Arizona dreaming

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — When Frank Lloyd Wright began making annual pilgrimages in 1937 to the Arizona desert, where he would build his Taliesin West workshop and winter home, Scottsdale was a blip on the map. Its relative seclusion was what made the area so desirable to the great architect.

“I was struck by the beauty of the desert, by the dry, clear, sun-drenched air, the stark geometry of the mountains, the entire region was an inspiration in strong contrast to the lush, pastoral landscape of my native Wisconsin. And out of that experience, a revelation is what I guess you might call it, came the design of these buildings,” Mr. Wright said.

Located 26 miles from Phoenix, Taliesin West was off the beaten path at the time of its construction, removed almost entirely from civilization. Today it is in the center of Scottsdale’s most populated region. Despite years of encroachment from rapidly developing commercial and residential surroundings, Taliesin retains the feeling of being incorporated into its natural desert habitat. The walls are built of native rocks, sand and gravel in the cement.

Taliesin West was selected by the American Institute of Architects as one of 17 buildings across the country that exemplify Mr. Wright’s contribution to American architecture. It continues to function as the headquarters of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and winter home for the architecture school where as many as 70 students reside. Taliesin West also has become a tourist destination, and guided tours are conducted daily.

Architectural wonder also abounds in the many luxury resorts and hotels that have helped define Scottsdale’s identity and reputation as a premier tourist destination. An estimated 7.5 million people visit the city annually, and It has the highest number of spas per capita in the nation.

About a 10-minute drive from Taliesin West, five miles north on Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard, is the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess. Designed by the Scottsdale firm of Allen and Philp Architects, the Princess opened in 1987, the same year as the Professional Golfers’ Association Tour’s Phoenix Open, now referred to as the FBR Open, on the Stadium Course of the Tournament Players Club of Scottsdale. The Fairmont Scottsdale uses the TPC golf course as its foreground and the McDowell Mountains as its backdrop. The resort’s design is steeped in the Spanish colonial tradition of the desert Southwest.

“We were challenged by the magnitude of this resort and how to create intimate and memorable spaces within it; I think we succeeded,” says Mark Philp of the architectural firm.

The Princess is among the world’s most-sought-after golfing locales; guests can schedule tee times through a special golf concierge up to a year in advance. The concierge also can schedule post-golf spa treatments for men, such as the Post Game Facial, which includes a soothing massage of the head, neck, shoulders, legs and feet, in the MVP Room of the resort’s Willow Stream Spa. The Princess has numerous spa programs catering to the increasing number of men seeking spa therapies, and Conde Nast Traveler ranked the Willow Stream among the top 10 spas in North America and the Caribbean.

During a recent stay at the Princess, I made frequent visits to the spa’s waterfall therapy pool, followed by dips in the hot and cold plunge pools, relaxing in the sauna and steam rooms, an exhilarating 14-nozzle Swiss shower and a meditative session in the eucalyptus-inhalation room.

In the evening, I joined a friend for dinner at the Grill steakhouse. One of five restaurants on the Princess property, it’s a decadent haven that offers dry-aged cuts of beef as well as seasonal seafood, an extensive wine list and a cigar lounge.

The next evening, we dined at La Hacienda, one of two gourmet Mexican restaurants in the country to receive the AAA four-diamond rating. Our dinner included grilled beef tenderloin, and we sampled numerous other dishes. After dinner, we joined more friends at the Cazadores Bar, tucked away in a cozy and discreet location beside the Princess Plaza courtyard.

As if we needed something more to eat, we took an over-the-top brunch at the AAA five-diamond Marquesa restaurant the next morning.

Just on the other side of Scottsdale Road, the Westin Kierland Resort and Spa, which opened in 2002, is another AAA four-diamond resort. Almost a museum of Arizona history, it has covered its hallways, lobby and public areas with old maps, photographs and historical text written by Arizona’s official state historian, Marshall Trimble. The Westin Kierland’s theme, “Treasuring the Essence of Arizona,” was inspired by Kax Kierland Herberger, the matriarch of the family that owns the land and created the master-planned community and golf course by the resort.

I enjoyed wandering through the resort’s halls, reading Mr. Trimble’s writings on Arizona history, which served as an appropriate segue for an upcoming journey to the southeastern corner of the state, including a hike through the Chiricahua Mountains, where Apache leaders Cochise and later Geronimo once ruled.

Besides its celebration of Arizona’s historical culture, the Westin Kierland also offers many amenities, such as the Agave Arizona Spa, a 27-hole championship golf course, a 9,000-square-foot water park and a pair of oversized swimming pools. My friends and I enjoyed afternoon margaritas at J. Swilling’s Pool Bar & Grill, and each night, a bagpipe player serenaded the sunset from the lawn beside the lobby.

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