URGENT ACTION NEEDED!
A Demolition permit has been applied for at the site of Al Beadle's White Gates residence (aka Beadle House #6). What can you do? Email a short statement of opposition to historic@phoenix.gov TODAY.
- Ask that the demolition permit for White Gates be denied.
- Ask that the HP Commissioners and HP office work with the owner, neighbors, historians and community stakeholders to come to a fruitful outcome that does not destroy our city’s architectural heritage.
- ?It helps to state your relationship to the property and any expertise you have on the topic, to lend credence and context for your perspective.
- Put “Prevent Demolition of White Gates: DESIGNATE NOW!” in the email subject.
- If you live in City Council District 6 (Arcadia/Camelback/Biltmore/Upper Central) please cc: your City Councilman Kevin Robinson at council.district.6@phoenix.gov
THANK YOU!
White Gates by Al Beadle | 1954
Beadle House #6 on the south slope of Camelback Mountain
Vintage photo by Rod Moyer in 1959 for The Arizona Republic. Reprinted with kind permission of Arizona State University's Beadle Collection,
Design and the Arts Library Archives and Special Collections
Beadle House #6, fondly referred to as White Gates, remains one of Phoenix's most beguiling and enigmatic modern architectural icons. The floating rectangle was featured by Living for Young Homemakers as A House that Calls Its Family To Order. 
Built shortly after Beadle and his family settled in Phoenix, and his first attempt at something ultra-modern, the home was a showcase for modern efficiency and contrasted sharply with the rugged red rocks on the slope of Camelback. 
The home was one of six that Beadle would develop in the Red Rocks area, but now only one of three that remain intact. 
Mass-manufactured breezeblock of the Superlite variety was not yet available, but the brise-soleil fever caught on early in Phoenix, years before Edward Durell Stone's Embassy in New Delhi popularized the look internationally. 
This ellipsoid screen was one of two Beadle homes that used the custom treatment that we have yet to see used elsewhere outside this slope of the mountain. The second home it was used on is the Mendelsohn Residence, now believed to be demolished.
The Uhlmann house, shown in the distance next door and built two years later, would use manufactured block for a similar yet less time-intensive look.
White Gates holds the distinction of being the only home in 20 years of the Modern Phoenix Home Tour to be featured four times. This is quite an accomplishment considering that the tour changes geographic location every year! It remains a fan favorite despite its current condition. Architecture students and tourists from around the world come to see it in its gorgeous desert setting.
In 2002 a disappointed new owner had to bail on plans to remodel the home, and it was sold. A new owner took it on. In 2007 the home was on the brink of extinction; there were architect's plans for a new build, and some neighbors wanted the eyesore torn down — yet its fragility is part of why so many in this city love this building so.
One of our community members and the founder of the Beadle Archive, Shawn Augustinak, reached out to the 2007 owners and averted its conversion to a mansion. The home was gutted and stabilized. The owners were in good communication with Modern Phoenix, and fell in love with the Beadle Box. The property was featured in several other Modern Phoenix Home Tours over the years, including a Beadle Boxes tour for the Docomomo National Symposium on Modenrism and Climate.In 2024 the property changed hands again, this time to an LLC who promptly filed a permit for demolition. This caused outrage among the larger community and surrounding neighbors. Stay in touch with the issues through Modern Phoenix's Instagram with breaking news and videos.
But back to that gorgeous screen wall...
In 2016 Ned Sawyer, an employee of Beadle's, revealed the mystery of the screen wall, which won a masonry award for design. The funny secret is it's not masonry at all. The form is made of horizontal parallel 2X4s, with a circle of metal flashing squashed in-between each course to create the ellipses. The entire framework was then filled and plastered to its smooth white finish. 
White Gates is one of two homes on this hill that used this plaster screen technique, and the only one that still remains standing.
The ovoid shapes in the screen clearly echo the ellipses of erosion found on the south face to Camelback mountain beyond. It's stunning setting and notable construction have earned it a place of esteem in Phaidon's Atlas of Mid-century Modern Houses. White Gates is probably Beadle's most instagrammed architecture of all time.Photos ©2014 - 2017 Modern Phoenix LLC, Joshua Friedman