The Biltmore April 12, 2010

I attended a conference at the Arizona Biltmore April 11-13. The picture below is of the hotel when it opened in 1929. It was designed by a student of Frank Lloyd Wright and shows quite a bit of his influence. It was and is a really nice facility I am told.

All of the pictures below were taken by Karen. Although I was at the Biltmore for two or three days I was in meetings the whole time and never did see much of it in the daylight, so Karen did the photo documentation. She said she just took a picture of everything she thought I would photograph. I think she did a pretty good job.

The original hotel has not change much in the past 80 years, although there are now a few free standing expansion wings with courtyards and pools of their own all connected by walks through well manicured lawns. The grass on the entire complex is the kind that is on golf course greens. If you were so inclined you could putt your way all over the place.

The stained glass window above is right inside the entry lobby. The geometric pattern and the pattern in the the concrete blocks show the Frank Lloyd Wright influence.

Here are some shots out of our hotel window.

Orange trees were scattered around the grounds. I notice bowls of oranges sitting around near the trees, which I assumed were picked that day.

In the wing in which we stayed there was a courtyard with a sort of desert landscape at one end and a pool at the other with a second story bridge connection across from one side to the other that separated the two ends.

The grounds of the complex were covered with gardens, sculptures, fountains enclosed by groupings of low buildings. Another Wrightian influence is the use of corner windows. These were used in several of the buildings.

A giant checkers/chess game.

There were several pools throughout the grounds. Karen said that this one was really full of families a couple of times when she went by.

This is pretty much the typical look of the buildings, most of which were well landscaped.

There were lots of flowers everywhere. Above is a bird of paradise and below a flowering vine.

Small intimate pools and fountains were scattered around with seating areas near by.

The distinctive pattern in the precast concrete blocks were was used almost everywhere, on the buildings and in planters.

Highly maintained formal gardens were featured in the central areas of the complex

Here was an interesting patten set up by the use of stone blocks.

Refined and well detailed sculptures above and entry ways like the one below were each unique.

There were also 36 hole of golf available.

Here is a bridge over a water-way. The bridge is the main vehicular entry to the complex and provides a rather dramatic entrance.

Flowers were used everywhere for color and accent.

This is the desert landscape at one end of the courtyard in the complex in which we stayed.

This stained glass unit was near the entry way.

We did get to spend a few minutes in the pool one evening. I could see that this would have been a really nice place to spend some time if you were not in meetings all day. Karen said she had a good time.