Nesting in

Taking his cue from the master builders that fly over the Puerto Peñasco shoreline and roost in the town’s telephone poles, Eddie Jones has crafted an incomparable family home. Photography by Robert Reck

mexico

ee d d i e j o n e s

e d d i e j o n e s

evideo

28 | eNTRA mAGAZiNe

it was an easy choice,” remarks architect Eddie Jones, when asked how he came to build Casa del Nido Ospre, or house of the osprey’s nest, in the small Mexican fishing vil-lage of Puerto Peñasco, on the Sea of Cortez. “We’d owned a house there for ten years, but this beachfront property became available. I’d wanted a big house, one where the whole family could stay.” At only a few hours’ drive from his home and his office, Jones Studio, in Phoenix, it makes a quick escape for weekends and holidays. “It’s a small fishing village, popu-lar with people in Arizona.” When asked about border concerns, the architect laments that it’s been a challenge for the townspeople, who have been hard hit by a decline in tourism and are struggling to make ends meet. “I get the whole beach to myself these days,” he says, “but the kind locals deserve better.”

For the project’s oversight, Jones turned to local architect Plinio Rivero to serve as con-tractor, as the two have become good friends over the years (Jones is quick to admit they share a fondness for tequila). It was under Riv-ero’s watchful eye that the 30-foot-diameter

bóveda, or traditional domed brick ceiling, was constructed over the living room. “It was built brick by brick, without strings or levels—purely by eyeball,” Jones explains. They’re structural, but self-supporting, due to a spe- cialized mortar mix. Another sleight of hand played throughout the 5,500 square-foot house is the absence of window frames. So as not to disrupt the views, the architect extended the large glass panes directly into the surrounding walls, ceilings, and travertine floors, visually expanding the rooms.

Throughout the home—“every chance I got,” exclaims Jones—are cast-in-place con-crete ceilings, which are an expensive luxury in American building, but an inexpensive option when building in Mexico. Pierced with square openings, they double as sun filters for the many outdoor living areas, several of which lead directly to the beach. During part of the year, Jones and his wife travel to Puerto Peñasco several times a month, but they particularly look forward to the Thanksgiving holiday, when they’re joined by their children and grandchildren.

ed e s i g n e r n a m e t k t k t

evideo

eNTRA mAGAZiNe | 35

jones furnished the home with sturdy and comfortable pieces that would stand up to high traffic, water, and sand—in other words, grandkids. “It’s my dream house,” he says. And just as the local ospreys construct dynamic nests for their offspring, so has Jones for his. The architect decided to pay tribute to his raptor neighbors by designing a mas-sive metal-and-glass sculpture, emblematic of their nests. While in Phoenix, he constructed a model using wire coat hangers (to replicate branches and twigs) and colorful beads (to mimic the glass insula-tors that peek through their telephone-pole nests.) The prototype was sent to Rivero, who had the piece built on site. It now sits atop a wiry support of exposed rebar (a humorous reference to Mexico’s policy of “unfinished” structures being taxed at a lower rate) and shelters Jones while at his concrete drafting table. Designing alfresco with views of the sea? “I’m a lucky man,” he says, smiling.jonesstudioinc.com

A contemporary cast-stone sprite, originally designed by Alfonso Ianelli for Frank Lloyd Wright’s Midway Gardens in Chicago, keeps graceful watch over Casa del Nido Ospre.

emore photos