Blind Artist Designs Luxury Home : Indian Likens It to Sculpture on a Grander Scale
From a bird’s-eye view, the clay model of the home created by sculptor Michael A. Naranjo for developer Eugene Kilmer’s Indian Springs Estates bears an uncanny resemblance to a legendary Hopi flute player. Hence its name--Kokopeli.
When built, the 8,000-square-foot, modern-day adobe residence designed by the noted Tewa Indian artist, will occupy a choice four acres in the rugged scenic region of buttes and rock canyons above Chatsworth, reached by the Iverson offshoot of Santa Susanna Pass Road, where centuries ago the Chumash and Gabrieleno tribes sought its natural springs and hunting grounds.
Kokopeli will be in good company at the 150-acre, $25-million development, alongside a 7,000-square-foot Frank Lloyd Wright original designed for a Hollywood client but never built, and a number of other homes commissioned by Kilmer, some of which will emerge from the drawing boards of the Taliesin Associated Architects of Scottsdale.
The uniqueness of Kokopeli resides in the uniqueness of its designer who lost the sight of both eyes and the use of his right hand during the Vietnam war. A recipient of the Purple Heart, he has been honored by Presidents and was received by Pope John Paul II for his rare accomplishments as a sculptor.
Naranjo loves to design houses.
“Basically, it’s like creating sculpture in a grander scale,” Naranjo said on a recent visit from his home in Espanola, N. M. “When one is blind, the home environment becomes the focal point. Too often houses are not the way I like them, so I set about creating them in my mind.
“I like a house to have fluid lines that harmonize with nature. I like to remember the way the mountains rose up, how the rivers flowed, the cliffs, the mesas, and I like to incorporate all these shapes of my past experience in my designs. It’s like experiencing nature in a confined area and turning it into a nurturing place.”
Naranjo, soft-spoken and of slight build, draws much of his inspiration from the indigenous culture of the Southwest and especially from the ancient dwellings of Taos where he spent most of his childhood. His houses have an open feeling and allow for plenty of light through an abundance of skylights and atriums.
Some of these architectural concepts, such as the skylight, are centuries-old, the artist pointed out. “I remember observing that many of the ancient adobe houses in Taos had closed rooms and that the light often came from openings in the roof.”
He described the shape of Kokopeli as basically a number 6 figure. The base of the 6 is a circular living room, partially subterranean, with a central fireplace, inspired by the kivas, ceremonial structures used by the Hopi and other pueblo-dwelling North American Indians. They believed in the emergence of the first people from the underground womb of the Mother Earth which had been previously fertilized by the Father Sun.
“I once spent a night in a kiva and it was so peaceful, “ Naranjo recalled. “I have adapted the concept for Kokopeli, but one enters this sunken area by an indoor ramp instead of by a ladder, from the roof.” His design parallels the growth of a plant “spiraling upward toward the sunlight like all natural growth.”
No Formal Training
Other features of the three-bedroom house will include a circular kitchen, library, children’s “chaos room,” curved wing with windows looking out into a central courtyard and fountain fringed by a crescent of columns supporting a long, shaded terrace. The living room ceiling is supported by vigas or wooden rafters that are typical of early Spanish structures; another architectural element borrowed from the Spanish is an indoor porte-cochere with double doors at each end, reminiscent of the days when wagons were brought into the home for deliveries and protection.
Since Naranjo never had formal training in architecture, he approaches the design of a house much as he does a piece of sculpture--with a “bone structure”--and relies on architect Allen McNown of Santa Fe to solve any problems which may arise and to provide the proper architectural input.
Kilmer, who grew up in New Mexico, was inspired to introduce Naranjo’s talent to the Indian Springs project when he saw pictures of a 4,000-square-foot residence that Naranjo and his wife, Laurie, had built for their family.
“I was so impressed with this blind artist’s concept that it seemed fitting to incorporate an adobe structure of similar beauty, designed by a full-blooded American Indian, that could contribute to the sense of roots and historical perspective I would like future owners to have about this early settlement region.”
The buyers at Indian Springs, Kilmer added, will be only the fourth owners since the first English-speaking settlers of the area, Neils Willden Johnson and his wife, Ann, homesteaded the property in 1874.
About 60 years later, Kilmer said, 500 acres of this land were purchased by multimillionaire John Brandeis for his home and polo grounds. Kilmer bought the Brandeis spread in 1976 with the idea of reinstating the Indian theme.
Custom-Built Homes
The project’s marketing brochure describes the Indian Springs Estates as “achieving new heights in rural-estate living.” There are 57 home sites of which 17 already have been purchased; they range from $225,000 for two-acre parcels to $600,000 for four acres.
Kilmer expects that by early winter, 10 custom-built homes will have been completed, each valued between $850,000 to more than $1 million, and none will be smaller than 4,000 square feet.
As part of the master plan for Indian Springs Estates, the Iverson access will feature about $400,000 worth of landscape and “hardscape” design by Hansen & Associates Environmental Group, including three waterfalls, a man-made lake and a concrete wall with an Indian theme bas-relief.
