecture
Custom homes and estates designed to harmonize with Sedona's dramatic landscape and light.
02Commercial Architecture
Boutique hotels, galleries, restaurants, and retail spaces that draw visitors deeper into the desert experience.
03Renovation & Adaptive Reuse
Thoughtful renovation of existing structures, honoring their history while elevating them for contemporary living.
We also handle interior design, landscape architecture, sustainable design, and one-on-one design consultation, engaged on their own or folded into a larger project.
All services & pricingHow a project moves, from first site visit to final walkthrough.
Discovery
We listen to your vision, study the site, and understand the conditions of your land: its light, its topography, its story.
Concept
Sketches, massing studies, and material explorations take shape. We present initial directions that respond to place, program, and budget.
Development
Detailed drawings, renderings, and engineering coordination bring the design to construction-ready precision.
Realization
Construction administration to see every detail through. We stay involved from first pour to final walkthrough.
Since 2016, a small studio of eight has kept its work deliberately limited, roughly a dozen projects in build at any time across northern and central Arizona.
What clients tell us afterward
“Sotol didn't just design our home. They designed the way we experience the desert every single day. The way morning light enters the living space is something we notice every time.”
“They preserved the bones of our 1970s ranch house while turning it into something that feels entirely new, and completely at home in the landscape.”
“As a gallery owner I needed a space that would step back behind the art. Sotol understood that instinctively.”
Every project starts with a conversation.
Place, program, and possibility, that's where we begin. Schedule a consultation and tell us about the site you have in mind.
Schedule Consultation