Arizona Republic, The (Phoenix, AZ)

Arizona Republic, The (Phoenix, AZ)

May 5, 2001

‘AHEAD OF THE PACK’ CURRENT TRENDS FOLLOW VISION OF

DEVELOPER DELL TRAILOR

Author: Sue Doefler, The Arizona Republic

Edition: Final Chaser

Section: AZ Home

Page: AH1

Estimated printed pages: 5

Article Text:

Landscaped planned communities with family amenities, fancy entry monuments, curving streets, and homes that beat the cookie-cutter look are the hot ticket for today’s Valley builders.

They’re touted as the fresh trends in housing.

However, these features and ideas are nothing new.  Dell Trailor was doing them in the 1960s and ‘70s.

Even today, if you drive around the Valley, his subdivisions, with their Spanish/Mediterranean styling, varied exteriors, wrought-iron detailing, lush landscaping and neighborhood feel, stand out.

The developer, who passed away two years ago, is considered an innovator by many in the Valley home-building business.

‘A visionary’

“He was really a visionary,” said housing analyst R.L. Brown, who spent a year working for Trailor in the early 1970s.  “He was very much into building a community, the small neighborhood, and his neighborhoods found instant favor all over town.  Most of them are infill, and today command maximum prices.  His landscaping, his street scenes, his sensitivity to color… were way ahead of the pack.”

“He just did so many great things.  It’s even more impressive because it was a time when it wasn’t as important as it is today,” said Mike Trailor, Dell Trailor’s son and Phoenix division president of Centex Homes.  “I look at the legacy that he has left: He was instrumental in making this community what it is today.”

Trailor worked to create an oasis look in his developments.

“We don’t try to make our homes blend into the desert,” he is quoted as saying in the Arizona Edition of the American Biographical Encyclopedia, Volume III, published in 1974.  “We strive to create a white oasis that has for centuries been associated with construction in desert areas.  The Greeks did it for ages, and still do.  So do the Mediterranean Arab peoples.  And India’s Taj Mahal is a classic example.”

Del Trailor got into the building business in the late 1940s with his stepfather, C.F. Robbins, whose company was Allied Construction Co.  In 1961, Trailor partnered with another local contractor, David Murdock, forming the Trailor-Murdock Construction Co.  A year later, he purchased Murdock’s interest in the firm, renaming it the Dell Trailor Construction Co. and marketing his houses as Gold Key Homes.  It was at a time when other local builders – among them John F. Long of John F. Long Homes, John Hall of Hallcraft Homes, Frank Knoell of Knoell Homes and Ellis Suggs of Suggs Homes – also were trying to make a difference in the Valley home building.

At the peak of Trailor’s career, he was building in metro Phoenix, Lake Havasu and Tucson, doing 800 to 900 homes a year, long before the Valley’s population boom prompted such larger annual sales.

One of the things that impress Mike Trailor is how timeless – and contemporary – his father’s subdivisions still are.

Identifying marks

“I’ve taken people around from time to time and they say, ‘When were these built? Five or six years ago?’  And it was 30 years ago, “said Trailor, who started working for his father when he was 10.  “You look at things he did 30 years ago, and they’re modern by today’s standards.”

Dell Trailor’s innovative ideas include:

* Entry monuments.  These days, fancy ledge stone or stuccoed walls announce the names of master-planned communities.

Dell Trailor had his own version.

“He was a master at creating a sense of identity,” Mike Trailor said.  “All of a sudden you come up on one of his subdivisions and you know.”

There’s Villa Adrian at 96th Street south of Camelback, in Scottsdale, with its Roman-columned entry monument.  There’s De-Ville Place at 14th Avenue and Glendale, a one-block Phoenix development with its Mediterranean-style homes and entry edifice.  There’s Turtle Creek at Third Avenue north of Greenway Parkway, in Phoenix, with its big entryway landscaped flowers.

Look closely at most of his developments and you’ll see a common feature: The wrought iron lamps with their yellow-orange glass that line the streets are his signature.  Mike Trailor still includes a version of them in his subdivisions.

* Infill development.  Long before anyone had ever heard of infill, Dell Trailor was filling in empty pockets of land in central Phoenix with small developments.

Besides De-Ville Place, locations include Phoenix Country Club Townhouses, Built on a small parcel at the north end of the country club at Seventh Street just south of Osborn Road, and Sutton Place and Beekman Place, 26th Street and Osborn.

* Curvilinear streets.  Many of these developments have curving streets, done at a time when the grid system was king.  Cul-de-sacs, with streets encircling grassy areas in the middle, also were the norm in many of Trailor’s developments.

* Lush landscaping and community facilities.  “He was a real stickler for landscaping,” Mike Trailor said.  “It helped create the environment he was looking for.”

That environment also included gathering places for couples and families.  Many of the developments, such as Sutton Place and Villa Adrian, are centered around a pool.  Open spaces and landscaped walkways are common.

* The hidden garage door.  He catered to buyers who don’t like street scenes where garage doors dominate the look.  Dell Trailor experimented with garage door placement, even excavating each lot in some developments, such as Villa d’Este at Exeter Boulevard and 69th Street, in Scottsdale, so the garage could be placed under the home.

* Empty-nester housing.  The elder Trailor also tailored many of his developments to adult buyers, the empty-nester market that’s so prevalent now as baby boomers reach early retirement age.  Attached town houses requiring little maintenance and no yardwork, typically sought by empty nesters, were among his signatures.  They were built in groups of four, with Trailor dubbing them “quadrominiums.”

* Pedestrian-friendly development.  The buzzword today for these types of communities is neo-traditional, meaning people can walk to shops and restaurants that are nearby, without having to get into their cars and go everywhere.

Villa Adrian and Villa d’Este are examples of Dell Trailor’s forays into pedestrian development.  Their location makes them near Scottsdale’s Fifth Avenue shops and restaurants.

Following father

The design and viability of these types of developments intrigues Mike Trailor, who plans to follow his father’s footsteps this summer by leaving Centrex and starting his own company.

“Phoenix is at an exciting part in the evolution of housing,” he said.  For years, the Valley has been a suburban market.  “All of a sudden there’s an emerging urban lifestyle.”

“I tell people I was trained by the best entrepreneur in the business, and for the last 11 years, I’ve worked for the best corporate building in the business, so I expect great things out of myself in the next 10 years,” Trailor said.  “When I’m done in my career, if people can say I was a credit to my father, I will have been extremely successful.”